Kanye West Uses VMA Speech to Announce He’s Running For President in 2020

Music
31 Aug 15

Kanye West received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, and that the award was presented by West’s infamous interruption victim Taylor Swift wasn’t the most surprising aspect of the segment. After a lengthy speech, West shocked the audience by announcing that he's running for president in 2020.

After a narrated montage celebrated West’s career, Swift spoke warmly about her admiration for the rapper and his influence on her career. She gave a cheeky nod to West's infamous 2009 VMA interruption - you know, the one where he grabbed the mic from Swift during her acceptance speech to defend Beyoncé's work - to proclaim that West has had "one of the greatest careers of all time."

Accepting the award, West broke the usual protocol by not performing any music, unlike the previous two recipients Beyonce and Justin Timberlake, who performed elaborate medleys. Instead, West spoke at length about being changed by fatherhood, defending artistry, the hypocrisy of media, the ridiculousness of competitive award shows. He also admitted had smoked a little something before going on stage, to “knock the edge off.”

However, like most of West’s speeches, his monologue addressed societal and cultural issues – albeit in an idiosyncratic way. His passion was undeniable, as he proclaimed that "I will die for the art, and for what I believe in - and the art ain't always gonna be polite!"

He concluded his speech with a rousing mission statement, declaring, “We the millennials, bro. This is a new mentality. We're not gonna control our kids with brands. We're not gonna teach low self esteem and that to our kids. We gonna teach our kids that they can be something. We're gonna teach our kids that they can stand up for themselves. We're gonna teach our kids to believe in themselves. If my grandfather was here right now he would not let me back down. I don't know what I'm gonna lose after this, but don't matter though cause it's not about me. It's about ideas bro, new ideas bro. People with ideas. People who believe in truth.”

He then dropped the bombshell.

“And yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.”

Given that Donald Trump is somehow managing to gather supporters in his current presidential bid, West running for POTUS doesn’t seem like a bad alternative at all. Though Kim Kardashian as First Lady? Lord save us…