Kanye West was awarded the Video Vanguard Award at the MTV VMAs on Sunday, Aug. 31. Taylor Swift presented the award to West and gave a speech that honored his creativity and influence.
"I have been a fan of his since I can remember because Kanye defines what it is to be a creative force in music, fashion, and well, life," said 24-year-old Swift. "I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Kanye has had one of the greatest careers of all time!"
West walked to the stage and shared a warm embrace with Swift. She walked off the stage and stood next to Kim Kardashian. In his speech, West first acknowledged Jeremy Scott's design of the Moonman award. He then thanked Swift "for being so gracious."
"Jeremy, I gotta put it down for a second. It's beautiful. Jeremy Scott designed it. First of all, thank you, Taylor for being so gracious and giving me this award this evening. Thank you. And I, often think back to the first day 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 pressed juice at the, you know? And in the end, they say, "oh, you're not that bad after all.''
"When I attend a baseball game and uhm, 60,000 people boo me. It crosses my mind a little bit. 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 drunk half a bottle of Henessey and gave the rest of it to the audience? If I had a daughter at the time, would I have went on the stage and grabbed the mic from someone else's?"
West reflected upon his actions and words from six years ago. He admitted that his behavior was a contradiction to his personal beliefs because he cares about artists and their feelings. West realized that he disrespected Swift while trying to stick up for Beyonce.
"You know, this arena tomorrow, it's gonna be a completely different set up. This stage will be gone. After that night, the stage was gone, but the effect that it had on people remained. The problem was the contradiction. The contradiction is, I do fight for artists, but in that fight, I somehow was disrespectful to an artist. I didn't know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing."
Yeezy also contemplated on the media's portrayal of fights between different artists. West said that the media tends to add fuel to the flame by running the "beef."
"Sometimes I feel like all this they run about beef and all that, sometimes I die for the artist opinion. For the artist to have an opinion after they are successful. I'm not no politician, bro and look at that, you know how many times MTV ran that video again "cause it got them more ratings?"
The winner questioned the concept of award shows like the VMAs. West said that he did not understand how five artists who worked hard, sold music, and sold concert tickets can be pitted at a red carpet event.
"I still don't understand award shows. I don't understand how they get five people who work their entire life [to] sell records, sell 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."
West confirmed his passion for music and acknowledged that his words will not always be politically correct. He also admitted to smoking weed before attending the show in order to get the "edge" off.
"I will die for the art and for what I believe in and the art ain't always gonna be polite. I don't know what's gonna happen tonight or tomorrow."
He ended the speech with: "And, yes, as you probably could have guessed in this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president."
