Kanye West vs. The Press
On the heels of Kanye West calling out Matt Lauer of "The Today Show"; BET.com looks back at some of Yeezy's most memorable media moments.
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Kanye West Vs. The Press - It’s complicated! Such is the nature of Kanye West’s relationship with the press. Since bursting onto the scene in the early aughties, Kanye’s been both a media darling and antagonist—basking in critical praise one moment, and lashing out for being misquoted the next. On the heels of Yeezy taking “Today Show’s” Matt Lauer to task, BET.com looks back at the rapper’s most memorable moments vs. the press.
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The Source - Back in September 2003, a burgeoning Kanye told popular Web site SOHH.com he "didn't f*ck with The Source [Magazine]” and went on to say Mos Def told him not to trust the press. But then, in a follow-up interview with the Website months later, Yeezy questioned SOHH’s use of the Source quote. He graced his first cover for the publication in April 2004.
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Credibility - With “The College Dropout” creating a deafening buzz in early 2004, West warned all publications that rewarding his debut album with anything less than a classic rating would damage their credibility.
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____ You, Pay Me! - Speaking at the Artist Empowerment Coalition, West said some artists should get paid to appear on magazine covers. He later echoed that sentiment in an interview with Allhiphop.com. "Everybody gets paid except for the person actually selling the magazine," he told AHH. "Someone at the [New York] Daily News misquoted me. They said that I said I won’t do a magazine cover unless it was paid, which shows you how people take the liberty to [misquote me] and it’s an injustice.”
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'Ye's Pet Peeve - ‘Ye addressed his issues with the press in a cover story with Vibe magazine in July, 2005. “I’m not afraid to fight the press. Ask Mos Def. Ask Q-Tip. I’m like the ‘Pac for them,” he told Vibe. “My biggest pet peeve with writers now is that they always paraphrase me and it takes away from my jokes. Because I speak in jokes—I’m a comedian. That’s one of the main things people don’t understand.”
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Time Out! - In 2005, West called out Time magazine for allegedly misquoting him in its August 2005 cover story. Furious, the rapper cancelled his entire press day with various media outlets.
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ALL CAPS - ‘Ye launched his popular kanyeuniversity.com blog a few years back. In addition to aggregating content to Yeezy’s liking, the site served as a platform for West to respond to bad reviews and misrepresentation sans filter. He would often write entire entries in capital letters. His blog has since merged into kanywest.com.
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Blogger, Schmogger! - To let Kanye tell it, fashion bloggers don’t get it. “IT’S FUNNY TO ME WHEN FASHION BLOGGERS DOWN OUR OUTFITS AND THEN SUPER JOCK OUTLANDISH SH*T ON THE RUNWAY BUT THEN THEY DRESS MAD PRUDE AND DON’T LIVE FASHION. WE LIVE IT MAN. F*CK THAT, WE LIVE IT!!! WE LIVE IT SO HARD PEOPLE LIVE THROUGH US! WE REPRESENT YOUR INNER SPIRIT!! THE CHILD IN US ALL, THE BRUTAL HONESTY, THE NAIVETY, THE BRAVE WARRIOR, THE ADRENALINE THAT ALLOWS A MOTHER TO LIFT A CAR IF HER CHILD WAS TRAPPED UNDER IT!"
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It Wasn't Me - An alleged quote of Kanye dubbing himself the ‘new king of pop’ spread like wildfire last August when satirical site scraptv.com reported on it. ‘Ye didn’t appreciate the joke. "I WAS JUST LISTENING TO WENDY WILLIAMS AND HEARD SOME QUOTE ABOUT ME SAYING I'M THE NEW KING OF POP," Kanye wrote on his blog. "NOT ONLY DID I NOT SAY THAT, I HAVEN'T SAID ANYTHING. IT MAKES ME FEEL BAD THAT OBVIOUSLY I MADE PEOPLE FEEL THAT I WOULD BE CORNY ENOUGH TO SAY SOMETHING SO WHACK AFTER THE PASSING OF AN IDOL."
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How Dare You? - ‘Ye doesn’t settle for good reviews. Take your B+ and shove it! Back in 2008, the rapper took to his now-defunct Kanye University blog to respond to a less-than-amazing review of his Glow in the Dark tour by Entertainment Weekly. “Yo, anybody that’s not a fan; don’t come to my show,” he blogged. “For what?! To try and throw ya’ll two cents in? Ya’ll rated my album sh*tty and now ya’ll come to the show and give it a B+. What’s a B+ mean? I’m an extremist. It’s either pass or fail! A+ or F-!”
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Benjamin Button - Vibe magazine’s February 2009 cover featuring Kanye caused a bit of a stir for unusual reasons. The close shot made Yeezy appear seemingly older with grey hairs and all. The internets quickly went into a frenzy about the cover and West added his two cents via his Kanye University blog. “I don’t have grey in my beard in real life,” he wrote. “I’m all down with being in my 30′s but daaaaaaaamn!!!! This is some Benjamin Button’s s**t!”
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Kanye Joins Twitter - There had been plenty of fake Kanye Twitter accounts before, but the real deal finally joined the social networking site back in July 2010. ‘Ye immediately set Twitter ablaze, amassing followers at a rapid rate (1,577,220 and counting) and inspiring potential trending topics like, #predictingkanyetweets. More importantly, the site served as yet another unfiltered outlet for West to express himself in a newsworthy way.
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Get It Right - Yeezy had some choice words for an LA Times reporter when he mistakenly called his album, “My Dark Twisted Fantasy” in an unflattering review of his "Runaway" film. “I would’ve taking offense 2 the LA Times review of the movie but the extremely condescending writer accidentally complimented my suit! Thx,” Kanye tweeted. “I believe the writers name was Kriss Lee who so bent on giving a soulless description of my work that he decided to call the album…not even by the right name…”
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5 Star General - West’s critically acclaimed career recently reached a new plateau when Rolling Stone magazine rated “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” with 5 stars. The publication is a notoriously tough critic and hip-hop’s best CDs rarely even come close to a perfect rating. “Kanye West thinks you’re a moron if you settle for artists who don’t push as hard as he does,” writes writer Rob Sheffield. “And that means pretty much everybody.”