The Opinion of Kanye West

Kanye rips the mic from Taylor Swift in 2009

I was happily binge watching 'House of Cards' on Netflix last Sunday night (poor Zoe Barnes...yikes) so I didn't watch the Grammy Awards, but the news about Kanye West leaving his front row seat and meandering onto the stage (again...) as Prince was handing the 'Album of the Year' award to Beck is much more interesting to me.

There's no question Kanye is a talented artist but he really seems to be pushing the needle on the WTF-o'meter with his latest uninvited stage appearance to share his unsolicited opinion.

Rembert Browne wrote an insightful analysis 
of the controversial performer's recent stage antics and why he did what he did. As Browne observed:

"Much has been theorized about why he is the way he is. Or what it is about the way he is that is so inappropriate and loathsome. But it’s not that complicated. It all comes back to an idea of Kanye West not being proper, about his lacking a certain respectability."

Browne opines correctly that Kanye embraces a habit of simply saying what other people think but are afraid to say out loud.

And he raises an excellent point when he notes that many people watching the Grammy Awards on TV or sitting in the audience for that matter also wondered how Beck could win Album of the Year over Beyonce; her album certainly moved more units than his and she had a hugely successful tour.

Was Beyonce Knowles album better than Beck's? I don't know.

Ultimately such opinions are far more subjective and complicated than can be set in stone as Kanye tried to do.

But I do think a lot of people are starting to wonder if Kanye has some kind of weird obsession with Beyonce Knowles.

After all it was only back in 2009 at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA's) that West stunned the Radio City Music Hall crowd when he leaped onstage and grabbed the microphone out of Taylor Swift's hands (pictured above) as she was accepting the award for 'Best Female Video' and started ranting about how Beyonce should have gotten the award.

For the record, I've got nothing against Kanye.

He's got a shelf full of Grammy Awards himself and obviously knows the industry, so maybe he does have a legit point that the Grammy's and the mainstream record industry as a whole still have a problem relegating artists of color to genres like hip-hop or R&B, while allowing performers like Taylor Swift or Beck to be accepted as mainstream "pop" artists.

But it's the delivery that confuses me.

When a guy compares himself to Shakespeare, Any Warhol, Google and Nike in the same sentence as Kanye famously once did during an interview, I don't think he lacks humility; I tend to think he's manic depressive and forgot to take his meds.

He's got a right to his opinion but the stage rushing theatrics have all the earmarks of a petulant, egomaniac child throwing a tantrum because he didn't get his way. It seems tacky.

Kanye has more than enough clout to have been able to arrange to appear on a talk show the morning after the awards to express his opinion in a more thoughtful way that would make his actions more clear; his message about bias within the industry more coherent.

But he decided to jump up on the stage, step in front of Prince of all people and insert himself into a moment that was not about him.

Beck was cool about it, if you watch the clip of the incident, Beck actually tried to get Kanye back up onstage to say what he wanted to; but Kanye decided to go back to his seat and smile - as if that was all he needed to do.

I totally respect Rembert Browne's opinion, but ultimately I personally have to agree with the The Root.com's Dave Swerdlick's opinion that Kanye West acted like "an ass."

After all it's not like Beyonce was ignored at the Grammy Awards, she took home three Grammys including Best R&B Performance, Best R&B Song and Best Surround Sound Album.

Kanye's post-awards tirade to the press came off as klutzy and uninformed when he suggested that Beck needed to "respect artistry" - what does that even mean?

Beck, whose parents were actual artists, has been writing, playing and making eclectic and well-produced music in different genres for years - when you get down to it, was Beyonce "respecting artistry" when she lip synched the national anthem at President Obama's inaugural ceremony back in January, 2013?

No artist is perfect. Frank Sinatra wasn't, Beyonce isn't, neither is Beck - and Kanye West most certainly is not.

Frankly, Whoppi Goldeberg said it best in her comments addressed to Kanye West on 'The View' the next morning: "Everybody on that stage was a real artist honey."

Hip Hop Artists Brawl At BET Awards (Again); Teen Girl Rampage in Chester, PA

Rappers Rick Ross & Young Jeezy had words at the BET Awards

The propensity for petty "beefs", juvenile dust-ups and fights among Hip-Hop artists, rappers and members of their ubiquitous entourages during awards shows has become so commonplace it's almost cartoonish; maybe even buffonish.

It's also potentially dangerous as artists like Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls could tell you - had they not both been gunned down over perceived slights and insults.

The latest ego-inspired fracas occurred over the weekend in Atlanta during the taping of the BET Awards when 36 year-old rapper/producer Rick Ross and rapper Young Jeezy (who's actually 34) apparently had words backstage. The conflict then escalated when the respective entourages of both groups had a confrontation that continued out into the parking lot and according to multiple sources, shots were fired.

It's the latest blight that gives a bad name to the industry and the thousands of legitimate rap artists across the nation who oppose violence and manage to create music without getting their faces plastered on TMZ.com. What's peculiar is on one hand you have artists who demand to be taken seriously for their creative and business/entreprenuerial skills (i.e rap artists who successfully expand their brands into fashion, sports drinks or even fast food) but then totally undermine their own public perception with highly-public confrontations or outbursts.

Remember when Kanye West totally embarrassed himself by blundering onstage during the Video Music Awards a few years ago to disrupt Taylor Swift's award moment with his unsolicited rant?
I won't even get into Chris Brown assaulting singer Rihanna after the Grammy Awards. 

What's most troubling is the message that gets absorbed by young people. The same night I heard about the debacle at the BET Awards taping, I saw the horrifying news report about six teenage girls in Chester, PA who recorded a totally-unprovoked vicious assault of a 48 year-old mentally disabled woman sitting on her front stoop minding her own business; then had the audacity to post it on Facebook. The teens are seen laughing while they beat the woman.

The attack has outraged citizens (including me) from all walks of life not just in the Delaware Valley and Philadelphia area, but across the nation including Boston and Chicago. In response, assistant DA Greg Dawson is charging all six girls as adults and I agree with the vast majority of the reader-comments that all six should be locked up as an example of what happens when you prove unable to function within the laws of decent, civilized society.

Now I certainly can't blame any one rap artist or Hip Hop impresario for the sick teenage girl rampage in Chester, but I do hold the adulation of thuggish behavior and misogynistic themes that still permeates much of Hip-Hop culture, music and media at least partially accountable; and where the hell are the parents? Odds are NOT at a PTA meeting.    

Neither Rick Ross or Young Jeezy were arrested for their BET Awards melee on Saturday; but if the six Chester girls were arrested and charged as adults, maybe Ross and Jeezy should be too. If for nothing else than to demonstrate that people in this society must take responsibility for their actions - and that there are consequences for acting like a fucking asshole.

On that note, I admit I don't always agree with the actions of the NYPD, and I've called them out in my blog on a number of occasions, but props to Commissioner Ray Kelly for announcing stepped-up efforts to control local gang violence in communities in New York.