“Kanye West was right.”
Even as one of West’s biggest fans, I can admit that that is one sentence rarely uttered.
So what exactly was he right about? In August, MTV held its annual Video Music Awards show.
West was awarded the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, which is given to musicians who make a profound effect on the MTV culture, honoring an artist’s body of work.
Public perception of West tends to be negative; after interrupting Taylor Swift’s award acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards show, he was seen as an egotistical artist.
(It seems only fitting that Swift presented the 2015 Video Vanguard Award to West.)
As they watched West accept the award, audience members prepared themselves for a another bizarre speech.
This speech, however, led millions of viewers to get the hashtag #Kanye2020 trending worldwide in response to West’s announcement that he will run for president of the U.S. in 2020.
It was a speech that also led me to question my own view of award shows.
West’s speech was an 11-minute rant, most of which was filled with awkward pauses and cheers from audience members. West explained why he interrupted Swift during her acceptance speech in 2009 and his negative feelings toward award shows.
“I still don’t understand award shows,” he said. “I don’t understand how they get five people who worked their entire life … sold records, (and) concert tickets to come stand on the carpet and … be judged on the chopping block and have the opportunity to be considered a loser.”
I understand why award shows are popular.
These shows are exciting for viewers and beneficial for those artists who come out as winners in their respective categories.
But what I don’t understand is how it is justifiable to declare four other people losers — especially when they are just as hardworking and talented as the winner.
You could argue that because they are professionals, they should know how to deal with losing.
And to that I say, imagine spending a majority of your life working at and perfecting one skill, whether that be writing, marketing, practicing medicine — whatever profession in which you’re involved.
Then, you’re nominated for a award, pitted against four other equally skilled people.
You lose the award. You are going home a loser.
Five people enter, one winner and four losers leave. How does that feel? It just doesn’t make sense.
Leonardo DiCaprio has never won an Oscar, although he has been nominated five times.
Jerry Seinfeld never won an Emmy for Seinfeld. Amy Poehler has been nominated eight times for an Emmy, but has lost each time.
Brian McKnight has been nominated 16 times, Nas 13 times, Katy Perry 11 times and Tupac Shakur seven times, but none of them have ever won a Grammy.
Brian McKnight is one the best R&B singers of his time.
Nas’s Illmatic album is known to be one of the best hip-hop projects to have ever been released.
Tupac Shakur is arguably the greatest rapper of all time.
These people are all highly praised for their accomplishments on-screen and in the studio, yet are not recognized in the eyes of the most prestigious award shows.
Although he went about communicating his views in an unconventional way, West was right about award shows.
In saying that, he had one of the best acceptance speeches of all time! Of all time!
