During the MTV Video Music Awards on on September 13, 2009, Kanye West jumped on stage and grabbed the microphone Taylor Swft to proclaim that Beyonce’s video for “Single Ladies”, nominated for the same award, was “one of the best videos of all time.” He handed the mic back to a distraught Swift who was unable to finish her acceptance speech during the live broadcast. West received a negative reaction from the audience.
Kanye West was removed from the remainder of the MTV Video Music Awards show for his actions. West later apologized on his blog and expressed regret on the opening night of The Jay Leno Show.
But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyse how I’m going to make it through the rest of this life, how I’m going to improve. Because I am a celebrity, and that’s something I have to deal with.
— Kanye West on The Jay Leno Show
On November 2, 2006, when “Touch the Sky” failed to win Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards, West went onto the stage as the award was being presented to Justice and Simian for “We Are Your Friends” and argued that he should have won the award instead.
After the 2006 Grammy nominations were released, West said he would “really have a problem” if he didn’t win the Album of the Year because of the comments, saying “I don’t care what I do, I don’t care how much I stunt — you can never take away from the amount of work I put into it. I don’t want to hear all of that politically correct stuff.”
On September 2, 2005, during a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief on NBC, A Concert for Hurricane Relief, West was a featured speaker. Controversy arose when West was presenting, as he deviated from the prepared script.[34] The actor Mike Myers, with whom West was paired to present, spoke next and continued to read the script. Once it was West’s turn to speak again, he said “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” At this point, telethon producer Rick Kaplan cut off the microphone and then cut away to Chris Tucker, who was unaware of the cut for a few seconds. Still, West’s comment reached much of the United States.
Kanye West took some art classes at the American Academy of Art, a Chicago art school, and also enrolled at Chicago State University, but dropped out due to poor grades and a primary interest in working on his music career.While attending school, West produced for local artists. He later gained fame by producing hit singles for major hip hop/R&B artists, including Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Cam’ron, Paul Wall, Common, Mobb Deep, Jermaine Dupri, Scarface, The Game, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, John Legend among others.
On November 10, 2007, West’s mother, Donda West, died of complications from cosmetic surgery involving abdominoplasty and breast augmentation.
His father was Ray West, a former Black Panther who was one of the first black photojournalists at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and is now a Christian counselor.