Jay-Z defends fellow rapper Kanye West for storming the stage of 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and interrupting Taylor Swift's Best Female Video acceptance speech.
In an interview featured in the February issue of Interview magazine, he said, "I like that, man! I really do. I mean, no one's walking around here perfect. Everyone's gonna make mistakes. That's part of how you learn. I think Kanye . . . Well, I know he said what he believed. He was telling the truth."
When asked which event he's referring to, Jay-Z explained, "I'm talking about the Taylor Swift thing." He added, "I just think the timing of what he did was wrong, and that, of course, overshadowed everything. He believed that 'Single Ladies' [by Beyonce Knowles] was a better video [and] I believed that. I think a lot of people believed that."
"You can't give someone Video of the Year if they don't win Best Female Video. I thought Best Female Video was something you won on the way to Video of the Year. But, hey, I guess it wasn't - and that's a whole other conversation about awards shows and artists."
On September 13, 2009, Kanye West became the newsmaker when he got up to the stage of Radio City Music Hall and jacked Taylor Swift's mic when she delivered her acceptance speech. "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'll let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!" he told the crowd. Due to what he did, he has repeatedly apologized over the incident but still got negative publicity in the media.
After avoiding spotlight for awhile, Kanye recently announced his return. Starting by throwing a rant on a live concert and calling other artists "too scared to stand up for something," he blogged about starting making a new album saying, "We will follow in the footsteps of Maya Angelou, Gill Scott Herron and Nina Simone. Their work improved with time. They documented what was happening in culture. That is our responsibility as the modern day artists and poets, to accurately represent what is happening now."
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