Kanye West is no stranger to drama. Through the years the rapper has been in the headlines for a variety of reasons from storming the stage at awards shows to comparing himself to Jesus. We compiled a handy list of some of the times Kanye acted a little… questionable (though there are many more).
1. Kanye interrupts Taylor Swift during her VMA acceptance speech
Probably one of the most infamous Kanye moments was during the 2009 VMAs. Taylor Swift had just won Best Female Video for ‘You Belong To Me’ and was in the middle of giving her acceptance speech. Kanye was particularly upset that Beyoncé didn’t win for her track ‘Single Ladies’ and made this very clear by taking the mic and saying “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!” But having such a big mistake he definitely wouldn’t do it again.
2. Kanye interrupts an acceptance speech again
Having not learned from the VMAs, Kanye stormed the stage at the 2006 EMAs, only this time it was to vouch for his own music. Justice had won Best Video for ‘We Are Your Friends’. Kanye interrupted a speech being made on their behalf to make clear his track ‘Touch the Sky’ should have won because it “cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons”.
3. Kanye promises to boycott the MTV Music Video Awards (and then doesn’t)
At the MTV Music Video Awards in 2006, Kanye was nominated for five awards but won nothing. Unsurprisingly, Kanye didn’t take this well. After threatening to boycott the awards he showed up two years later.
4. Kanye discovers capslock
There was once a time when Kanye didn’t have Twitter. During this time, he posted in his blog “I DON’T HAVE A F*****G TWITTER… HEY TWITTER, TAKE THE SO CALLED KANYE WEST TWITTER DOWN NOW”. What reason did the rapper give for this? “BECAUSE MY CAPS LOCK KEY IS LOUD!!!!!!!!!“.
5. Kanye said people look at him like he’s Hitler
Of all the people he’s compared himself to, this was probably the most bizarre. During the Big Chill festival in 2011, the rapper said during one of his infamous rants “I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street and people look at me… like I’m Hitler“. Kanye has also compared himself to God, Picasso and Steve Jobs.
6. Kanye loves Kanye
Kanye admitted that his biggest regret in life was that he could never see himself perform saying “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live”. Kanye having an infatuation for himself has become such a big joke that he even included a song called ‘I Love Kanye‘ on his latest album Saint Pablo.
One day into his US Saint Pablo tour the rapper cancelled the remainder of the US dates and subsequent UK and European dates to spend time in hospital for psychosis and exhaustion following several on-stage breakdowns. There has been no confirmation of when he will return to the stage.
