I’ma Let You Finish – Kanye’s Outburst From a Father’s Perspective

Our president was right when he called Kanye a jackass. I’m glad he did and am glad it was recorded. It was a good moment I thought, for our country to see our president being human, expressing an opinion any reasonable person would have a difficult time disagreeing with.

Really, despite his millions of dollars and legions of fans, does Kanye have one true friend in the world? Is there not one person willing to pull him to the side and say, “What are you thinking?” or  “Who do you think you are?” With a father nowhere in sight, either in front or in the rearview, and a mother who recently passed, it looks like Kanye is on his own to decide between right and wrong. I’m guessing this only means there’s more where that came from.

Normally I find Kanye too boring to give a hoot about his antics. As a person I find him rather heinous and don’t think he’s much better as a rapper. He has the flow of a broken faucet and the breath control of an asthmatic. I’m tired after a single verse just imagining him crouched in the corner wheezing. As a producer, I’ll admit he’s remarkable, but so what. If Kanye had one tenth a percent of the talent he thinks he does, the world would have an artist for the ages instead of someone the collective unconscious can’t wait to forget.

I didn’t watch the MTV awards this year, nor did I have the desire. There seems to be a correlation between obnoxiousness and relevance that MTV started ignoring about fifteen years ago and it has only continued to fester each year. Though I didn’t see Kanye’s outburst live, it was on Twitter twenty minutes later, so of course there was no escaping. I bookmarked the link as something to watch later and finally caught up with it the following morning.

Call me a baby all you want, but I cried a bit when I first saw the clip. So did Cindy. Kanye’s always been an egomaniac, but the man standing on the stage thieving a once in a lifetime moment from the widened eyes of a young girl too befuddled and flummoxed to muster the rage the moment deserved, is nothing better than a teeth gnashing, foaming at the mouth monster.

The pain of that moment, imagining my own daughter standing freshly battered on the stage, was simply crushing. I felt Taylor’s disgrace, her immediate sense of bewildered displacement. I could feel her wanting to melt into a cool puddle and ooze off the stage. I wanted someone to come and drag Kanye to the far side of the curtain and beat some sense into him. I can’t imagine the saber rattling echo that bounced against the inner bones of Taylor’s father; Ms. Swift and I don’t share a drop of blood, but I know what I was feeling on her behalf.

I was happy when the audience collectively booed Kanye with their mouths while using their palms to hand Taylor a standing O, and I was thrilled when I clicked onto the clip of Beyoncé. After winning Best Video for Single Ladies, she said:

“Wow this is amazing. I remember being 17 years old and up for my first MTV award with Destiny’s Child. It was one of the most exciting moments in my life. So, I’d like for Taylor to come out and have her moment.”

Taylor came out and delivered a slightly altered version of the same speech she was plundered of a little earlier, and the world was a tiny bit better.

MTV has been too terrible to watch for a while now, but I don’t know if I’ll ever willingly flip to the station ever again. Kanye was a guest at their event. He had no authority whatsoever, as winners are determined by popular vote. Had any other village idiot had the insolence to do what Kanye did, they would have been ejected from the theater and charged with being drunk and disorderly in public.

Later, when Kanye had an opportunity to apologize, he said that he was “only being real.” Yeah you were, Kanye. A real @$$^*!#. Kanye also apologized on his blog. Sorry buddy, not good enough. Any yellow bellied baby mouse can tap out a few words and press publish, or have their ghost blogger do it for them, but it takes a man to look someone they’ve wronged in the eye and own their wrongdoing.

Kanye owes Taylor a whole lot more than he gave, and as an unfortunate role model, he owes the entire nation something as well. I doubt we’ll get it.

What a jackass indeed.

Writer Dad

If you think your children might like to voice an opinion on the Kanye incident, head on over to Children Write the Future for today’s writing prompt. Because Kanye apparently lit my ire this weekend, my post over at the Inkwell asks, are you Kanye or the Fray? And at Ghostwriter Dad, it’s what can Kanye teach you about good business?

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