You think you’ve got problems? Try putting yourself in Kanye’s shoes. First you stand up in front of the whole world and call the President of the United States a racist. Then you stand up in front of the whole world and tell a sweet young lady that she doesn’t deserve an award she’s just won and make her cry. Then some guy on TV tries to talk to you about those two things. Can you imagine?
Kanye West had a Twitter meltdown yesterday surrounding a taped appearance on the ‘Today’ show. This morning, we got to see what all the fuss was about. In a fairly standard interview, Matt Lauer asks West about his “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” line from 2005 and the Taylor Swift-VMA incident that got cries of racism flipped on Kanye himself. While producers ran a clip of Kanye’s microphone-grabbing stunt at the 2009 VMAs, the rapper stopped talking mid-sentence.
“Yo, how am I supposed to talk if you gonna run this thing in the middle, while I’m talking?” an affronted West asks. “Please don’t let that happen again, it’s like ridiculous.”
This set “Ye” off on an epic Twitter rant, some of which MTV has helpfully compiled:
Bush appeared to accept West’s apology, but in his Twitter screed, the Chicago MC was livid that “Today” producers coupled his contrition with images of the Swift bum rush.
“While I was trying to give the interview they started playing the ‘MTV’ under me with audio!!!!!!!,” he wrote, before firing off a string of emotionally charged tweets about his hurt feelings. “I don’t mess with Matt Lauer or the Today Show … and that’s a very nice way for me to put it! … HE TRIED TO FORCE MY ANSWERS. IT WAS VERY BRUTAL AND I CAME THERE WITH ONLY POSITIVE INTENT … I feel very alone very used very tortured very forced very misunderstood very hollow very very misused … I don’t trust anyone but myself! Everyone has an agenda. I don’t do press anymore. I can’t be everything to everybody anymore … I can’t be everybody’s hero and villain savior and sinner Christian and anti Christ! … I can’t take anymore advice!!! I create, I’m creative, I have a good heart, everyone will see and understand one day.”
The rant continued for half a dozen more tweets, during which he tweet-hollered that “Everything sounds like noise !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” again lamenting that he can’t trust anyone and saying he felt “very judged,” scrutinized and criticized. “I want everyone to know I have lows all the time but I make it through them!”
Yeah, sort of? Fortunately, Twitter’s 140-character limit prevented him from hitting the exclamation points until his keyboard melted.
You might think this is funny, or you might be worried for Kanye’s mental health, or maybe a little of both. But comedian Sarah Silverman begs to differ:
Which is weird, considering Silverman has had her own problems with false accusations of racism. But whatever. Her incisive comment triggered a new round of thoughful sociopolitical analysis of the whole affair, in which some of the commentweetiat made a crucial distinction. It’s not that George Bush doesn’t care about black people; he just doesn’t care about poor people.
Well, sure. Whereas Obama cares about poor people so much, he keeps creating more of them so they won’t be lonely.
Anyhow. Thank you, Kanye, for trying to do the right thing in an uncaring, ungrateful world. And get well soon!
