In case you missed last night’s MTV VMAs – which is completely understandable – here’s the main take-away: Kanye West will run for President.
Yes, of the United States.
In his 13-minute Michael Jackson Video Vanguard acceptance speech, the rapper you either love or hate (or love to hate) announced his intention to run for President in 2020.
He also admitted to hitting a blunt before taking the stage and even apologized to Taylor Swift (kind of), who presented him with the award.
Here’s what he said:
Bro. Listen to the kids. First of all, thank you Taylor for being so gracious. 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 fresh juice and the end they say, “Oh, you’re not that bad, after all.” And like 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.
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. If I had a daughter at that time would I have went on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else? This arena tomorrow is going to be a completely different set-up. This stage will be gone tomorrow. After that night the stage was gone, but the effect it had on people remained. The problem was the contradiction. The contradiction is I do fight for artists, but in that fight I was somehow disrespectful to artists. I didn’t know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing, I just sat at the Grammys and saw Justin Timberlake and Cee Lo lose… and bro, not trying to put you on blast, I saw that man in tears. You deserved to win “Album of the Year.” In this small box we are as the entertainers of the evening, how could you explain that sometimes…I feel like all this they run about beef and all that sometimes I feel like I died for that opinion.
I’m not no politician, bro. And look at that, you know how many times MTV ran that footage again ’cause it got that them more ratings, and how many times they announced 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 one sold concert tickets and for the first time of their life be judged… so for the first time they can be called a loser. I don’t understand when the biggest album I’ve been conflicted, bro. I’ve just wanted people to like me more but f*ck that bro.
2015 I will die for the art for what I believe in and the art ain’t always gonna be polite. Y’all might be thinking right now, did he smoke something? The answer is yes, I rolled up a little something.
I don’t know what’s gonna happen tonight. I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, but all I can say to my artists, my fellow artists, just worry how you feel at the time. Just worry how you feel and don’t never… I’m confident. I believe in myself. We the millennials, bro. This is a new mentality. We not gonna control our kids with brands. We’re not gonna teach low self-esteem and hate to our kids. We’re gonna teach them that they can be something. We gonna teach our kids they can stand up for themselves, believe in themselves. It don’t matter though. It ain’t about me. It’s about ideas, people who believe in truth. And yes, as you probably could’ve guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.”
So, there you have it. Even though he’s “not no politician, bro,” Kanye has his sights set as high as the effects of that blunt when it comes to politics.
[ad_bb1]