Kanye West - A Right Wing Dream

[Percival]

[Joe Hillshoist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-e7VjerzjY

[compared2what?]

I think it was staged. The whole thing seems too good to be true, and too many people benefit. Everyone has sympathy for Swift, everyone loves Beyoncé (more), everyone thinks Kayne is (more of) a dick, all 3 will see album sales increase this week, and everyone is talking about MTV for the first time in a long time. Sure, it wasn't as obviously planned and Madonna kissing Britney Spears, but with a little bit of acting and canny planning, this is a publicity masterpiece.

Seconded.

Thirded.

Fourthded:

Was the Kanye West-Taylor Swift Moment Staged? - Kanye West - Gawker

As Guest of Guest points out, the whole things seems too good to be true, and too many people benefit. Everyone has sympathy for Swift, everyone loves Beyoncé (more), everyone thinks Kayne is (more of) a dick, and everyone is talking about MTV for the first time in a long time...


Photo Of The Day: Kanye Brings The Drama, But Was It Scripted?

The ending image of Beyonce and Taylor, both in red dresses, perfectly playing the roles of diva and grateful ingenue, seems too perfectly planned out to be completely genuine. And of course, because of what happened, MTV got a huge spike in viewership for the West Coast airing.

So, touching? Yes. But spontaneous? We highly doubt it...

I'd actually be somewhat surprised if it was staged. He's exactly like that. And I mean, exactly. And anyway, in such a case, it's the label rather than the network that calls the shots, which makes it kind of complicated, what with there being three labels involved. (Swift and West are technically both Universal-Vivendi artists, but it's really only by a technicality. Island-Def Jam and Big Machine probably haven't ever even met to shake hands, they live in different cities, each of which has it own Music Capitol infrastructure and hierarchy. I believe though I'm not certain that Beyonce's a Columbia artist.)

Further, the Island-Def Jam publicity department both knows that West is exactly like that and wishes above all things to prevent others from knowing it. He's really a pretty serious drag for them. In terms of non-label inter-industry affiliations, it totally makes sense for Kanye not to distinguish between a loss for Beyonce and a loss for himself. It's a little bit too much not-a-simile in some cases not to have some kind of dicey implications, but....it's kind of like they're both in the same gang chapter, via the part of Roc-a-Fella that Jay-Z got when he fiuratively divorced Dame Dash. Which was functionally all of Roc-a-Fella, but never mind.

Still further, awards-show producers dread that kind of off-script action as much as they dread anything imaginable, short of whatever stuff might also entail legal liability. Plus MTV is not exactly a robustly staffed, smoothly running ship at the moment, to put it mildly. I'd imagine that the rank and file creative side is probably much too busy looking for jobs while making the minimum effort required to keep the entire enterprise from just keeling over and sinking for them to be coming up with merry pranks that backfire.

And....Gawker should really know this stuff too well to make mistakes about it, but Kanye would have had an all-access pass; no staff security guard would ever even dream of making eye contact with any Top Tier Talent; and besides that, Mr. West travels with private security who -- to be fair -- almost certainly had to check their weapons on their way into the venue. But who are still of the type who do have a way of getting their guy or gal where he or she wants to go. And finally, subjective though it is, it looks spontaneous to me.

This, on the other hand, is the work of true PR crisis control pros. Kanye has been so totally media-coached, it's be a wonder if he had any working vocabulary left that hadn't totally been crowded out by sound bites. And that tear-jerker question, which is one of the sickest fucking things I've ever seen, was so totally was forced on him from on high. Probably by LA Reid, or....I don't even know by whom. LA's not actually that scary. But probably by someone very scary, right after he gave Kanye a good spanking and half an hour of standing in the corner. Though I don't doubt that Jay Leno's tiny empty heart leapt with delight when he learned that he was going to get the chance to ask something so manifestly vile and insincere.

Whatever the case, there's just no way that Kanye ever would have whored out that particular heartwrenching subject if he wasn't under very serious duress. He is human, after all, however much of a jerk he may be. I almost feel sorry for him watching it. In fact, I do feel sorry for him, the poor motherless child. He's got issues. Anyway. That he had to submit himself to it also does strongly suggest to me that it was his spontaneous fuck-up and not a cleverly staged attention-getter.

My 22222 cents.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Seeing the conspiracy theories in the hip hop and mainstream cracker press swell up was most instructive.

It's even funnier seeing it replicated here.

I think I'm going to have to just randomly remove 90% of the conspiracies I do currently believe in because it's probably just a perceptual flaw caused by lack of information.

Jesus cursed us in Matthew 7:7 -- I knew that instinctively when I first read it, and the older I get, the more I feel that's true. Seek and ye shall find. We see what we want to see, always.

[Percival]

[OP ED]

ok that last one was funny.

[8bitagent]

[barracuda]

I am in awe of dude's haircut. He's got like a Keith Haring up there.

[8bitagent]

I am in awe of dude's haircut. He's got like a Keith Haring up there.

LOL! I was just mentioning to my friend over dinner how much I love Keith Haring and am sad how his life got cut so short(some of his work prints were hanging on the wall of this restaurant. good documentary about him on netflix)

[Trifecta]

Now he is dissing RI!!!!

http://kanyelicio.us/http//www.rigorousintuition.ca/

[8bitagent]

No surprise, the "Kanye West VMA interruption" is trending as the biggest
media/online thing since Michael Jackson's passing. Everyone from President Obama to former President Carter have commented on it, and the media and blogosphere alike are in overload mode.

Is it me, or does it seem like the absolute biggest celebrity stories
involve black celebrities? OJ, Michael Jackson, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Obama, Michael Jordan, Tiger Wood's up and downs, etc. I think this maybe why some in America might naively believe racism is over or lessened, because they see the biggest names in the media/celebrity culture happening to be black.

Now he is dissing RI!!!!

http://kanyelicio.us/http//www.rigorousintuition.ca/

Brilliant!

[Penguin]

I think MTV LIHOP'd, security stood down, and West got Swift boated. But that's the extent of my giving a fuck.

Did I ever tell you I love you, man...

Seeing the conspiracy theories in the hip hop and mainstream cracker press swell up was most instructive.

It's even funnier seeing it replicated here.

I think I'm going to have to just randomly remove 90% of the conspiracies I do currently believe in because it's probably just a perceptual flaw caused by lack of information.

Jesus cursed us in Matthew 7:7 -- I knew that instinctively when I first read it, and the older I get, the more I feel that's true. Seek and ye shall find. We see what we want to see, always.

And you too

[Wombaticus Rex]

Is it me, or does it seem like the absolute biggest celebrity stories
involve black celebrities?

It's just you.

(Suggested exercise: ask yourself "are there examples of this kind of omnipresent coverage given to the actions of white celebrities?" Once you get to 2 pages of examples, you should probably stop.)

[nathan28]

Is it me, or does it seem like the absolute biggest celebrity stories
involve black celebrities?

It's just you.

(Suggested exercise: ask yourself "are there examples of this kind of omnipresent coverage given to the actions of white celebrities?" Once you get to 2 pages of examples, you should probably stop.)

A page or two ago you pointed out that there's disturbing racist shit being projected all over this (...and OJ... and MJ... and Dr. Gates, Jr.... ad nauseum / humanitas delenda est), of which two pages of examples of stupid internet shit will also easily manifest. That's probably why it seems more salient.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Well, when I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

I just got off the horn with a music biz mentor of mine who asked how hip hop kids are reacting to the Kanye thing...she was curious about how Taylor's music had been received by kids just checking her out...and she gave me a wee chunk of info that would probably help you guys make a better "conspiracy" case.

His name is David Wirtschafter. He's Kanye's agent. He's also 50 Cent's agent and he's the guy who orchestrated their fake but highly publicized "beef" with the goal of increasing album sales for both....

....he's also currently the agent for a very popular female country artist.

Smells like a gun, smoking, to me. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong.