Kanye West causes stir at Grammys with Beck, Beyoncé comment
Says in an interview that the awards show is 'disrespectful to inspiration'
Kanye West caused a stir at the Grammys by rushing on stage as Beck accepted album of the year and later suggesting the musician should give his award to Beyoncé to "respect artistry."
It all seemed like a light-hearted affair as West briefly took the stage as Beck took the top prize for his 12th studio album Morning Phase at the 57th annual edition of the American music industry awards in Los Angeles Sunday night.
It was a throwback to when West awkwardly grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
"Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm'a let you finish," he said as a shocked Swift accepted the award for Best Female Video, "but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!"
This time West simply smiled and quickly left the stage as Beck looked surprised, prompting guffaws from Beyoncé and Jay Z.
However, in an interview with E! later in the night, West ranted about the Grammys, saying the awards show is disrespectful to innovation and criticizing the practice of cutting short artist's acceptance speeches.
"Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé," he said.
West, who is no stranger to the occasional rant, continued, praising Beyoncé and saying he is fighting for creativity.
Beck keeps his cool
Beck, who appeared cool as a cucumber despite the on-stage confrontation, told Us Weekly that he was "just so excited he was coming up."
"[West] deserves to be onstage as much as anybody," the alt-rocker said at a Grammy afterparty. "How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right?"
Beck's album of the year win was the biggest surprise of the night, and he's offended that West thought Beyoncé should have won instead.
"I thought she was going to win. Come on, she's Beyoncé." said the 44-year-old multi-instrumentalist. "You can't please everybody, man. I still love [West] and think he's genius. I aspire to do what he does."
You can read Kanye West's full statement below.
The Grammys, if they want real artists to come back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain't gonna play with them no more. Flawless, Beyoncé video, and Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé.
And at this point, we tired of it because what happens is, when you keep on diminishing art, and not respecting the craft, and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you're disrespectful to inspiration. And we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day and they listen to that Beyoncé album, they feel like it takes them to another place, then they do this whole promotional event that, you know, they'll run the music over somebody's speech, the artist, because they wanted commercial advertising. No, we not playing with them no more.
And by the way, I got my wife, I got my daughter, and I got my clothing line, so I'm not gonna do nothing to put my daughter at risk, but I am here to fight for creativity. That's the reason I didn't say anything tonight. But y'all know what it meant when 'Ye walks on that stage.