BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
On September 13th, 2009 one of the most awkward award show moments went down in music history. Instead of the normal format of announcing the nominees, revealing the winner, and then the winner accepting the award with some speech things got a little strange.
Of course I’m talking about “The Incident” at the MTV VMAs where pop country star Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech was interrupted by hip hop bad boy Kanye West. I don’t even have to get into the details of it, but I probably will before this is said and done.
You just know it. Unless you lived under a rock, you got a full dose of the fallout from “the incident”. It was on talk shows, online, and it was even on the news. The same news that tells us if we’re going to war, if schools are cancelled, and what the weather is going to be like in seven days. People just could not shut up about it.
There has been four years distance between now and that faithful night. Today I want to take a detailed look back in retrospect. We’ll look back, laugh, nit-pick, and use hindsight to dissect this infamous event. I’m not bias towards either party so the gloves will be off. I don’t find either one of them all that entertaining or talented. I did like Kanye’s earlier stuff, but he’s just not my thing anymore as a person or an artist.
Hopefully by the end of this we’ll have a full grasp on who was the real victim, what roles everyone involved played, and if this was one of the biggest ruses in modern celebrity. There are a lot of little inane details to take into consideration.
This is a discussion about a boring pop star not getting along with another boring pop star so it’s up to US to have some fun with it. So I recommend dusting off the old light brown Colombo trench coat, get your Veronica Mars stun get set on “Logan Echoes”, and pull out your obnoxiously big magnifying glass because we’re investigating “the incident” once again. It’s been four years since Kanye was going to “let us finish” and Taylor Swift was treated like the biggest victim in music since Tina Turner… but where are they NOW?
This is one dude’s take on all of this crap…
i. PRE-INCIDENT
I want to preface with a bit of reality before I go down this rabbit hole. Before the incident, things were pretty much awesome for both of these millionaire pop performers. Despite any personal issues they may have had at the time, they were surely better off than 99.9% of the rest of the world. We have to ignore the obvious bizarreness of celebrity and pretend this situation is socially relevant because at the end of the day these two are still millionaire pop performers.
Kanye West had a reputation for “antics” long before September 9th, 2009. Kanye West was already outspoken and bold with his tomfooleries. He had that whole “George Bush hates black people” thing at the Katrina benefit and he was consistently known to throw “hissy fits” when he didn’t win awards that he insisted he deserved. Kanye West basically played the role of the bad guy from jump street. He plays it off like he’s a “misunderstood artist”, but the dude knows what he’s doing. He pulls strings and did this nonsense to gain attention and coverage. At this point, I was still a fan of his. Being a fan of professional wrestling I could appreciate the “heel heat” he was generating for himself. And besides, the older stuff was some inspired and great albums.
Taylor Swift was apparently doing awesome for herself. At the time I was just as deep into music as I am now, but I had somehow managed to avoid her. I knew her name. I knew a little about her like she was a young lovable country pop princess. That’s just not my thing so while I was aware of her, I purposely made myself naïve to her popularity and general output. I honestly couldn’t pick her out of a line-up at this point. Despite millions sold, viewed, and loved she was just not on my radar. I know for a fact that I wasn’t alone in this non-Taylor Swift living reality. It was a simpler time.
ii. THE INCIDENT
Swift just won the Best Female Video award for “You Belong with Me”. She was bright eyed and played the bashful doe in headlights role perfectly. She had that “delightfully baffled” look that a lot of people put on when they win an award on one of these things. She was going to get into her acceptance speech, but out of nowhere Kanye West makes a run in!
Kanye snatches her mic and drops the famous outburst, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!"
At that point, Kanye handing the mic back leaving Taylor Swift speechless on stage. That was that. People were shocked and outraged! It’s said that she was “hysterically crying” backstage while West would be “removed from the remainder of the show”.
iii. THE INITIAL BACKLASH
I’m fairly certain, not 100%, that I’ve also heard the following at least once:
-“Kanye West pissed in the breakfast cereal of America!”
-“Kanye West hates women!”
-“Kanye West thought slavery was a good idea!”
-“Kayne West punched an orphanage!”
-“Kanye West steals the soul of every camera that takes his picture!”
All of the world’s problems and issues were put on hold for a few days as the world rallied against Kanye West. He became public enemy number one. Outside of dictators and terrorists, Kanye had to be the most hated person out there for a while. The problem is that I don’t think people were so much coming to the defense of Swift, but just looking for a reason to be hateful towards the easy hate-target that is Kanye West. If Kanye West had gone on stage and interrupted Rihanna does anyone think this would have been an issue? Do you think the country music community would have given two shits? Nope. On the surface it’s a clean case of someone being an asshole, but the natural reaction of it DOES have some “race issues” involved. It’s inevitable. But that was just part of it.
Lots of people got on their white horse. Awesome people like Dane Cook, Adam Lambert, Ryan Seacrest, Joel Madden, Pink, and Donald Trump all took time out of their lives to make their thoughts known on “the incident”. Even the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama was caught off record calling Kanye West “a jackass”. It didn’t stop with him. Jimmy Carter even had thoughts on it.
Kanye would put a blog out to apologize and then take it down. He showed up on Leno the next day and made a public apology. A few days later she was on The View and explained what was going on in her head as it happened.
Shortly after, Kanye reached out and personally contacted her to apologize again. Taylor Swift said she accepted.
So you’d think it’d be over, right?
HA!
iv. MOVING ON
Like anything that happens that is of note, the incident would be run into the ground. The Kanye “imma’ let you finish” meme was all over. Tons of people passed that around. It was fun for a minute. It was up there with the Charlie Sheen “Winning!” stuff from a few years back. It became part of the pop culture vernacular; right up there with the Macarena and raver pants. SNL went right at it, Eminem brought it up in a song, talk shows recycled puns about it, award shows would make it fair game for a good year, and the milking of it would never EVER go away.
A year later, conveniently around time for the 2010 VMAs, Swift would perform the song “Innocent”. It’s said to be about Kanye West and the whole incident. It was SUPER deep and emotional. Even more so when compared to her other big performances. All of the stress in the world, the random break ups she had, and all of that didn’t get to her on this level. Apparently, being interrupted on an award show REALLY screwed her up. At least that’s how it’s perceivable with that kind of “emotion”.
Later on that year, West would pretty much take it all back and stick to his original stance. He defended himself as being “selfless” and still felt Beyoncé’s album was better. I think Kanye was genuinely concerned about her feelings until he realized how things really were. He claimed that, "If I wasn't drunk, I would have been on stage longer ... Taylor never came to my defense at any interview. And rode the waves and rode it and rode it". He also made a point that I’d agree with 100%. He felt that his interruption caused Swift to "have 100 magazine covers and sell a million first week". That’s the perception I had about this as well. Until “the incident”, Taylor Swift was not on my radar.
Everyone seemed to have gotten it off their chest. The attention for it was gone. Both Swift’s Speak Now and West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy were successful and properly marketed. Swift would on to new boyfriend problems and Kanye moved on to becoming a Kardashian. Things seemed to be “done” as the two would meet again face to face at a red carpet. They wouldn’t really speak in public, they exchanged this sly “down low” high five. What was that? Was it a sign of peace? A wink at their ruse? A show of respect among celebrity? It’s not worth caring too much about. It was just a nice relief that “the incident” could FINALLY be put to rest.
v. WHERE ARE THEY NOW
Both have moved on in their lives. New albums, new experiences, and new relationships have seemingly put the whole 2009 thing finally to rest. When people talk about Kanye West these days it’s because of his love life with Kim Kardashian, a “controversial” baby name, and a new critically acclaimed album.
Or so we thought.
Just this past July the can of worms was cracked open again. Taylor Swift would be nominated for two MTV VMA awards. She took to twitter to post, “Two VMA nominations!! If you vote and get us one, I promise to keep a firmer grip on the mic this time ;)”
I don’t think she meant any harm by the little joke. It was a cut and innoce… wait, “innocent”? INNOCENT? Whoa! Innocent my ass! It’s hard to really consider her to be “innocent” anymore. She seems to harp on thing a little as she puts her relationships and experiences blankly into her music. It’s not she’s using life and turning into a creative metaphor. It really feels like she’s using fabricated drama as a paint-by-numbers career format.
It doesn’t end there. Two days after Taylor’s tweet a “leak” of a “private conversation” from 2009 showed up. The tape has West going off on racial stuff, stuff about his mother, crap about Pink, and tons of outrageous nonsense. The strange thing is that no one seems to be shocked. Some people even suspect that West’s camp “leaked” it themselves for attention. I don’t know about that, but it’s an interesting concept. Then again, you couldn’t write this shit.
The Kanye West “shock factor” is gone. I wonder if he’s going to go to some kind of social rehab to hang out with people like Eminem, Marilyn Manson, Charlie Sheen, Rush Limbaugh, and Dennis Rodman. He’s still an amazing artist, but if he wants to continue to get a rise out of people he’s going to have to get really creative.
It’s only a matter of time before Swift’s shelf life fades as well. She has the benefit of being young so she’ll continue to have success, but it’ll have to eventually teeter off. Female pop stars, especially country ones, seem to ride off into the limelight fairly often. She’ll have to transition, like REALLY transition into something new. I’m not talking about a new haircut and a meaner look. She’s going to have to reinvent herself and I have my doubts she’ll be able to pull it off. I’ve been wrong before though.
vi. WHAT’S TO COME
I think everyone needs to just take a look in the mirror, admit their faults, hug each other, and for the love of all that is holy make my dream come true. If Swift and West got together and did a cover of Blondie’s “Rapture” the world would be fixed.
Who do YOU think gained more from “The Incident”?
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