Kanye West

Kanye West / Ye

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Updated Dec 07, 2022 at 10:18AM EST by Owen.

Added Sep 15, 2009 at 06:42AM EDT by tas2vieux.

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GIF of Kanye West whipping off his sunglasses like THE BOSS

About

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is an American rapper and producer well known for his best-selling records and trendsetting fashion style. West began pursuing a career in music as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records[1] and by 2004, West had released first record album which won that year's Best Rap Album Grammy award.[2] On the Internet, West is well known for his self-absorbed and often erratic tweets, as well as his on-stage interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009.

Online History

September 2005: Hurricane Katrina Remark

After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, NBC hosted a benefit telethon called A Concert For Hurricane Relief[6] on September 2nd. During the live broadcast, Kanye strayed from the teleprompter, saying ''George Bush doesn’t care about black people,'' before the show’s producer cut away to another actor, unaware of the sudden change in broadcast.



The clip was made into a YTMND[3] on October 2nd, 2009. Several derivatives appeared on the site after, replacing "black people" with other things including "my stapler"[4] and "Mac people."[5] The video was named the 25th best viral video of the 2000s by pop culture blog Complex[8], appeared on Encyclopedia Dramatica[7], and was parodied on a shirt worn by a puppet in a 2006 episode of Arrested Development.



September 2009: MTV VMA Awards

During a live broadcast of the annual MTV Music Video Awards on September 13th, 2009, Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for that year's Best Female Video. An exploitable of Kanye began circulating around 4chan paired with the snowclone "Imma Let You Finish".


Hey Windows, Im really happy for you, and im Going to let you finish loading, but Macintosh is the best Operating System of all time. Microsoft Windowsxp Professional Microsot Yo Pole.I m teal haffy for to yuyansimma Let you finsh But steel Poles huve thebest SwpPort ofall time ! ALLTIME Oh Inter net Yo Ohlnternet, I'm really happy for you I'mma let you finish but ED is one of the best websites of all time! One of the best websites of all time!

July 2010: Joins Twitter

After a blog post[19] in which he claimed "everything that Twitter offers I need less of"[18] on May 13th, 2009, Kanye joined Twitter as @kanyewest[10] on July 28th, 2010. Importing the use of typing in all capital letters[26] from his blog, he began using the site to shout out to celebrity friends and post pictures of goblets and 19th century art. This initial burst of activity was covered by the Awl[20], TechCrunch[21], Entertainment Weekly[22], the Wall Street Journal[23] and TIME.[24]


twitter Home Profile Find People Settings Help Sign out @kanyewest h-------- bro thx for following! 49 PM Jul 31st via Twittelator in reply to kanyewest Retweeted by 26 people Reply t3 Retweet ste101 steven holmes 2010 Twitter About Us Contact Blog Status Coodies AP Business Help Jobs Terms Privacy

On July 31st, Kanye chose one person to follow, a teenager from England named Steven Holmes[27], @ste_101.[28] Kanye and Steven exchanged several tweets[29] on the first night, calling him the "chosen one."[31] Within a week, Steven asked Kanye to unfollow him due to unwanted attention.[30] Since then, Kanye has only followed five people, despite having over 5,841,000 followers as of January 6th, 2012.

January 2012: Return to Twitter

He made a comeback to the site on January 4th, 2012. Over the course of 85 tweets and three hours, Kanye outlined a plan for a new company he has in the works, Donda, named after his late mother, who passed away in November 2007. He outlined the plan over several tweets, planning a 22 department company that would hire people from professions across the board including writers, nutritionists, musicians, lawyers, video game designers, and teachers to make products and experiences people want and can afford. He gained over 23,000 followers in the days following his rant.




The next day, news of his diatribe was covered by Entertainment Weekly[12], MSNBC[13], Washington Post[14], Mashable[16]. Spin Magazine[15] collected statistics from the tweet session which included a total word count of 1623, 9 fashion brand name drops, and 1 Matrix reference. In one of these tweets, Kanye gave out an email address for the company, contactDONDA@gmail.com. A fake Twitter account, @DONDAWorldwide[17], was created that night, claiming they had made the Gmail account and talking about the potential projects the company would undertake.




2020 Presidential Campaign

On August 30th, 2015, at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles California, Kanye West received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, an annual award given to an influential person in music video creation. While it was customary upon receiving this award to do a medley of hits reminiscent of the videos for which the artist had won, Kanye West instead first stood silently for two minutes, then gave an extended and seemingly improvised speech, which included the fact that he had smoked marijuana before attending the VMAS, and concluded with the announcement that he had decided to run for president of the United States in 2020.[56]



Transcript:

{Extended Silence and Applause} Bro, bro, listen to the kids. Jeremy, I got to put it down for a second, it's beautiful, Jeremy Scott designed… First of all, thank you Taylor for being so gracious and giving me this award this evening. And I often think back to the first day that I met you. Also, you know, I think about when I'm in the grocery store with my daughter and I have a really great conversation about fresh juice, you know, and at the end they say, "You're not that bad after all." And I think about it sometimes, like it crosses my mind when I go to a baseball game and 60,000 people boo me. It crosses my mind a little bit.

And I think, if I had to do it all again, what would i have done? Would I have worn a leather shirt? Would I have drank half a bottle of Hennessy and given the rest to the audience? Y'all know you drank that bottle too. If I had a daughter at that time, would I have went on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else's…

You know this arena, tomorrow, it's gonna be a completely different set up or something like that. This stage will be gone. After that night, the stage will be gone, but the effect it had on people will remain. The problem was the contradiction. The contradiction is: I do fight for artists, but in that fight I somehow was disrespectful to artists. I didn't know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing. I just… I sat at the Grammys and saw Justin Timberlake and Cee-Lo lose. Gnarls Barkley and the Future Sex album… Justin, I ain't trying to put you on blast but I saw that man in tears, bro. And I was thinking like, he deserves to win album of the year. And this small box that we are in as the entertainers of the evening. How could you explain that?

Sometimes I feel like, you know, all this bullshit that they run about beef and all that, sometimes I feel like I died for the artist's opinion. For the artists to be able to have an opinion after they were successful. I'm not no politician, bro. And look at that. You know how many times MTV ran that footage again? 'cause it got them more ratings. You know how many times they announced that Taylor was gonna give me the award? 'cause it got them more ratings. Listen to the kids, bro.

I still don't understand award shows. I don't understand how they get five people who worked their entire life one sold records, sold concert tickets, to come stand on a carpet and for the first time in their life be judged on a chopping block and have the opportunity to be considered a loser. I don't understand it, brah. I don't understand when the biggest album and the biggest video… I've been conflicted, bro! I just wanted people to like me more. Fuck it bro.

Two thousand and fifteen. I will die for the art, for what I believe in. The art ain't always gonna be polite. Y'all might be thinking right now, "I wonder, did he smoke something before he came here?" The answer is yes, I rolled up a little something to knock the edge off. I don't know what's gonna happen tonight. I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow, bro. But all I can say to my artist, my fellow artist, just worry about how you feel at the time man. Just worry about how you feel and don't never… I'm confident, I believe in myself. We the millennials, bro. This is a new mentality. We're not gonna control our kids with brands. We're not gonna teach low self esteem and that to our kids. We gonna teach our kids that they can be something. We're gonna teach our kids that they can stand up for themselves. We're gonna teach our kids to believe in themselves. If my grandfather was here right now he would not let me back down. I don't know what I'm finna lose after this, it don't matter though cause it ain't about me. It's about ideas bro, new ideas. People with ideas. People who believe in truth. And yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.


Kanye's announcement instantly caused his name to trend on Twitter. In the 12 hours after the announcement, the words Kanye and President were tweeted together 173,000 times, while the words Kanye West was tweeted 264,000 times.[57] The hashtag #KanyeForPresident was used over 12,000 times on Instagram.[61] In addition, many users photoshopped Kanye into electorally-themed media, or tweeted reaction images. The announcement was covered in news sources worldwide, including Fox News, People, and the Daily Mail.[58][59][60]


PRESIDENTIAL RACE POLIL NORTH CAROLINA KANYE WEST (BRO) DONALD TRUMP (R) DEEZ NUTS (I) 40% 38% 9% 0 PUBLIC POLICY POLLING/MARGIN OF ERROR+/-3.2 Kelly O'Donnell Follow @Kellyo Just think #Kanye's daughter North West already has a gate named for her at the WH. #VMA #Kanye2020 11:31 PM-30 Aug 2015 다145 ★189
9:00p 2015 MTV Video Music A Relatable Quotes @RelatableQuote Follow This is the only person who fully understood what Kanye was talking about 11:27 PM-30 Aug 2015 わ 2.4074 ★ 8,885 ANYE FOR PRESIDEN Follow DJ Akademiks Kanye West for President and Welven Da Great as Vice President in 2020 10:52 PM -30 Aug 2015 352 ★217

Feud with Wiz Khalifa

On January 27th, 2016, West revealed in a tweet that his upcoming album would be titled Waves. In response to West's announcement, Wiz Khalifa, Pittsburgh-based rapper who has had a child with West’s ex-girlfriend Amber Rose, tweeted “Please don’t take the wave" in an effort to credit another rapper, Max B, for popularizing "wavy-ness" as a slang term. Khalifa then tweeted “Hit this kk and become yourself,” suggesting West to come up with more of an original album title by smoking marijuana, which Khalifa and his fans have often referred to as KK, or short for "Khalifa Kush." West, apparently unaware of this shorthand lingo, misinterpreted this tweet as a diss towards his wife Kim Kardashian, and fired back with a series of 31 tweets that took Khalifa’s personal style, music, and relationship with Amber Rose to task (excerpted below).[62]


Following @kanyewest Oh n----- must think I'm not petty cause l'm the best that's ever made music RETWEETS LIKES 10:59 AM-27 Jan 2016 Following @kanyewest Bro first of all you stole your whole s--- from Cudi RETWEETS LIKES 47,679 42,612 1:00 AM-27 Jan 2016 3 L3 KANYE WEST @kanyewest Following I went to look at your twitter and you were wearing cool pants RETWEETS LIKES 34,282 34,055 344 11:10 AM-27 Jan 2016 7 KANYE WEST @kanyewest Following 4th you let a stripper trap you 50,293 42,292 A 초 ~-. RETWEETSLIKES 11:20 AM-27 Jan 2016 13 10 Following @kanyewest maybe I couldn't be skinny and tall but l'I settle for being the greatest artist of all time as a consolation RETWEETS LIKES 70,873 67,315 쬐 2L 11:27 AM-27 Jan 2016 24 L3 Following Thank you for the extra promotion #WAVES RETWEETSLIKES 52,188 55,270 ‘:.tg.D 1:28 AM-27 Jan 2016 27

Shortly after this exchange, Khalifa followed up on his previous tweet by clarifying that "KK" is his lingo for marijuana, which led West to delete most of the tweets that had been directed at the rapper, though not before they had received more than 35,000 retweets each. The spat was subsequently covered by popular entertainment and music news outlets like Vulture,[64] Pitchfork,[65] and Billboard.[66] Meanwhile, Khalifa’s Wikipedia page was temporarily vandalized by an anonymous editor to declare the rapper dead on the date of the feud.[63]

April 2018 Return to Twitter, New Albums

On April 13th, 2018, West returned to Twitter.[69] For the following week, he tweeted esoteric quotes and references to his creative process, as well as references to a book he was working on (examples shown below).


KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 17 Fear often causes people to be manipulative KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 17 everything you do in life stems from either fear or love KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 17 Sometimes you have to get rid of everything KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 17 distraction is the enemy of vision KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 17 try to avoid any contractual situation where you are held back from your ideas KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 17 You have to protect your ability to create at all cost KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 18 I don't believe in the concept of an enemy. We have been conditioned to always be in competition. Stop looking for something to beat and just be. You don't have to do all the work. Once you start moving in love the universe will assist you KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 18 Don't follow crowds. Follow the innate feelings inside of you. Do what you feel not what you think. Thoughts have been placed in our heads to make everyone assimilate. Follow what you feel KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 18 You have the best ideas. Other people's opinions are usually more distractive than informative. Follow your own vision. base your actions on love. Do things you love and if you don't absolutely love something stop doing it as soon as you can. 842 83K 219K KANYE WEST@kanyewest Apr 18 when you first wake up don't hop right on the phone or the internet or even speak to anyone for even up to an hour if possible. Just be stll and enjoy your own imagination. It's better than any movie

On April 19th, he appeared to confirm he had at least two new albums coming, one to be released on June 1st, 2018, and another with rapper Kid Cudi on June 8th.


KANYE WEST@kanyewest 2h KANYE WEST@kanyewest 2h June 1st KANYE WEST@kanyewest 2h my album is 7 songs

Conservative Tweets

On April 23rd, West posted a tweet praising conservative political commentator Candace Owens (shown below, left). The same day, West tweeted a video of Dilbert author Scott Adams holding a stream on Periscope (shown below, right).


KANYE WEST @kanyewest I love the way Candace Owens thinks KANYE WEST @kanyewest usul how kanye t Adams wed the way to The Golden coffee DS 0:22 513K views2 5 6

Shortly after, West tweeted a call for people to start "breaking out of our mental prisons" (shown below, left). In response, Alex Jones replied that he admired West's "bold moves against the thought police" and asked him to be a guest on Infowars (shown below, right).


KANYE WEST @kanyewest new ideas will no longer be condemned by the masses. We are on the frontier of massive change. Starting from breaking out of our mental prisons. Alex Jones @RealAlexjones @kanyewest I admire your bold moves against the thought police. And if you want to see these control-freak vampires really go crazy, please join me on my broadcast!

On April 23rd, the Hot 97 YouTube channel uploaded a video in which radio show host Ebro revealed West told him "I love Donald Trump" (shown below, left).



Step-back From Politics

On October 30th, 2018, West tweeted "My eyes are now wide open and now realize I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative !!!"


Follow @kanyewest My eyes are now wide open and now realize l've been used to spread messages I don't believe in. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative!!! 6:25 PM-30 Oct 2018

The tweet was thought to be a response to West's involvement in Blexit, a campaign spearheaded by black conservative Candace Owens which West allegedly designed shirts for to get black voters to leave the Democratic party. West tweeted, “I introduced Candace to the person who made the logo and they didn’t want their name on it so she used mine I never wanted any association with Blexit. I have nothing to do with it.” Prior to his tweet, West also tweeted that he supported "creating jobs and opportunities for people who need them the most," "prison reform," "common-sense gun laws," and "love and compassion for people seeking asylum and parents who are fighting to protect their children from violence and war," all of which are left-leaning positions.


ye @kanyewest 21h I support those who risk their lives to serve and protect us and I support holding people who misuse their power accountable I believe in love and compassion for people seeking asylum and parents who are fighting to protect their children from violence and war. ye @kanyewest 21h I support creating jobs and opportunities for people who need them the most,I support prison reform, I support common-sense gun laws that will make our world safer. 970 6.2K 40K

Following the tweet, Owens blogged[76] that she took West's tweet to mean that he felt used by her and the Blexit campaign. She said it felt like "a bullet (piercing) her heart," said that she never said West designed the shirts, and apologized to West and to Donald Trump for Kanye's tweets seeming like an attack on his presidency.

Online Presence

On Twitter

Several tribute projects to his early tweets exist, including embroidered and framed versions[32] made by Etsy seller supervelma[33], a song by Josh Groban, and a Huffington Post[25] slideshow pairing the tweets with New Yorker cartoons. Several generators were created, including a mood-based edition[34], a Mad Libs version[35], and one with an API[36] to place Kanye quotes all over the web.


"Office dothes are the s---. Cartoonbank.com "Ihad my own blog for a while, but I decided to go back to just pointless, incessant barking." O Cartoonbank.com "This is gonna be a dope ass day."

On Tumblr

Several notable single topic blogs inspired by West have launched on the microblogging site Tumblr. On March 2nd, 2009, the “Where Are You Yeezy?”[37] blog was created to curate notable quotes and photographs of the rapper until the site was abandoned in July of 2012. On October 8th, 2010, the “Kanye’d By The Bell” Tumblr[38] was launched, highlighting screen captures from the 1990s television series Saved by the Bell accompanied by captions containing West's song lyrics (shown below).


she find pictures in my e-mail. .i sent this bitch a picture of my d---. know you aint getting this type of d--- from that local dude have you ever had sex with a pharaoh? i put the p---- in a sarcophagus.

On December 14th, 2010, the “Kanye Plus Comics”[39] blog was created for illustrations of comic book characters captioned with West's song lyrics (shown below, left). On January 9th, 2011, the “Kanye Chef”[40] blog was launched, featuring West's rap lyrics altered to sound as if they were about verses about food products (shown below, middle). On July 8th, the “Kanye With White People” Tumblr[41] was launched, which reblogged photos of West taken while in the company of white people (shown below, right).


No-one-man | GRE 49 Lallthat tu ROWER 002 VENTCREATIVE OUNDATION SAX oU

On August 26th, 2012, the "Kanye Wes Anderson" Tumblr[42] was created, showcasing screen captured images from films directed by Wes Anderson (shown below). On October 19th, Jason Kottke linked to the Tumblr on his personal blog.[44] On the same day, notable examples from the blog were highlighted on several Internet news sites, including UpRoxx,[43] The Huffington Post,[45] The Daily Dot[46] and BuzzFeed.[47]


'M IN LOVE WITH YOU BUT THE VIBE IS WRON YOU COULD FEEL HOY Fe FELT YOU WOULD KNOW HOW MASE FELT

Coinye West


ooOO COMING SOON

Coinye West[51] was a proposed Bitcoin-derived cryptocurrency that would use a cartoon caricature of Kanye West as the mascot, similar to other novelty altcoins like Dogecoin and NyanCoin. According to the Washington Post[52], Coinye West was concieved as a serious attempt to make crypto-currency more accessible to the public at large through a simplification of the currency mining process, which some have humorously referred to as "gold digging" in reference to Kanye West's 2005 hit rap single Gold Digger.




Initially proposed on December 31st, 2013, the CoinyeWest initiative was scheduled for public release on January 11th, 2014, however, the co-founders were eventually forced to abandon the idea after receiving a cease-and-desist letter and legal threats of trademark infringement from the artist's lawyers.

Yeezianity

Yeezianity is a satirical religion revolving around West founded anonymously in December 2013. According to the official website[55], the followers shall never speak the rapper's real name and may refer to him only as "Yeezus," while adhering to the Golden Rule which states:


Create For Others What You Would Have Created For Yourself



In addition, the website explains that there are five pillars of Yeezianity:

1. All things created must be for the good of all
2. No human being’s right to express themselves must ever be repressed
3. Money is unnecessary except as a means of exchange
4. Man possesses the power to create everything he wants and needs
5. All human suffering exists to stimulate the creative powers of Man

On January 14th, 2014, Vice's music blog Noisey[54] ran an interview article with the founder of Yeezianity, revealing that he initially tried to recruit members for his new religion through Twitter, but then decided to create a post about it on Craigslist, where it has been met with mixed feedback. As of January 15th, 2014, Yeezanity has been mentioned on Twitter[54] over 3,200 times.

Ye Release

On May 31st, 2018, Kanye West held a listening party for his new album, Ye, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.[70] In attendance were several influential radio DJs and comedian Chris Rock. The album is seven tracks long. West took the photo for the album cover on the way to the listening party.[71] It is a photo of mountains with the words "I hate being bi-polar it's awesome" written on it (shown below). The album is available to be streamed on Spotify. [72]


T Late bein Bi-Polar t awesoMe

13th Amendment Tweet

On September 30th, 2018, West tweeted a photograph of himself seated in a plane while wearing a Make America Great Again hat along with the message "We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th Amendment" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet received upwards of 108,000 likes and 26,000 retweets.[73]


@kanyewest this represents good and America becoming whole again. We will no longer outsource to other countries. We build factories here in America and create jobs. We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th amendment. Message sent with love KE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN

That day, West was widely criticized for tweeting "abolish the 13th amendment," with some speculating he was advocating for reintroducing slavery in the United States. Actor Chris Evans subsequently replied to the tweet, describing it as "unapologetic conjecture" that is "frustrating," "retrogressive," "unprecedented" and "absolutely terrifying" (shown below).[74]


Chris Evans @ChrisEvans There's nothing more maddening than debating someone who doesn't know history, doesn't read books, and frames their myopia as virtue. The level of unapologetic conjecture I've encountered lately isn't just frustrating, it's retrogressive, unprecedented and absolutely terrifying.

Meanwhile, West posted a follow up tweet saying that the "13th Amendment is slavery in disguise" and the slavery "never ended" (shown below).


@kanyewest the 13th Amendment is slavery in disguise meaning it never ended We are the solution that heals

On October 1st, The Washington Post[75] published an article titled "Kanye West’s baffling 13th Amendment Twitter outburst: Maybe not so baffling after all," which noted that West may have been referring to the 13th Amendment's "exception clause," which allowed slavery to continue within plantations and prisons.

Personal Life

Kanye West was born on June 8th, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, before taking college courses in the city at the American Academy of Art and Chicago State University. While in college, he began producing tracks for local rap and hip hop artists and ultimately dropped out of school to focus on his music career. In 2000, Kanye began producing for Roc-a-Fella records before recording a verse on the Jay-Z song The Bounce.



After this opportunity, Kanye decided put producing to the site to focus on his solo career. His first single, Through The Wire[9] was recorded after Kanye was involved in a near-fatal car crash and while his jaw was wired shut. Since 2003, Kanye has released five solo albums, two collaborative records, won 14 Grammy awards, and started his own record label.

#KimyeBabyName

On December 30th, 2012, Kanye West revealed that his girlfriend Kim Kardashian is pregnant to a crowd during a concert performance in Atlantic City. Almost immediately, fans reacted to the news on Twitter with mentions of "Kimye's baby" and hashtag #KimyeBabyName[49][50], inspiring a slew of baby names and even some photoshopped parodies.[48]



10-

On June 15th, 2013, a source close to both West and Kardashian confirmed that the latter gave birth to her first daughter.

Mental Health

On November 17th, 2016, a little over a week after the United States presidential election, Kanye West shocked the hip hop community and his fans on social media after openly expressing his endorsement of Donald Trump as the president-elect during a concert in San Jose, California.

“I told y’all I didn’t vote. But if I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted on Trump.”

“There’s nonpolitical methods to speaking that I like, that I feel were very futuristic. […] And that style, and that method of communication, has proven that it can beat a politically correct way of communication. And I fuck with that.”

"I actually think that his approach was absolutely genius. Because it fucking worked!”

“I’m not saying this to diss celebrities at all, particularly on the democratic side -- that’s cool. I just hate the fact that because I’m a celebrity, everybody told me not to say that I loved the debates. I loved [Trump’s] approach. It be like, white people that’s racist, running around saying nigga now. If people are racist and they feel more inspired to say how they feel, then they’re exposing themselves, bro. This is what I’m saying. It’s already the beginning of change. Sometimes things that you might think are bad need to happen, in order for change to fucking happen. Sometimes you might have to not get your way to really understand what to do in the future, to be able to get your way.”

Two days later, on November 19th, West continued his verbal tirades during another concert in Sacramento, California, this time, unleashing a paranoia-driven rant at his former mentor and longtime associate Jay-Z for allegedly avoiding him and scheming to get him killed by hired hitmen,[67] as well as Beyoncé for getting into petty politics with him over the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA).

“Jay Z--call me, bruh. You still ain’t called me. Jay Z, I know you got killers. Please don’t send them at my head. Please call me. Talk to me like a man.”

“Beyoncé--I was hurt because I heard that you said you wouldn’t perform unless you won Video of the Year over me and over ‘Hotline Bling’ [at the VMAs]. In my opinion…now don’t go dissing Beyoncé, she’s great. Taylor Swift is great. We are all great people. We are all equal. But sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win. Fuck winning, fuck looking cool. Fuck looking cool. Fuck being cool. Fuck all that, bruh. I’ve been sent here to give y’all my truth even at the risk of my own life, my own success, my own career.”

Ultimately, West abruptly ended the show early, only 30 minutes into his performance, with sharp criticism aimed at President Barack Obama for trying too hard to be perfect.

“Obama couldn’t make America great because he couldn’t be him to be who he was. Black men have been slaves. Obama wasn’t allowed to do this [screams] and still win. He had to be perfect. But being perfect don’t always change shit, bro. Being perfect don’t always change shit, bro.”

Following his breakdown on November 20th, West was committed to a mental hospital after experiencing hallucinations and paranoia fueled by dehydration and sleep deprivation, resulting in cancellation of the rest of his 21 concerts scheduled for the Saint Pablo tour.

Search Interest

Search for Kanye West peaked in September 2009 following the Taylor Swift incident at the MTV VMAs.

External References

[1] Wikipedia – Kanye West

[2] Wikipedia – List of awards and nominations received by Kanye West

[3] YTMND – Bush Doesn't Care

[4] YTMND – George Bush Doesn't Care About My Stapler

[5] YTMND – Bush Doesn't Care About Mac

[6] Wikipedia – A Concert for Hurricane Relief

[7] Encyclopedia Dramatica – George Bush doesn't care about black people

[8] Complex – 25. Kanye West: "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People"

[9] YouTube – Kanye West – "Through The Wire"

[10] Twitter – @kanyewest

[12] Entertainment Weekly – Kanye West's twitter is back! And yes, it's pretty much amazing

[13] MSNBC (via Wayback Machine) – Kanye West goes on 3-hour Twitter rant

[14] Washington Post – Kanye West and the Donda Twitter rant: A translation

[15] Spin – Kanye West's Late-Night Tweet-a-Thon, By the Numbers

[16] Mashable –
In 86-Tweet Dispatch, @KanyeWest Says New Company Will ‘Pick Up Where Steve Jobs Left Off’

[17] Twitter – @DONDAWorldwide

[18] TechCrunch – Kanye West Is Mad As Hell At Twitter -- And He's Not Going To Take This Anymore!

[19] WebArchive – Kanye West blog from May 13th, 2009

[20] The Awl – A Brief History of Kanye West's Twitter

[21] TechCrunch – Kanye West Finally Has A F*cking Twitter

[22] Entertainment Weekly – Kanye West already has the funniest Twitter feed of all time

[23] The Wall Street Journal Speakeasy – Kanye West Twitter: The Rapper’s First Tweets

[24] TIME – Kanye West and His Magical, Unstoppable Twitter Feed

[25] Huffington Post – Kanye West's Tweets Matched With New Yorker Cartoons

[26] Gizmodo –

[27] NY Daily News – Kanye West picks one lucky teen to follow on Twitter, bringing overnight fame to Steven Holmes

[28] Twitter – @ste_101

[29] Guardian – Kanye West only follows Coventry man on Twitter

[30] Entertainment Weekly – Kanye West's lone Twitter follow bails, says no thanks to media attention

[31] Twitter – Kanye West @ste_101

[32] Huffington Post – Kanye West Tweets, Hand-Stitched, On Etsy

[33] Etsy – Your Favorite Kanye West Tweet – Hand-stitched and Framed – Limited Edition

[34] Openscope.net – Kanye West Tweet Generator

[35] Atom – Kanye West Apology Generator

[36] Quotable Kanye (via Wayback Machine) – Home

[37] Tumblr – Where Are You Yeezy?

[38] Tumblr – Kanye'd By The Bell

[39] Tumblr – Kanye and Comics

[40] Tumblr – Kanye Chef

[41] Tumblr – Kanye With White People

[42] Tumblr – Kanye Wes

[43] UpRoxx – Kanye Wes is the Kanye West/Wes Anderson Mashup Tumblr You Didn't Know You Needed In Your Life

[44] Kottke – Kanye Wes Anderson

[45] The Huffington Post – The Best of Kanye Wes Anderson

[46] Daily Dot – Kanye Wes Anderson

[47] BuzzFeed – The Best of Kanye Wes Anderson

[48] Daily Dot – The 5 best memes inspired by Kim and Kanye's baby

[49] The Daily Beast – 11 Funny Twitter Reactions to the Kimye Baby

[50] The Frisky (via Wayback Machine) – The Internet Chooses Baby Names For Kimye

[51] Coinye West (via Wayback Machine) – Official website

[52] Washington Post – Coinye West is your newest Bitcoin-inspired cryptocurrency

[53] Facebook – Yeezianity

[54] Topsy – Yeezianity

[55] Yeezianity – Yeezianity

[56] The Verge – VMA 2015: Kanye West says he's running for president in 2020

[57] Topsy – Search: Kanye West, Kanye President

[58] Fox News – Kanye West rants at VMAs: I have decided to 'run for president'

[59] People – Kanye West Had a Lot of Feelings on the VMAs Stage

[60] The Daily Mail – The Kardashians move into the White House: Hilarious memes take over Twitter as Kanye West announces he's running for President in 2020 during MTV VMAs

[61] Instagram – Kanye For President

[62] Imgur – All of Kanye's Tweets

[63] Twitter – icedripping's status

[64] Vulture – Why Kanye West Embraced the Petty, Ethered Wiz Khalifa on Twitter, and Needs to Get Over Amber Rose

[65] Pitchfork – Kanye West Targets Wiz Khalifa in Massive Twitter Rant

[66] Billboard – Kanye West Viciously Attacks Wiz Khalifa On Twitter

[67] Consequences of Sound – Kanye West says Jay Z has hitmen: “Please don’t send them at my head”

[68] Pitchfork – Kanye Lashes Out at Beyoncé, Jay Z, and Hillary Clinton, Cuts Concert Short

[69] Twitter – @jack

[70] Rolling Stone – Inside Kanye West's Wyoming Listening Party

[71] Vulture – Kanye Took the Photo on His New Album Cover Himself

[72] Spotify – Ye

[73] Twitter – @kanyewest

[74] Twitter – @ChrisEvans

[75] The Washington Post – Kanye West’s baffling 13th Amendment Twitter outburst – Maybe not so baffling after all

[76] Candace Owens – 808s and Heartbreak

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