Aside from Britney and Beyoncé, Kanye West’s appearance at this year’s VMAs was one of the most anticipated of the evening. Reportedly receiving carte blanche to do whatever he wanted for a lengthy four minutes of airtime, he delivered a fairly non sequitur monologue that covered everything from his role models to one contentious blonde pop star. While his speech was tame relative to years past (as in, devoid of any presidential pursuits), he did touch on whole Taylor Swift feud, saying “I love all y’all. That’s why I called her!”
He continued by addressing his controversial “Famous” video, shouting out his wife Kim Kardashian as a “G” and touching on some inspirational figures, past and present, he looks to. “My role models are artists, merchants,” he said. “There’s less than ten I can name in history: Truman, Ford, Hughes, Disney, Jobs, West.” Kanye citing himself as his own role model? File that under unsurprising. His segment culminated with the steamy video premiere of his single “Fade” off of The Life of Pablo, starring Teyana Taylor.
Watch his full speech here.
