Kanye West Introduces New Line of Tacky to Taylor Swift at MTV Video Music Awards

On Sunday, Sept. 13, country artist Taylor Swift took the stage to accept her MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video, and hip hop artist Kanye West decided he was going to ruin her moment of recognition. Snatching the microphone out of Taylor Swift's hands during her acceptance speech, he said, "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you. I'm a let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time." Kanye West then pointed to Beyonce who went from smiling to open-mouthed shock, then Beyonce looked around, and it looked like she mouthed "Oh my god." The crowd immediately booed Kanye West as he shrugged and gave Taylor Swift the mic back.

Keep in mind that West, the impromptu judge, was the mastermind behind new rap artist Drake's video "Best I Ever Had" with women jumping around showing off breasts and butts at a basketball game, and the video had not a bit to do with the song. So why he thought he could be the judge of any music video amazes me. It's bad enough that as a grown man who had had numerous fits over awards in the past about how he thought he deserved them, he felt the need to ruin another artists' shining moment. But what's worse is those who are saying that he was just being honest and assuming that Kanye's opinion was what everybody thought since "nobody knew Taylor Swift before."

Let's keep in mind that everybody does not listen to the type of music you listen to. On MTV's "Behind the Music" one-hour episode, the police officer who arrested Lil' Wayne for gun possession on July 22, 2007, didn't even know which guy on the tourbus was Lil' Wayne. And another guy openly admitted on the MTV special that it was his gun. Lil' Wayne sold one million albums in one week for "Tha Carter III," so to say he's unknown is far from the truth. But this officer didn't know him. While some of us may be marinating in the music we love, we have to keep in mind that there are other genres out there. I knew Taylor Swift's song because I'd heard her single, "You Belong With Me" as well as Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" on Chicago pop radio stations, so the idea that "no one knew her" was far from true and is rather close-minded.

Then there are those who say it was great publicity for her because people will remember this moment even if they didn't know her before. Some of us think bad publicity is better than no publicity, and while that may be true in the entertainment business, we have to take into consideration that this is a teenager who just won an MTV Award for the first time. Taylor Swift looked stunned when she won and said, "I always dreamed about what it would be like to maybe win one of these someday, but I never actually thought it would happen." And it did. And Kanye West ruined it.

To those who say he was just keeping it real, I wonder how much they defended Representative Joe Wilson for shouting "You lie" during President Barack Obama's press conference. If you defend Kanye and not Rep. Joe Wilson, why not? He was "keeping it real" too in front of the entire world. Both situations were tacky. Just plain tacky.

Quite honestly, I'd never seen Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" video until this morning, but I'd enjoyed Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)"many times. Did I like Beyonce's video better? I liked the version with Justin Timberlake on "Saturday Night Live" more than her official music video, but yes, it was more entertaining than Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me."

However, as an adult and as an entertainer, Kanye West should have kept his mouth closed and stayed offstage. Everybody has a right to their opinion, but it's not necessary to come onstage, embarrass another hard-working artist, and then act like it's okay because he was "being honest." Kanye West has been known to have these childish episodes, but this one was too extreme. For that reason, I will not support his music again. If he can't be supportive enough of other artists, even the ones he doesn't necessarily enjoy, and as a grown man learn to be cordial and not mean-spirited, then I can't support him. He is an embarrassment to Chicago.