Say what you will about Kanye West, but the man knows what he likes and he isn’t afraid to speak up about it. You might remember back in 2009 at the MTV Video Music Awards, Yeezy took it upon himself to speak out against what he felt was an enormous oversight, interrupting Taylor Swift‘s acceptance speech with the now immortal line:
“Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’ma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME.“
Or, more succinctly, the line that spawned a million image macros.
Fast forward to today at the annual parade of the musically inclined, the Grammy Awards, and Yeezy found himself again feeling the urge to step in and defend the Queen Bey.
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year somewhat surprisingly went to veteran indie slacker Beck for his latest album “Morning Phase.” In doing so, Beck beat out the somewhat more fancied rival nominees in Sam Smith for “In the Lonely Hour,” Pharrell Williams for “G I R L,” Ed Sheeran for “X,” and, of course, Beyoncé for “Beyoncé.”
Shining golden God and walking vision of the infinite Prince presented the statue to Beck, surprise painted all over his face.
And then Kanye got a bit jumpy and allllllllmost repeated his own history.
Well, let’s all just relive that over and over, yes? #Grammys pic.twitter.com/Rc9ttAFOhv
— ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLEmagazine) February 9, 2015
‘Course it all appears to be a particularly well executed joke on himself by Yeezus. But that didn’t stop people’s hearts leaping into their throats for the barest of seconds. Most notably, Beyoncé and Jay-Z themselves, who let out one of the most dignified “Noooooooooo“s you’re ever likely to see.
Love him, hate him, feel otherwise non-plussed about him. That was well played.
Damned well played indeed, Yeezy.
Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images.
