Here are some photos of Kanye West and Amber Rose at the 2009 MTV VMAs. This was the moment. This was the night that changed the course of gossip-history. It’s worth noting that, as you can see in these pics, Kanye was already drunk as hell when he stepped onto the red carpet. He was carrying the half-empty bottle of Hennessy when he arrived on the carpet. In the interviews since that night, Kanye always maintained that he was really drunk and still really grief-stricken about his mom, who died in November 2007. That was the night that – perhaps fueled by liquid courage – Kanye stormed the stage after Taylor Swift won the VMA for Best Female Video. Fun fact: Taylor won for “You Belong With Me.” Kanye thought Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” should have won. The rest is gossip history and we’re still dealing with that night right now, seven years later. Well, Kanye’s date that night, Amber Rose, has come out to defend Kanye in the wake of Kim’s Receipts and Taylor’s Exposure. Amber made the comments on her talk show, The Amber Rose Show.
“I want to talk about Kim and Kanye’s Snapchat…So, I’m not the biggest fan of Kanye … but I was next to him at the VMAs that year (where West famously jumped on stage during Swift’s speech and took the microphone away from her). I remember the repercussions after that. I remember Taylor’s mother and father coming up to us and saying, ‘One day Kanye, you’ll have a daughter and somebody is going to do that to you.’ He was so remorseful. I mean he really felt so bad, because it wasn’t about Taylor. It was about Beyoncé and her video … he didn’t want to interrupt Taylor – he didn’t even know who she was at the time.”
“It was just a very hard time for him, and I was around to see that,” she adds. “I watched Lady Gaga cancel the tour. I watched people say that they did not want to work with him anymore because of it. And he really went through a lot of bulls— and I know that Kanye would never ever go through that again by not calling Taylor and say, ‘Heads up, I’m about to go write this verse real quick. Just wanted to make sure you’re cool with it.’ I know that about Kanye. So, I say all of that to say, why didn’t I get a phone call for using a naked wax figure in your video Kanye?” she adds. “I mean, Taylor gets a call but I don’t get a call. So please stay the f— out of the news so I don’t need to talk about your ass anymore.”
Amber stayed with Kanye for a year following that incident, and he used to say that Amber was his muse for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, arguably his greatest album. She was there that night and she wasn’t the one who was sh-tfaced, so I trust her memory. I believe that Kanye really was remorseful and I also believe that Kanye (hilariously) didn’t have any idea who Taylor Swift was at the time. Let’s be honest: many of us didn’t know who she was at the time. Country-music fans knew, sure. But before the 2009 VMAs, Taylor Swift was not a household name or anywhere near the pop-culture phenomenon she is today. And that was the whole f—king point of Kanye’s song “Famous.” In his worst public moment, he made her famous. A famous victim, a famously wronged party. And we now know she was fine with Kanye saying that.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I think he still is in love with Amber and he tries to morph Kim into her at any given chance but Kim is too brain dead to realize it and all she does is to say
‘oh kanye, like, he’s so cute, like’
Huh, Kim and Amber have totally different styles and personas. Honestly, Kanye crafted Amber’s look. I remember an interview from the Kanye-Amber Rose era, when she admitted that he was fanatically about how she looked, dressed, spoke and carried herself. He rapped about “upgrading her” and “turning her on to higher level stuff”. So, I mean in a lot of ways Kanye made Amber Rose famous too. Like she was everywhere as a style vanguard and got attention for her unique look, but I don’t see Kim’s style as similar in any way to Amber’s.
It is insofar as that it is not her style, it is Kanyes. So they do have that in common.
Kanye used to be really handsome. They were very sexy together with Amber.
And yeah he made Taylor Swift famous that night. And yeah, Single Ladies should have won.
I can’t stop looking at Amber’s BODY in that bodysuit. DAAAAYUUMMM. They were hot together. Ahh, 2009.
Kanye did not make her famous that night and single ladies should not have won. Not everyone likes Taylor and not everyone thinks Beyonce is a Queen.
This isn’t about Beyoncé being a queen, it’s about the pop culture phenomena, the iconic video that is single ladies to this day. Not everyone likes Beyoncé but everyone knows her name and her work. That’s what being famous means, actually.
@kay. You are right, he did NOT make her famous. As I’ve said before, this was like her third big hit that was cross over into mainstream radio!! EVERYONE know that song and “Love Story”, and “Teardrops On My Guitar”! That night she had been the first country artist (which she was still categorized as at that tim) to EVER be nominated for (much less win!) a VMA. Again the first EVER nominated! She was already at the top, otherwise she wouldn’t have been there!
Everyone can hear this repeated over and over, but because of their intense dislike (I’ll be nice, lol) of TS they are willing to keep saying the same old thing over and over!
TS is rather annoying we get it, but why can’t people understand that she was already pretty damn famous at that time already!! Her next song or two that came out pushed her OTT to mega-stardom! Mange (auto correct and it stays!) had NOTHING to do with it!! He just made an ass of himself!!!
I completely disagree that he made her famous. Her album debuted at #1 in 2008. It sold 8 million copies between 2008 and 2009. She had the top selling album of 2009 and 4 singles that I believe were in the Top 10 of the Hot 100 chart. She was headlining her own tour in spring of 2009 and selling out in minutes.
I am not a fan of her music at all, but let’s not ignore her accomplishments just because she can be a brat.
@TIFFANY 🙂 thank you!!! I just don’t understand how the facts can be ignored just to sensationalize a story. Agree with you wholeheartedly.
Taylor herself admitted that while she had a lot of success that year, she was still unknown to a huge swath of people, and that changed as soon as Kanye barged up onto that stage with her. Yes, she had the top selling album that year, but it was still very niche (that niche was just a lot of young women!).
Kanye took a lot of flack at the time mainly because he was the huge star going at the youngster on a come-up, the innocent girl having her first big moment. This was Taylor’s own PR angle.
I’m not saying she was some random girl in the street. She just wasn’t worldwide famous nor A-list at the time and this incident made her be. That’s how me and a lot of people my country knew her, that’s all I can say. And she admitted it herself. That was the best thing that could happened to her fame-wise and I’m sure she is more than happy about that impolite Kanye move. She milked that so well that to this day she is still seen at that teen she was. Well not really to this day, more like a week ago, but you get my point 🙂
This is always the argument that confuses me too, because *I* knew who Taylor was and I don’t really listen to music much.
She was famous, and her career was already on a strong upward swing when it all took place (e.g. she had just won a VMA…) So Kanye didn’t make her famous. He merely got her a bunch of sympathetic press.
I agree. Taylor was “famous” at that time, but his stunt made her infamous.
My favorite, FAVORITE part is when she says so please stay out of the news so I don’t have to keep talking about your ass. HA!!
His actions towards Taylor were never hateful. Hate implies a level of intent Kanye didn’t have. He didn’t know her, he just thought his friend was being jacked. He actually cares VERY deeply for a lot of people. You hear that in the video when he’s talking to Taylor, he says repeatedly. “Friendship is more important than a punchline” and “I want to make sure you’re okay with this.” “I don’t want to make people feel bad.” He accidentally hurt her in 2009 but has tried to be kind to her since. She has instead decided to use his kindness as a way to lift herself up. She’s using the innocent white women, scary black man stereotype in her favor. That is deplorable.
The Famous video is not an act of kindness. It is a deplorable act of misogynistic aggression towards Taylor, Amber, Rihanna, Anna, and Caitlyn.
I haven’t seen the video, I don’t intend to either because a)I don’t like Kanye’s music past College Dropout save a few singles b) the song Famous is AWFUL c) I don’t ever want to see that crap. So I can’t make intelligent remarks about it.
I’m sure it’s awful, but *art* as it stands isn’t supposed to always be pretty, it’s supposed to be creative expression, and sometimes it’s ugly, or makes no sense, or has us asking WTF AND WHYTF would he do that?
To me, the line “we might still have sex” was all I needed to know this song was trash.
Sorry but you say he was being kind to Taylor. That video, which you haven’t seen, demonstrates that his intentions towards those women were not kind. And we have not seen any evidence that he asked anyone if that was okay. Indeed, Amber tells us he did not.
Agreed, Lilac. Regardless of whatever good intent he had with calling Taylor about the one lyric, the video is an entirely separate issue and indeed shows bad intent. I feel bad for the women whose likenesses appear in that video, it feels like such a violation. He might say it is a parody of fame, and that’s fine. I understand that. But using wax figures of real people’s naked bodies is just disgusting.
@ Lilacflowers
I didn’t read Little Darling comment as them saying the video was an act of kindness, but the phone call was. Taylor got a phone call while Amber and the others didn’t.
@Ican’t Swift got a call about the song not the video.
@Icant, that video would have been in production at the time of that phone call, if he didn’t tell her about it, then the phone call was a setup so he could make it look like she approved of both. Not kind at all. Of course, he might have told her and she also could have retracted her approval of the song. But we don’t know because we have not heard the conversation. We have only heard the edited segment his wife chose to use to promote her snapchat account. He didn’t ask those other women if he could exploit them. Not kind.
But was that his concept this whole time? Or did he decide to go with it after she tried to switch it around at the Grammy’s? Kanye is notoriously good at changing his mind on his creative projects MULTIPLE times. I can see that incident shifting what he wanted to do in the video.
@Lilacflowers: “that video would have been in production at the time of that phone call”
What makes you think that? The phone call was pre-Grammys, the video came out a few weeks ago. I always assumed that the video was partly a response to Taylor’s behaviour at the Grammys.
Honestly, as poorly and shadily Taylor handled the lyric situation, the fact that Kanye made this video without any one of the subject’s knowledge (except his wife’s, obviously) makes me feel a lot less pain for him over the fact that she threw him under the bus. They’re two separate issues, and Taylor was in the wrong. But then he turned around and made this video including a naked likeness of his “friend” who he only means to compliment and be sensitive toward? Yuck.
The only thing that I can think about that video is that Kanye inserted some wax figures out off spite. The video was made after the Grammy’s and after the Amber clap back episode, so I think that it was more retaliation from Kanye. Stupid still, but that’s how I see it. Kanye has never been the more mature person, he leaves that to Kim.
Making wax likenesses of existing people is not something accomplished on the spur of the moment.
Agree with you Lilacflowers! And as you mentioned, the video shared by Kanye’s wife was edited. We didn’t hear the whole conversation and I believe K.C. brought up the great point about context of the two lines. Kanye told Taylor about the sex line and she agreed although I feel like it was a shaky attempt at her trying to act cool and to avoid any negativity. And Of Course Kanye gave his lip service to friendship etc. because he knew the conversation was recorded and because all of those people were in the room. The stage was set for Taylor to comply because what was she going to say in front of all of those people in the room without having any real time to digest the lyrics … and what was HE going to say if she was upset and told him the lyrics were offensive and did not have her approval? Kanye did not mention the second line saying “I made that bitch famous.” The first line is disgusting and unacceptable but whatever. When you add the second line it suggests she would/should have sex with him because she owes him something. Gross.
I also don’t like what he did at the VMA’s, I think it was inexcusable … but hey, I guess I would find these egotistical, selfish acts more entertaining if Bernie Sanders takes the mike from Hilary Clinton at the DNC and adds more fun to the ongoing political sh*t show.
thank you lilacflowers! it’s amazing how many people all of a sudden forget all the misogynistic and delusional s–t kanye put out over the years and become kanye-apologists only because they really love to hate on taylor. in the grand scheme of things, his message is simply hurtful to women.
Capella, I feel like you and I were the only ones that listened to the conversation between Taylor and Kanye and noticed Taylor wasn’t jumping for joy over the “still have sex” lyrics but was trying to be nice to Kanye anyway. She said “I know, I mean it’s like a compliment, kind of.” She wasn’t giving it a wholehearted endorsement there.
Personally, I’d think that if you have to ask someone if a lyric you wrote about them is OK then deep down you really know it ISN’T ok and you’re just trying to justify it.
If this is mysognistic towards the women, then what is it towards the men (bush, Brown, etc.)?
I don’t think he made them naked to titilate anyone. I don’t think he did anything illegal either. Immoral? Perhaps. Is he trying to be deep, fame is like this artistic vulnerable thing. You’re powerful and powerless at the same time? Fame is meta; you watch other people watching you? Idk, I don’t care to know.
The porn industry profits off of releasing tapes with actors who look like celebrities (miley Cyrus, and game of thrones come to mind). They show them in humilating and gross acts.
Kanye is gross and not likeable, but definitely not the worst, or first offender.
Thank you, Capella – that’s exactly my take on the phone call video. I also believe it’s been creatively edited, and not just for SnapChat brevity. It’s very possible that the “Famous” video was being put together at the time; all those wax figures would have taken weeks, if not months to make, for starters. Then there’s the filming and long process of post-production.
Something else we should remember is that people lie. Whether it’s to save their arse over something, protect someone, hide embarrassment or to get what they want, people lie. Every day. So it’s reasonable to consider that KW was bunging on an act of friendship towards TS to get what he wanted, knowing, as Capella said, that people could see and hear him, and that everything was being recorded.
I’ve never been a fan of TS and I can’t stand country music, but even I knew who TS was in 2009. On the other hand, I’d never heard of KW, despite having heard my fair share of rap. The first time the penny dropped as to who he is was when he got with KK, and the 2009 story was regurgitated.
I still think there’s more to the phone call video than we’ve been led to believe, not because I’m a TS sympathiser, but because of life experience with liars and just how manipulative they can be.
I think the famous video was in response to Taylor’s stunt. That video wasn’t made before the album dropped. Remember members of her squad were bopping away to Famous at the release party. No one had any clue how angry she was until her brother dropped the video of him throwing out the shoes later that day.
That video was no act of aggression or degradation… dramatic much. Nudes all seen sleeping. No one touching. Snoring. No movement. No action… no grand action against women or men. Its not a great video but the implication that its more than what it is – no sorry. No dog in this fight. And you’re clearly taking sides – but its art (actually used art from a real photog) and its not even done well but no more or no less art.
But you know what is a act of aggression or degradation of women or bullying women… Bad Blood. Or the lyrics to Camille Belle being called a whore. Kanyes Famous video is not even in the same sphere of crafting a short film around hate. Sorry. Or the song lyrics written to chastise Kanye in her song.
I remember that night, and as soon as i saw the liquor bottle – I knew Kanye was out of character. Before this… He’d been pretty bubbly and cute all before his mom died and he’d hidden after her death for a long time. So this coming out night was not good. And it showed. Terrible what he did to Taylor but in hindsight, its how you recover and Taylors recovery was vengeance and it was unfortunate she took that route because here we are 7yrs later.
Depicting someone nude without their consent is a huge violation. Sure they’re not touching, but there is clearly something implied by the fact that they’re all naked in bed together. Their bodies are not for Kanye to dream of and create into wax figures. Unless they told him it was ok to do so, it was wildly degrading. Depicting Rihanna naked in bed next to the man who abused her is abhorrent. Kanye putting his ex-girlfriend naked in bed with him is gross. It is aggressive. It’s not like it was some satirical cartoon—he went through the trouble of having these wax figures made. I’m all for art that rocks the boat, but the Famous video makes me feel dirty just thinking about it.
Creating a dramatic music video about a fight is nothing in the realm of Kanye’s video. Wasn’t the Bad Blood video about spies or assassins something? The song was inspired by a real life feud, but it was a reimagined, fictional scenario with actors who willingly participated in the video and ultimately did not involve the original person the song was written about in any way. The same can’t be said of Kanye’s Famous video.
To add to that—a casual listener of Taylor’s who comes upon the Bad Blood video on YouTube will find no implication that the song is about Katy Perry. Unless people follow her drama, they don’t know that’s who the song is about. It is a story made up for a music video, not a short film about hate. If a casual Kanye listener comes upon the Famous video, they will know precisely who he is talking about and will additionally see them naked in the video. There is, in my mind, a huge, gaping difference here.
LOL please just STOP with the justifications and excuses already.
The dude made a video that had a wax statue of Bill Cosby, a man who sexually assaulted over thirty women LAYING naked in bed with women, Ray J, a dude who pee’d on Kanye’s wife during her infamous sex tape and Chris effin Brown laying in bed next to the woman that he assaulted and beat.
Meanwhile, every man’s d*ck is strategically covered with a blanket while every woman is posed and exposed in a vulgar way and you’re actually sitting here saying that it’s not misogynistic with a straight face?
And please don’t come at me with the “it’s art” nonsense as if that excuses the artist from having any responsibility in the message that his art is conveying.
Sure, it’s “art” but it’s highly MISOGYNISTIC art. The two do not preclude each other and art and misogyny are not mutually exclusive.
That video is disgusting and i doubt Anna Wintour will be putting on Vogue again. Kanye is going to pay a price for that.
Ann will be using Kanye again and he’d not going “pay” for anything.
Fact is Ann already admitted to putting Kim on the cover for hit and time get people talking about American Vogue. She the one who made the Fashion World take Kanye somewhat seriously and make the Fashion World at least on the surface accept Kim and family.
Ann is friends with Kanye and is using the Kardashian like they’re using her. Ann will continue to do so until she has no use for them, but as of right now she’s still has use for them.
“finger in the booty ass b*tch” oh, sorry…wrong post🙊
🙂
That is my favourite hashtag of all time (OF ALL TIME).
It’s right up there with #NoDisrespectToBenAffleck.
Hahaha that was the greatest burn! I do think the “bitch” and wax figures nude sprawl puts a hole in Kim and Kanyes do no harm narrative. Glad the video was largely meh’d and that’s why all the drama now to get the attention he missed.
Like we mentioned in another post Amber ,Rob and Chyna could have stood their ground at how they were wronged by the K Klan, but they caved and the K Klan are back in control and are playing them with the whole family solidarity. They didn’t want anything spilled so they quickly made nice with them.
No one forces them to accept K Klan’s attempts to make nice – Chyna and Amber have built their careers on association with Kanye/Kardashians…good for them, but without the K’s these women would be unknown’s and I think they know that and build on that. Not accepting a truce with the K’s would hurt everyone – including amber and Chyna.
Please the K family didn’t make Amber famous or give her a career. Not to mention Amber has nothing to hide and has no problem standing up to them like she has in the past. Please do not talk about thing you don’t know.
As for Chayna she marrying in to the family and having a kid that going to be related to them.
I remember years ago watching an episode of KUWTK and Kim talking about people using her LMAO, she has used and stepped on how many people to get to where she is today? Kudos to her and her family for making themselves into a major brand but does any remember her first husband, her fathers connections, Paris Hilton, Brandys mother(who allegedly sued the Ks when they took her styling fees to open their first Dash) Ray J and a slew of others. Infact they are on of the biggest come ups in history,you don’t just achieve that alone.
But 90% of the coverage they get is related to things they say about the K’s and the things the K’s say about them – what, if not that, is their USP?
also, not defending the K’s – like Loopy says, they are come ups, and so are Amber and Chyna. It’s a vicious cycle of peope who are hungry for fame building careers of gossip, bodies, and scandal.
The fact is Amber has the dirt on all of them especially kanye and not the other way around that’s why she can shut them all down.
The Kardashian using people for fame is old news. They will never be a true friend to anybody.
“So, I say all of that to say, why didn’t I get a phone call for using a naked wax figure in your video Kanye?” she adds. “I mean, Taylor gets a call but I don’t get a call.”
I do not see this as a defense of that misogynist. I see this as a very valid question about that misogynist exploiting Amber’s image sexually without her consent. It is a valid question that that misogynist and his pathetic attention-seeking wife have failed to answer. Amber deserves an answer, as do Anna, Rihanna and Taylor. There is no excuse or defense for that misogynistic filth he put forth.
And being drunk is no excuse for bad behavior. He made the choice to get drunk.
Ditto all of this.
I completely agree. I don’t think Amber is defending Kanye here either. There is no defense for depicting people naked without their consent. It baffles me when supposed feminists feel comfortable criticizing Taylor for not publicly endorsing Hillary but then fall silent on the subject of the Famous video or even try to defend it. No, there is no justification here that makes it right.
Seriously, if feminists were to address the misogyny in hip hop and rap, we’d have no time to get anything else done. That dog hasn’t hunted in a couple of decades. I think since Tipper Gore’s stand in the 80s.
Absolutely right !
I completely agree that being drunk is no excuse for poor behaviour as a rule, but…I’ve been drunk (shocker). I’ve never pulled a Kanye, by any stretch, but I have embarrassed myself, I’m sure, and I’m very glad that people don’t remind of that constantly.
I guess I liken Kanye’s 2009 ” Imma let you finish” malarkey as like a drunk uncle at a wedding, saying dumb stuff into the mic. Mortifying at the time, yeah, and incredibly embarrassing for Taylor. The whole world felt terrible for her, but instead of doing the decent thing and laughing it off, she revelled in it, and kept that narrative alive in the media for years.
There’s no excuse for that godawful music video. That was WOEJOUS.
I agree, the “I was drunk” excuse doesn’t make it better what Kanye did. Also, the “I didn’t know who she was” excuse is pathetic too. If you supposedly don’t know who someone is how can you intelligently decide that they don’t deserve an award and someone else deserves it more? You have to know who someone is to judge them.
That’s interesting about Taylor’s parents. Sounds like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Right? That was my first thought. I get that your daughter was hurt, but she was still an adult during that time. So overbearing.
Really? You don’t think that was a humiliating and completely unnecessary thing for her to go through? If she’s 26 or so now, she only would have been 19 at the time. I actually think it’s pretty classy that that’s all they said about it. It usually is pretty effective when you flip people’s positions: how would YOU feel if someone did this to your daughter? Of course, Kanye would start a war for his daughter.
It was definitely rude. I don’t think anyone has defended Kanye for that. But as a 19 year old, my parents would expect me to handle my own battles. Listen, what he did was wrong, but Taylor is still living off the narrative she created from this situation and it’s tiring.
It was ONE speech, and at the MTV Video Music Awards—a fun, meaningless, drunken shitshow. Taylor Swift had already won multiple, major industry awards; it’s not like he ruined the first, only, or most special moment she’d ever had. He talked for like ten seconds—said literally a sentence and a half—in a misguided defense of a friend he admires, was booed offstage, and spent like the next years apologizing. You’d think that he had burned her in effigy while deriding her talent and calling for a recount.
One night Taylor Swift’s moment of triumph gets interrupted (let’s keep in mind she still WON!! ) and people are still feeling so sorry for her years later. Was it rude? Yeah, of course, no one deserves that.
In conclusion, I have too many feelings about this.
@Alleycat – RE: “But as a 19 year old, my parents would expect me to handle my own battles.” >>>> I wouldn’t say her parents were “fighting her battles.” They just made one warranted comment to West. Judging by Taylor’s narrative she picked up afterwards, she definitely fought her own battles (which she also happened to create-lol).
Yes, they taught her well, didn’t they? I wouldn’t be a bit surprised that she has them totally wrapped around her little finger.
Exactly, I think her parents were out of line.
Of course, I imagine they did not enjoy the moment but it’s not like your daughter was physically harmed or God knows what other horror. Not to mention your daughter works in a music industry not exactly known for its manners. Not to mention that when shit like this happens, it’s your job as a parent to calm things down not set fire to an already burning building.
If Kanye really wasn’t over grieving his mother (probably one never recovers after such a loss) I bet having Taylor’s parents there to protect their child hurt even more, knowing he had no protection of the sort anymore.
We’re all someone’s child, parents should especially keep that in mind.
So if his mom had still been alive, you don’t think she’d have said something if someone did something like that to him? Her parents were not out of line to say something in defense of their daughter.
Yes, they were.
Being a parent should make a person more generous and compassionate, it shouldn’t transform them into hunters looking for preys that dare to say bad things about their child.
Being a parent should open horizons and hearts but I guess nowadays with all the mom shading going on and parents going at each others throats every chance they get, that is wishful thinking.
I’d be pretty incensed if some drunken, petulant narcissistic did to my daughter what Kanye did to Taylor Swift … on a public platform … in front of millions of people. I think Swifty’s parents were completely, 100% justified. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t say more.
Honestly, that incident is hard to navigate because it didn’t happen in a vacuum. As in, both of them went on to be SO incredibly annoying, that at times, I let my current feelings cloud my judgement of that situation. So, on one hand that situation was messed up, but nowhere near as tragic as people make it out to be.
Out of all of this K-crap, Amber is the one I really like. Now what I wonder if she is on the K-crowd payroll, especially since she had that lunch with Kim.
Me too! And I really, really, REALLY didn’t care for her while she dated him. But recently, she’s come across as having empathy, decency but a harsh and real viewpoint that isn’t sugar coated. I’m loving it!
He did not make her famous. That’s laughable. Taylor is talented and business savvy and that’s why she’s successful. He’s a narcissist and he met his match in Kim. Those two are a perfect match.
He did however make Amber famous.
I completely agree! Like we wouldn’t know who Taylor Swift is if it weren’t for that moment. It’s ridiculous. Taylor does a lot of things I don’t agree with, but she made herself famous.
She was already famous on some level. But had that incident not happened, God knows how famous she would be. God knows what her narrative would be. Talent and business savvy only gets you so far.
Like it or not, Kanye played a role in her career. Even she knows it given how she chose to make her Grammy speech about him instead of herself.
You really think Taylor’s albums sell and she fills concert venues because of Kanye? OK then…
Agree 100%! Of course he directed public attention her way that night. No one disputes that. But she would have had a big career as a popular song writer even if that incident had never happened. Say what you want about Taylor but she very clearly and demonstrably has a talent for writing catchy, hit tunes. She was in the process of winning an award the night he supposedly made her famous! LOL. Look at her massive success with 1989. He had nothing to do with that. There are no songs about him on there.
I’m calling BS that he didn’t know who she was. And I’m calling BS on anyone else saying they didn’t know who she was. I NEVER listen to pop music. I listen to Audio books and I knew who she was. Anyone on any gossip site is lying if they say they didn’t know about her:
Joe Jonas Taylor Lautner John Mayer Jake Gyllenhaa
Please hate to tell you this, but not everyone listen to pop music or pop culture and at the time Taylor was a county singer. Slower clap for you know who she was 👏👏👏👏
And no I didn’t know who she was nor was I on on gossip sites at the time.
@haley
No Taylor is crtb 😂😂😂
THIS. @Flowerchild You are wrong. Her album Fearless was released in 2008 and it was her pop crossover album. Love Story was EVERYWHERE on the radio and since it was playing constantly in two different genres it was impossible to escape. This wasn’t even her first VMA’s and she had already received a grammy nom.
Well i had NO CLUE who she was. Never heard of her or her music before that infamincident. Sooo, sorry!
@ Anon
I don’t see how I’m wrong . Some people didn’t know who she was and I’m one of them back then so how I wrong. I lesson to R & B, Soul and some Hip Hop when when in the car. I’ve neer heard Taylor music on any of those stations then and now.
Never heard of her prior to that night. Non-US here
*Kanye shrug*
@Flowerchild Kanye West made Taylor Swift famous to you. It doesn’t mean she wasn’t already famous. She had the best selling album that year and was winning awards. That was means she was famous before West jumped on stage.
@ FingerBinger
I never said she wasn’t already famous read my comment. I was replying to the people who believe that everyone on this planet knew who Taylor was before 2009. There are still people out there who have no idea who she is in 2016.
Non us comenter here. I had never heard of the heir of slytherin before. Even now, she is big in France but behind beyonce and rihanna for sure. If kanye really made that mediocre racist dog whistler more famous, it is Just another reason to dislike him
Taylor, is that you?
I agree with your Kanye and Kim part, but… I’m not so sure about Taylor. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t make her famous. We will never know what Taylor could have done on her own. At that time, Taylor really was a nobody and Kanye’s action really did put a hug spotlight on Taylor and force Taylor into people’s faces that may have otherwise not heard or liked her. I honestly HATED that You Belong With Me song. I hated her ring curled hair, glass doll looking face and country twang. Taylor could have been the Meghan Trainor of 2009 without Kayne blowing up the scene and drunkenly rambling on about the Queen.
I don’t feel bad for Taylor. She has developed a strong, savvy marketed career, shaped from this incident. It was a huge window of opportunity and she ran with it.
Completely agree. I am not a country music fan and I was well aware of who Taylor Swift was in 2009.
I’d never heard her name before that. I’d heard Love Story a lot on the radio, I kind of knew her face, but I didn’t know her name and figured she was some Disney kid. My then 7yr old nieces seemed to like her but I didn’t know any adults who talked about her. I wouldn’t hear her music anywhere again until years later when 22 was a mainstream hit.
For a lot of people, especially outside the US, country, even poppy country, is a really niche genre. Kanye’s outburst definitely introduced her to a much wider audience. Of course she’d have been successful anyway, but that incident did get her worldwide fame and recognition years before her music reached a broad fan base. He did ‘make her famous’ for a lot of people.
I think she would have gone on to be a household name no matter what, but that event certainly hastened it. At the least, it definitely set the tone for how the national consciousness regarded Taylor Swift for the next couple of years.
I’m not sure I agree with the “talented” part but I agree that he didn’t make Taylor famous. Contrary to this post, Taylor was a household name, at least in North America. She’d already started crossing over into mainstream pop music. I was a senior in college back then and there wasn’t anyone under 35 who didn’t know who Taylor Swift was.
I love the way Amber looks in these pics. So much better and strong looking, compared to now with the giant fake tits and arse. Natural is awesome on her for sure.
Ditto.
I completely disagree, actually. Plastic surgery aside, I think she looks much better nowadays, far away from him. She already was absolutely stunning back then, of course. But always serious and kinda empty-eyed, like a doll.
I agree. I know people rave about her body now but to me it looks, for lack of a better word, “matronly”, and it’s mostly her giant implants. Also, the fact that the pics she posts are massively photoshopped, but for some reason she alone is never called out on it.
I think the boobs are from her baby but the butt is iffy. But she claims it’s real too.
Amber’s backside was way smaller during her Kanye time. I didn’t realize that until now. She looked great
As someone who has dealt with abuse from an alcoholic, being drunk is not an excuse. It does not matter how remorseful you are afterward.
We have vastly different definitions of abuse. He was a d*ck, for sure, but abusive alcoholic goes way too far, imo.
I did not call Kanye an alcoholic and I did not say what he did to Taylor is abuse. I said I’ve dealt with abuse from an alcoholic and therefore my opinion on drunk people’s antics is that being drunk is not an excuse for bad behavior.
Ew @ him drinking on the RC. Wtf!
I still don’t get that. Drinking before hand and showing up drunk on the red carpet is one thing( a few celebrities must have done that) But walking around with an open bottle and taking a drink? No one thought of taking Kanye aside and telling him this was a bad idea?
Here she is looking all fierce on the red carpet and Kanye is acting like a donkey’s rearend. I am surprised Amber tolerated that nonsense from Kanye
Omg you would have had to have seen the events leading to the mic snatching. He was on the red carpet, swigging from a bottle that already seemed to be partially gone WAAAAAY before the awards even started. He was draped over Amber, giving interviews and chugging away.
It was never going to end well for him that night.
OT: Not sure about anyone else, but whiskey makes me a terribly mean, irrational drunk. The brown liquors don’t sit with me well at all, and the one time I got drunk on it, I wound up fighting with my friends and then getting a bit belligerent about it.
Whiskey makes me maudlin. If you ever want the cliched Irish paddy experience, give me some Bushmills, I’ll probably sing you a song about the oul country.
I always regret drinking too much whiskey, but one or two is just divine.
EDIT: just looked at the photos, Kanye was drinking Hennessy BRANDY. By the neck. I’m not surprised he was sh*tfaced, tbh.
Exactly Lurker. I mean, looking at the picture now, I get a wave of icky inside. There is no way he wasn’t completely hammered, if not blackout drunk if he drank almost half the bottle.
No excuse, of course, but makes more sense as to the rationale behind it .
I also think his “imma let you finish” was his Kayne-way of being polite. (;
Decent explanation, and I like Amber Rose for having a degree of class.
However, Kanye had been stage jumping and interrupting before he lost his mom – like when he jumped up and complained he should have won best video because he jumped the Grand Canyon on a motorcycle or something.
Grief, drunk, and also naturally inclined to make everything about him.
The man is so impulsive. I don’t care if he didn’t know who she was – it was rude. He deserved a LITTLE backlash for his behavior, but not to the level that it grew.
That being said – when you’re being impulsive and not filtering yourself – things like tours COULD go away. Some of those offers suddenly dry up because people worry about what they’re getting into. You’re making the decisions regarding your behavior, and sometimes the consequences suck.
I also don’t believe that he did it to be malicious AT ALL. I genuinely think he has issues with impulse control, and acted in the moment- thinking he’s going to bat for a friend. He clearly thought Bey was a shoe in – and reacted in that moment. It wasn’t like he calculated this, or pre-planned it. I think he genuinely just reacted in full swing emotion. Kanye seems to be the kind of guy who can’t hide his emotions. It’s all or nothing. This can make him a liability, regardless of his level of talent – and that sucks, but it’s still at least partially under his control.
I really like Amber’s comments. I don’t think it was done in a gang-up-on-Swift kind of way. I think it was a well thought out sharing of perspective. She was with Kanye in the midst of all of it – when he was going through the fallout. But I’m also glad that she called him out on not giving her a phone call. I take major issues with the naked celebrity figure portion of that video – and as an ex, it would be MEGA weird. I get that he was attempting something artsy, and I kind of get what he was saying with it. But I still feel like it’s a really gray area thing at best.
I agree with everything!
When you are showing up drunk and unpredictable on a regular basis, tours go away because insurance companies consider you too much of a risk. That’s what happened.
I agree with what you said here. Except Kanye didn’t get a little backlash he got a LOT of backlash.
Oh I know. I didn’t mean to imply he only got a little. I meant – he SHOULD have gotten a little, but definitely not to the degree that he got it.
I agree with you on many levels. He’s annoying, he’s an asshole (generally speaking), he acts like a little boy, etc etc. But with this particular thing, I felt like if there’s a side to chose, it’s his. He’s been more honest about the whole debacle than Tay has been.
That being said, no, it’s not okay for him to call her a bitch, and it’s SUPER weird to have a naked version of her in his music video. But if you look at her past feuds, she always always always has this victim narrative of, “These people come after me and do terrible things. Why?” I think this was the first time that someone had some kind of proof that she’s not as nice as she makes herself out to be.
Because he’s generally an asshole, he doesn’t really give a care about being rude. If he wanted to be shocking, he would do so with arrogance and pride. Why would he feel the need to defend himself and say that he 1) called her 2) that she okay’d the song and 3) mention in the snapchats that “friendships mean more than a song verse.”?? He’s never felt the need to be nice just because. Why would he care about calling her in the first place? That’s why I believe his version more than hers. Not a lot of people have come out saying, “Kanye pretended to be my friend and be nice to me, but look at the asshole shit he does”. MANY people have alluded that Taylor is a DL Mean Girl who plays the victim.
Agree Erinn. I do like your measured, thoughtful posts.
She’s good, right? 🙂
Please! He did not make Taylor famous and drunk or not, what he did to her in 2009 was absolutely WRONG…I don’t care if he felt Beyoncé should have won, there are MANY MANY winners of these awards that people feel should not win. NO ONE has the right to go up on stage and take it away from the winner. What is wrong with what Taylor’s parents said? It’s true! How would he feel if someone did that to his daughter? As for now, yes, Taylor is not too smart with things but there Kim and Kayne WANT this, they are pushing for more and more, this is only more publicity for them and they have proved any publicity is the best publicity!
Co-signed. It really bothers me that people try to defend what he did. There is no justification for that kind of immature, juvenile behavior (nor the deplorable action of portraying people naked publicly without their consent).
+1 This.
YEP
@LucyHoneychurch – Agreed. I don’t see why people can’t call out Taylor on her bullshit and lying about the lyrics without defending everything about Kanye. The 2009 incident was rude and Kanye was in the wrong. Did he deserve the major backlash? Maybe not but he deserved some of it. Is the famous video awful in every way? Absolutely! And don’t give me the “it’s art” crap – art is not some get out of jail for free-card you can pull whenever you make something crappy and offensive. All this can coexist with the fact that Taylor has been manipulating the media portrayal of herself and done some shady and awful things over the years as well.
It’s hilarious. Kanye did that to another person, but he’s the victim? Boohoo, poor Kanye received consequences for his impulsive asshole reactions. Poor poor Kanye. How dare the person he was rude to be upset. What a terrible person she is for that!
Like, Hello, am I in the freaking Twilight Zone right now? Is it opposite day?
I find nothing wrong with what her parents said. I would have punched him in his face had he disrepected my daughter in that manner
O please 😒
Someone stills the spotlight from you kid and your reaction is violence….. Ok
Is your daughter an adult, though? Because I remember being 19-20 and having parents jump in to fight my battles was not the way I wanted early adulthood to go.
So I guess Taylor is the new Jen Aniston round here? I guess Jen is due the break, but FTR I am team Taylor.
Thank you. This is starting to get ridiculous.
Agree.
In what way???
Maybe in the way that the never-ending, triumphantly joyful pile-on is a bit um, over-the-top..?
@Kitten
O you mean what happens in a Kardashian post daily you know whay Im talking about. 😅 or the William and Kate post.
Sorry, but on the rare occasions I have visited and Aniston post I’m not seeing that. I see a lot of people making heartless jokes on those post.
I thought they might have been talking about the pity party.
agreed
To be fair, this was about a year after Taylor’s song “Love Story” came out. That song was EVERYWHERE. I loathe country music and don’t listen to it or follow any gossip or news from that side of the musicsphere, but I for sure knew who Taylor Swift was because her album Fearless was everywhere and that song was everywhere for a full year before this happened.
EXACTLY!!! And her song “White Horse” was on Grey’s Anatomy in September of 2008 and got big publicity. People knew who she was. For Kanye to say he didn’t know who she was makes him either a liar OR incredibly out of touch as to what was going on in the music industry.
Remember when Kanye rapped about education, violence, politics and jesus? Now he raps about Kim and Taylor, I want the old Kanye back. Also I have never listened to country music but i knew who TS was when she won that award.
His mother’s death really did a number on him. Wasn’t it also unexpected (I may be confusing this with another celebrity parent’s passing, though)?
Yep, you’re right OhDear. Botched plastic surgery, which is horrific. I agree that he never really came back after that.
It was. She went to get lipo, and died from complications.
Why Is Rose defending a man that insulted her son? That’s what I want to know.
@ FingerBinger Right! He’s insulted Amber numerous times but when he brought her child into the fray…..too much!
She makes it clear that she is not on Team Kanye but she also sets the record straight that he has his faults but was never mean to Taylor on purpose. And that he respected Taylor enough to get her approval on the Lyrics of famous however he never called HER for her approval. So just sayin’ that Taylor pulling the victim card is inappropriate whereas someone like her and all the other women and men (Prez Bush too) have more standing to be upset.
Dayum Amber is smokin’! I don’t remember why they aren’t together any more but this was them in their glory days. Kim can’t hold a candle to Amber, sorry.
Why is Amber still talking about them? Does her show need ratings? Also, just wait until someone says something bad about North or Saint, I guarantee you will see Kanye come unglued. He can’t handle criticism of himself, much less his offspring.
No we don’t know she was fine with him saying that, because that’s the part that the tape snippets Kim released don’t show him revealing to her. Taylor could care less that he called her a bitch. She cares that he tried to take credit for her fame. The bitch part right next to it is a happy coincidence that allows her to veil what her real issue is, but the Grammys speech corroborates that she isn’t ok with that part.
Considering only edited snippets of a much longer conversation were released, we only know what Kim wants us to think. Kanye could have obtained approval for both the entire song and video or Taylor could have retracted approval of the lyrics if she learned of the video. We actually know nothing
Thank you, Lilac. A choppy, short video of what was apparently a much longer conversation doesn’t tell us as much as some seem to believe. It doesn’t tell us much at all. If the conversation truly was an hour long, I’m highly suspect as to what else was discussed, and how Kim edited what was said. It’s clear not all of Taylor’s reactions follow directly after Kanye’s words–some are mismatched on purpose. There was definitely some messing around with that conversation.
It wasn’t about Taylor, it was about Beyonce. He doesn’t even know who Taylor was.
So going by that logic… Because i don’t know you, you don’t deserve any common courtesy, therefore I shall disrespect you because you are a nobody to me.
Maybe it’s more like, Since I don’t even know you, or your song, how could this song possibly win? EVERYONE knows Beyonce’s song.
Maybe?
Since I don’t know you and I am obsessed with Beyonce, you don’t deserve any common courtesy, therefore i shall disrespect you and go on a rant how Beyonce should win, because you are a nobody.
It’s not a one time thing. He did it with Beck again when Beyonce lost. How is A!ber going to explain that?
That was my logic too – you can’t know if someone does or doesn’t deserve an award if you don’t know who that person is. He makes himself look stupid using that argument.
Has she forgotten she’s defending the same guy who confessed to taking thirty showers after being with her? I wonder what changed her mind – oh yeah: $$$
Did you read what Amber said ?? Or just look at the headline bast on your comment I’m going to say the later became she not defending him she even calls him out at the end.
So Gaga pulled the plug on the tour. I had tickets for that one.
I almost didn’t click to read the comments her, but I’m glad I did.
As far as I know, Taylor didn’t do anything to Kanye. He targeted her, drunk or not, and since then he hasn’t let it go.
I said before, she is in his stream of consciousness in a concerning way, yes, in a stalker way IMO.
Has no one else ever wondered why he even wanted to write about Taylor in the first place, much less is such a derogatory way? He called her, put her on the spot on speaker phone no less. And this was after that awful SNL rant where he rages about Taylor, and she had nothing to do with it. Again, he thinks of her far too often, in rage ways, and it’s creepy. I’d lie to shut up his ragey unstable ass too.
Here. The rant from SNL, in case people forget he targeted this woman for his own reasons and none of this is right.
http://pagesix.com/2016/02/17/dont-f-k-with-me-hear-kanyes-uncensored-snl-meltdown/
What??? he didn’t target Taylor. If it was someone else who won other then Taylor in stead of Beyoncé he would have done the samething. I now it might be hard to believe, but Taylor isn’t not special.
“I said before, she is in his stream of consciousness in a concerning way, yes, in a stalker way IMO.” 😂😂😂😂😂
“On 12 February her representative said that, instead, Swift “cautioned him” about releasing the song: “Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single Famous on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that bitch famous’.
In an acceptance speech at the Grammys on 15 February, Swift appeared to disavow more than the “I made that bitch famous” line: “I want to say to the young woman out there, there are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.”
His rant was a day after that, 2.17. 2016.
He went off on her because she lied! If she had come out when it happened and said that this is NOT what I agreed on then fine, at least she would have acknowledged that this conversation had happened AND she did not expect the song to be THAT way. But no, she went off from the start claiming to be totally blindsided, she should have said she was blindsided because she was expecting something else from that song but she wanted to maintain her image of purity and that she would never associated or have a conversation with Kanye. She wanted to maintain that she was a victim of Kanye’s attacks and the public’s complete sympathy. And she knew that the public would always be on her side in the war of he said she said. Which is odd because for other women out there it’s the opposite, they never had the luxury of public sympathy like Taylor.
@littledarling just curious, do you do anything else other than comment on this blog?
@tracey
nope. All day and all night I’m on this blog commenting. It’s my life. I wish I got paid to do it.
Nah, I’m just taking working on some papers and this is absolutely my escape. I jump in and out of commenting, but this is the MOST I’ve ever commented. Partially because I’m home on this damn computer 12 hours a day writing these papers for work certification. Blah!!
(But we both know you aren’t asking genuinely, now are you? )
Omg you guys are nuts about this. Seriously, get some perspective.
Not every dissenting opinion warrants paragraph after paragraph after paragraph why it’s wrong.
You won’t change my POV in this.
It’s officially descended into OTT.
@ Original Kay
Didn’t you just right away paragraph on your opinion why begrudge others theirs.
You seem to be the one who needs perspective and you always have the opposition of not reading the replys.
I don’t care to change anyone’s opinion, I’m just enjoying a good debate on this subject, as it endlessly fascinates me. I follow pop culture and this is deeply interesting, both the actual gossip and then the reactions it’s incited.
It’s funny to me, also, because I really don’t like Kanye, and I probably like Taylor a lot more. I mean I really don’t like Kanye or the Ks (refuse to even watch one show) whereas I own Taylor’s music and find her way less offensive than him at appearances.
But I do love facts and timelines and discussing the deeper issues behind this particular gossip. If it’s too over the top for you, you can stop reading my responses, or not answer or click and respond or not comment.
Even if I don’t want to change anyone’s opinion about any of these bozos, that doesn’t mean that I am going to stop positing my opinion and thoughts on everyone’s comments. This is easily the most I’ve ever commented on any subject on this site (save Kelly Rutherford) because there is so much to uncover and people feel so passionately about what they believe is their truth on it. I don’t think it’s all about just Kanye and Taylor and the Ks, but a lot of other deeper issues that result in this being so heavily, passionately discussed everywhere.
We all come here to post and comment, and debate or agree and that’s the beauty of this site. 95% of the time the arguments are well spoken, respectful and interesting and I love the commenters. We all have our choices here as to how heavily involved we want to be. But the site as a standalone is designed to incite conversations and comments about celebrity culture and culture at large. This happens to be one of the biggest pop culture stories in ages. It made you click in even though you didn’t want to, and it also made you post a link and state your proof. It clearly gives me the verbose debating long ass replies! Ha. (:
To each their own, no judgment or anger from me. <3
I like reading through the comments and hearing people’s opinions. What I don’t need to hear is the same person again and again and again. I think some people think they can control the comments by obsessively posting.
Like usual she had no reason to even discuss this, late for the party…..but she does seek attention. I always feel the need to bathe after seeing her. I remember that show, watched it, it was funny and seemed staged. They kept panning on Beyoncé in the audience who probably half liked the attention even in the wrong context. She did have a better song. But afterwards you would have thought he killed someone. It was the stupid VMA’s! Not the Emmys, the VMA’s!!! He did make her get noticed and now possibly forgot. Much adieu about nothing.
Ado
Much ado about nothing
Eta: gotta watch this again soon!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing_(1993_film)
In news just in! VMA 2016 noms just out. Calvin Harris, Rihanna and Kanye have all been nominated. Sadly (eye roll) no TayTay this year. Shock! Horror! Tommie’s probably got his hands full right about now… Interesting noms by the way. Check it out.
Did she even release anything to be nominated for this year? Really asking.
Are we out of the woods yet I think was so hyped up, over publicized and dramatized that it was expected to get a nom. But who knows, the public/fans vote for their favorite videos.
We all know why he didn’t call her up. He can suck up to Taylor and try to curry her favor and friendship, but has no problem degrading and denigrating the black woman he dated and loved enough to write an entire album about her. She’s nicer than me because I’d be like stone when it came to defending his dumb, misogynistic a$$.
Nothing he did or did not do makes her lying about it right.
Why is it OK that she defamed and disrespected him?
I’m my eyes it’s not ok. I can only guess to other people because it’s Kanye it’s ok.
To be fair, white women lying their asses of about black men and throwing them under the bus with the support of the public is nothing new. So of course it is fine, Taylor Will be more than fine and Kanye is an asshole anyway. I shudder to think of what would have happened to Beyonce if she had done This to timberlake for example. Maybe we would have had another predidential candidate ranting about how she was an awful role model
I’m in the UK and knew who TS was long before the VMA win. I don’t believe he made her famous, the incident may have accelerated her fame but she was always going get there because she knows how to write a classic pop song and is an excellent business woman.
I still find it really patronizing to say that he made her famous. It takes away all her credit of working her ass off to get where she is today. Its not like that moment happened and everyone suddenly liked her/listened to her. It still took 2 whole albums before it was suddenly cool to like her (and that was 1989).
They were really hot together. She’s gorgeous.
They sure were hot! I have yet to see a picture of him and Kim looking like that. Not one.