Kanye Interrupts / Imma Let You Finish
Part of a series on Kanye West. [View Related Entries]
Overview
Kanye West’s 2009 Video Music Awards Interruption refers to an on-air mishap that occurred during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. It all began when Kanye West suddenly went up to the stage and took the microphone from Swift to declare that Beyonce had “one of the best music videos of all time.”
Background
The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards[1] ceremony was held at the Radio City Music Hall on September 13th, 2009 and broadcasted live. When country singer Taylor Swift won the Best Female Video award for her song “You Belong With Me,”[2] Kanye West came up on stage and took the mic from her. He yelled out “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time” before being booed off the stage. He handed the mic back to Swift but MTV cut to commercial before she could continue.
West was reportedly asked to leave the venue[5] immediately after the incident. Later that evening, West wrote a blog post in all caps on his official website as an apology to Swift, but the post was deleted within hours. Later in the evening, Beyonce won the Video of the Year award for “Single Ladies” (Put a Ring on It)[3] and instead of giving her own acceptance speech, she invited Taylor onstage to finish hers.[4]
Notable Developments
September 13th: Response on Twitter
During the event, many celebrities commented on West’s acts on Twitter, including Pink, Katy Perry, Ricky Martin and Dane Cook. The Twitter response was covered on several news sites and gossip blogs that night and the next morning including the People Magazine[7], Oh No They Didn’t![6], MTV[8], the New York Daily News[9] and CNN.[10] Throughout September 14th and 15th, 2009, Kanye West was a trop trending topic on Twitter, with 293,024 tweets about the rapper within the hour after the incident.[11]
While the topic was trending, an ABC News reporter Terry Moran tweeted that President Obama had called West a “jackass” for his behavior at the awards ceremony while off the record. Though it was quickly deleted, news of the tweet was shared on Politico[15] and Huffington Post[16], while TMZ[17] posted the audio of the statement on the 15th.
September 14th: Kanye West’s Official Apology
Though his original blog apology was deleted, many news sites were able to capture it and share it including the Los Angeles Times[12], MTV[13] and Spin.[14] The humor site Very Tasteful also turned the post into an autotuned song. On September 14th, West made an appearance on the premiere of Jay Leno’s prime-time talk show. The interview was covered by the Huffington Post[18], Mashable[19], Rolling Stone[20] and MTV.[21] On air, West said he was ashamed of himself, stating that he’d like to apologize to her in person.
The following morning, Taylor Swift appeared on daytime talk show The View, where she stated that West had not done anything to get in contact with her.[22] However, right after her segment Swift reportedly received a phonecall from West[23] in which he apologized and she accepted.
Video Remixes
Immediately after the broadcast, freelance graphic designer Patrick St. John uploaded a mashup of West’s rant with a speech on healthcare President Barack Obama gave on September 9th, 2009 which was interrupted by Representive Joe Wilson shouting “You lie!”
The video was later featured on the O’Reilly Factor and in the New York Times.[24] As of May 2012, the Obama mashup has more than 4.7 million views and has sparked nearly 500 other Kanye Interrupts videos.[25]
Snowclone Usage
Shortly after the ceremony, viewers began photoshopping still shots of Kanye West into other things and 4-pane dialogues between West and Swift on stage. Furthermore, his hyperbolic rant was turned into a snowclone:
“Yo X, I’m really [adjective] for you. Imma Let you finish, but Y is the best Zs of all time. OF ALL TIME.”
By September 14th, Kanye West-related threads appeared on 4chan as well as on gaming forums IGN[27] and Neoseeker.[28] Additionally, a Twitter account KanyeInterrupts[26] was created which tweeted phrases in the snowclone format, the single serving site Is Kanye West A Douchebag?[29] was registered and image macros began appearing on Tumblr with the tag “Imma Let You Finish.”[30] The following day, the single topic blog Ima Let You Finish[33] was registered. Later that week, two single topic Tumblrs were created: Kanyegate[31] on the 15th with a Yo Dawg related image and Kanye Interrupted[32] two days later using a photo of Mozart.
Between September 15th and 18th, various compilations of these images were featured on Urlesque[34], Mashable[35], MTV[36] and the Daily Mail.[38] Also that week, their popularity was analyzed by tech blog Gigaom.[37] On September 17th, 2009, Imma Let You FInish was chosen as the Urban Dictionary Word of the Day.[39]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]MTV – 2009 Video Music Awards
[2] YouTube – Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
[3] YouTube – Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
[4]MTV – Beyonce Brings Taylor Swift On VMA Stage After Kanye West Rant
[5]MTV – Kanye West Asked To Leave VMAs After Rant Against Taylor Swift
[6] Oh No They Didn’t! – Celebrity Twitters Love Taylor Swift
[7] People – Taylor Swift Wins Best Female Video – Upsetting Kanye West
[8]MTV –
[9] New York Daily News – Kanye West upstaging Taylor Swift at MTV Video Music Awards is the latest celebrity Twitter rage
[10]CNN – Anger over West’s disruption at MTV awards
[11] Mashable – 300,000 Kanye West Tweets Interrupt Twitter
[12] LA Times – Kanye West apologizes to Taylor Swift
[13]MTV – Kanye West Apologizes To Taylor Swift For VMA Rant
[14] Spin – Kanye West Apologizes for Upstaging Taylor Swift
[15] Politico – BC’s Moran removes tweet with Obama swipe at Kanye
[16] Huffington Post – Obama: Kanye Is A “Jackass”
[17]TMZ – Obama Caught on Tape Calling Kanye ‘Jackass’
[18] Mashable – Kanye West On Jay Leno: I’m Ashamed
[19] Huffington Post – Kanye West On Jay Leno: Apologizes To Taylor Swift
[20] Rolling Stone – Kanye West Calls His Taylor Swift VMAs Outburst “Rude” on “Leno”
[21]MTV – Kanye West Tells Jay Leno He’s ‘Ashamed’ Of VMA Outburst
[22] Rolling Stone –
[23]TMZ – Kanye Sees Taylor’s View -- Calls to Apologize
[24] New York Times – The Inevitable Wilson-Kanye Mashup
[25] YouTube – Search results for “Kanye interrupts”
[26] Twitter – @KanyeInterrupts
[27]IGN – ITT: Kanye West Interrupts things
[28] Neoseeker – ITT: Kanye Interrupts Things
[29]Is Kanye West a Douchebag?
[30] Tumblr – Posts tagged “imma let you finish”
[32] Tumblr – Kanye Interrupted
[34] Urlesque – ‘Interrupting Kanye’ Meme Takes Over the Internet
[35] Mashable – Top 10 Kanye West Interruption Parodies
[36]MTV – The Top 10 Best Kanye West Interruption Meme Pics!
[37] Gigaom – Meme Analysis: Kanye Interrupts, the Internet (and Obama) Listens
[38] Daily Mail – Kanye West’s MTV rant at Taylor Swift sparks wave of internet virals
[39] Urban Dictionary – Imma Let You Finish
Recent Videos 11 total
Recent Images 330 total
Top Comment
Pixelated Ninja
May 23, 2012 at 10:10PM EDT+3
YO KYM! I’m really happy for you and Imma Let you confirm this in 2012, but this is the oldest meme of all time. OF ALL TIME!
Comments 101 total
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