Kanye West and MTV are like an old married couple. They constantly bicker and fight, sometimes to a feverish pitch, but at the end of the day they are always back together.
Kanye will be performing at the MTV-Video Music Awards at Brooklyn’s brand new Barclay’s Center arena Aug. 25.
West is the only artist aside from Lady Gaga that has been confirmed thus far, and he is reportedly going to perform his latest single ‘Black Skinhead’ from his new album Yeezus. This will be Kanye’s seventh appearance on a VMA stage, which ties a record with Madonna for most VMA performances. West and MTV’s love-hate relationship has been ongoing since 2004 when he first appeared on stage with Chaka Khan in 2004.
According to usatoday:
“West, a three-time VMA winner, made his debut performance with Chaka Khan in in 2004, doing a medley of Jesus Walks, All Falls Down and Through the Wire. The following year, he performed Gold Digger with Jamie Foxx. He did Stronger and Good Life with T-Pain in 2007, Love Lockdown in 2008 and Runaway in 2010. In 2011, West and Jay Z gave a first look at their “Watch the Throne” tour with a performance of Otis.
“West didn’t perform in 2009, but he made one of his most famous VMA appearances when he crashed the stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech to rave about Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) video, saying, “Yo, Taylor, I’m’a let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.”
Of course this year we expect to some kind of outburst from West. Yeezus is a great artistic expression of Kanye doing whatever he wants to do without caring what other people think. And although he’s no stranger to controversy, that behavior has been increasingly displayed by West.
His recent run-ins with the paparazzi and telling them not to talk to him and his anger over the leak of Black Skinhead video, may be examples of what is to come at the VMA’s on Aug. 25.
And while many people are often offended by Kanye’s actions, the truth is we need him. Kanye says what everybody is thinking but is afraid to say because they don’t want to be the bad guy.
Kanye’s execution may not be always acceptable, but his ideas often resonate with people’s inner thoughts.
So I say to Kanye: Continue to be that voice, refine your presentation a bit, but never let them off the hook when they’re wrong.
