Kanye West’s interview with Matt Lauer aired this morning on The Today Show. I remember hearing yesterday that Kanye was freaking out on Twitter about this, claiming that Lauer “TRIED TO FORCE MY ANSWERS” and calling it “BRUTAL.” (Kaiser put some of those tweets in her story yesterday on Kanye’s meeting with Bush.)
On the Today Show, Kanye got very emotional when addressing how he felt about Bush’s claim that Kanye’s “Bush doesn’t care about black people” outburst was the low point of his Presidency. You could tell that Kanye was agitated and that he was very affected by the topic. It wasn’t Matt Lauer’s fault, Lauer was just the same as he always is with sensitive topics and Kanye definitely could have handled it better. Kanye was taking himself way too seriously as usual. It’s obvious he was earnest and heartfelt about it, and he’s already apologized and said that he empathizes with Bush. But of course he got his panties in a twist and couldn’t just recite his talking points without rallying against Lauer and The Today Show.
After the Today Show aired the interview, Matt Lauer came on and explained why Kanye got upset on Twitter, because they showed that clip from the 2009 VMAs where Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift. Lauer explained that they show those type of clips all the time.
Kanye West appeared on TODAY Thursday in a prerecorded interview in which he responded to President George W. Bush’s reaction to the rapper’s allegation that Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina indicated that Bush “didn’t care about black people.” In his book “Decision Points,” Bush called that moment “one of the most disgusting moments” of his presidency.
“As far as it being the worst moment of his presidency, you know, I can’t … really speak to that … his take, his explanation, I completely agree with. And I — I empathize. It’s totally — and I felt like that the entire time,” West told Matt Lauer in the interview. Continuing, West said that he knew it wasn’t right to call Bush a racist. “And you sit there and you know — you know in your heart as a person that to — an emotion — you know, in a moment of emotion to peg someone or to call a name or peg someone as a racist is not — it’s — it’s just not right.”
Amid that confession another controversy stirred, this time in a series of tweets from West, written after he taped the talk with Lauer Tuesday, alleging that he was put in an uncomfortable situation in the course of his TODAY interview. What really happened?
As explained Thursday morning on TODAY, while West was speaking to Lauer on Tuesday, explaining at one point that he empathized with the president in the wake of his own Taylor Swift controversy, tape of West’s MTV VMA appearance rolled in the background.
West: Yo, how am I supposed to talk if you’re gonna run this thing in the middle of my talking?
Lauer: It’s under, you won’t be hearing it.
West: I am hearing it while I am trying to talk.
Lauer: OK, can you take the sound out of the overheads please, let’s pick up. You said it wasn’t a race thing?
West: Please don’t let that happen again.
West will appear on TODAY for a live performance on the Plaza on Friday, Nov. 26.
[From Scoop.TodayShow.com]
Lauer made the mistake of assuming that Kanye is like other people in that he needs a legitimate reason to get upset. He doesn’t – anything that Kanye doesn’t agree with he rallies against and justifies. The guy can apologize but it’s not like he’s changed.
As Kaiser mentioned yesterday, Kanye has already met with Bush and offered his apology, which Bush accepted. Bush probably let Kanye finish.
One more thing – I have to mention how puffy Kanye’s face is on the right side. I think those diamond teeth are messing up his mouth.
This dude needs meds. Shit ain’t even funny any more. I wonder what would happen if he and Courney Love got together?
I don’t get it. Why is he sorry for saying that George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people. Isn’t that what he believed at the time? And why is KANYE WEST’s opinion so threatening to people. Who cares? He’s one guy – and he didn’t even KNOW George W. back then. I believe the media (and others) are paying WAY TOO MUCH attention to Kanye West.
LEAVE KANYE ALOOOOOOOOOOOOONE! LOL!
I’m kinda with Kanye about this. He came on the Today Show to intelligently respond about Bush and to (it seems) make a point about where he was coming from with his comments about Katrina, and instead is goaded by Lauer into an emotional reaction–not once, but twice. I’d be irritated, too.
I also hate when people do that. Like when I’m legitimately frustrated with someone, instead of rationally talking it out the issue, they just want to apologize & give me a hug. Can’t we just intelligently talk about something without resorting to emotional manipulation? It’s patronizing, is what I’m saying.
This makes me think of Tracy Jordan on 30 rock. life would be boring without kanye
It did seem like Matt was trying to put words in his mouth. I don’t really care for Kanye, but the news tends to rehash things endlessly, like the Taylor Swift thing.
He already apologized for that months (or a year?) ago. Enough.
Matt Lauer and his sappy style of self important, faux journalism is laughable and Kanye West is an absolutely perfect subject for one of his interviews.
Only Brian Williams manages to surpass Lauer’s evident self regard, gasbaggery—and let’s not forget the phony hyper seriousness—on a regular basis.
Kanye West is nothing more than an overblown windbag. Wish he would just shut up and go away.
matt is an antagonizing passive-aggressive womanizing a$$hole most of the time imo.
& it usually makes for a good interview.
and kanye is well…who knows what kanye is! lol.
i agree with the comments above, but i’m just SO sick of kanye bitching..what a fkn drama queen. someone needs to take twitter away from him asap.
I can understand that he didn’t want the Taylor Swift clip shown and he didn’t want to see what he had done AGAIN. I love Kanye, his behavior will hopefully improve.
Watching one of his concert performances, I was surprised at how quickwitted Kanye West is as an artist both in song and dance. I may not like all of his music but he’s really really smart and talented. It’s weird that his quick on his feet performing style is so different from John Legend’s treacle meets molasses and that they were college roommates! I don’t care about this type of celebrity gossip. It’s not really entertaining. I already know about weird Matt Lauer.
matt lauer is a horrible interviewer… i can’t believe i agree with mr. west on this one.
Matt Lauer is a hack.
Kanye had every right to be mad. The man is trying to move on and Lauer is pulling out tabloid sh*t.
Goes to show his professional bias. If Matt was interviewing Charlie Sheen I guarantee you he wouldn’t ask him about the time he shot Kelly Preston. And that’s something serious that Charlie should have to answer for. Not this petty drama.
Kanye needs to let his music speak for him. He is a genius and that won’t change. I don’t see why he apologized about the whole Bush thing to begin with, he was speakin the truth and EVERYBODY knows it! The amount of blatant (spell check) racism that is dispayed to our current president is appauling and Kanye is supposed to be crucified for a honest statement he made years ago?! Fcuk Bush and anyone who else who feelings were hurt by Kanye’s comment during Katrina.
MJ FOR HGF!
everyone has regretful behavior that they don’t want re-hashed. to say that kanye got his panties in a wad is ridiculous. but i guess bloggers have jobs to do too.
“Bush probably let Kanye finish.:
:spit: :rolls: LMAO!!! best line ever.
I personally LOVE Kanye’s music, but I think the man is a total idiot!!! He generates exactly what he wants, attention and followers by spouting off like a radical racist………..and he is a racist! But until the media stops interviewing him and people stop paying attention to him, he will continue…..
What a moron…………I personally will NOT and I encourage others to not let this man get any attention…………chalk up his comments and rants and raves to his being an IDIOT!!!!
P.S. I will not purchase ANYTHING with Kanye’s name on it………music etc….
Kanye is a lunatic. I don’t like his music but i won’t take away the fact he is a musical genius. But he needs to shut his trap about everything else.
For those of you who have a brain in your heads (and I hate bush) he couldn’t come in until the gov. declared it a disaster. So blame the gov first. and Bush should have done something about FEMA because they really caused damage. I do not like Bush at all but in no way is the man a racist.
I apologize for my rant and offending anybody, but i’m so annoyed at this point about “everyone being a racist” because they don’t act fast enough or they looked at somebody the wrong way. the word will soon cease to have meaning. how about we use it when and only when it is valid?!?
I mean really. This is news? Please tell me why? It it really important to anyone, how KW feel about Bush. To me the whole thing is S T U P I D.
what I’m amazed in the interview is that Lauer paints Bush as a ”victim”.
Bush had to deal with 911, Katrina, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economy.
-First off 911,inside job!
-Second Katrina.If Katrina had hit Texas as hard as Louisiana,do you think the people would have gotten help faster?you bet your a**!!
-Third the 2 wars.Afghanistan yeah because the supposed bad guy(that the CIA created) lived there,but Iraq,weapons of mass destruction?eeeehh no.How many soldiers have died because of Bush and his politics?
-And finally the economy.Well if your fighting 2 wars,one with the US citizens (Patriot Act),and abroad it costs billions so of course the economy will be in the can.
So now I’M supposed to feel sorry for Bush because some third rate rapper called him a racist? HELL NO!!
He’s done a 100% loop since his mother died. Guess he needs someone he loves and respects to behave properly.
I’m not a fan of either Bush or Kanye. Kanye is an uneducated self important jackass who ass talks all the time but Lauer did keep pushing him in this interview although Kanye did over react as per his usual.
If Kanye doesn’t want to address remarks then he shouldn’t go ape sh*t on twitter and a musical genius he ain’t
WHY DOES KANYA KEEP GETTING CALLED OUT FOR TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT KATRINA?
I think Kanye’s a real feeler. He really does feel the plight on this nation’s underclass. He has benefitted greatly from “the machine” of the music recording business. He got himself trapped in MONEY/Power vs Power/Art struggle.
Kanye has NOTHING to apologize to BUSH for. He already has shown great dignity and class about his ACCURATE and AUTHENTIC truth concerning Katrina. I agree with Kanye.
I am a middle class white woman.
You think Matt Lauer didn’t research Kanye West before he came on. Lauer’s been in the business long enough to know what makes for good telly. He had to know that running the Swift-gate tape would rattle West’s cage. My guess is, he was counting on it. Is Kanye West a histrionic boob? Well…yeah. Was he goaded in this interview…also affirmative.
Thank you Obvious for stating the obvious!
Kanye just needs to stop doing interviews and stay the f off of twitter. He cannot think on his feet at all.
@gg that’s my name don’t wear it out! lol
@Toni, then why bother coming here if that is your opinion? none of us want you here.
He tweeted he is either a hero or the antiChrist. It never ceases to amaze me how overblown his ego is.
Not to mention: They treated him like they would any other guest and he couldn’t take it – poor baby. Yet he stole a 17 year old girls moment at the grammy’s. What a whinebag
“Lauer made the mistake of assuming that Kanye is like other people in that he needs a legitimate reason to get upset. ”
So true. Kanye’s problem is that he has bought into the hype that was created around him a few years back for being ‘the biggest thing in rap’. While he is indeed talented, his being treated like the ‘Second Coming’ is what helped create this narcissistic monster in the first place.
Now his ego is so epic he gets upset and petulant when people don’t kowtow to him and kiss his ass.
I’d like him to go away for a while again. I need a #Kanyebreak.
Kanye is a symptom of a bigger problem: white people aren’t racist as a collective but find it hard to accept black people who don’t act or behave how white people want. If you talk like they want to, dress and act how they want to, blacks and non-whites can be accepted liked and support. The minute you have an opinion that differs or (omg!) tell the truth, you are immediately deemed arrogant or borderline criminal. This is fact. I am a young black male who lives in the south where race is and always have been an issue. #1 compliment I have received from white people all my life “wow you talk so well, you dress so nice, tou behave just like we want…will you be my token black friend”. The minute I say or point out an obvious prejudice lie or whatever, I am a douche, arrogant, or even worst…angry black guy. Lol why is kobe hated? Why is Terrell Owens polorizing being he never got in trouble and 2nd all time in NFL receiver stats? If you are black rich and talent, especially, white America will love you and accept you as long as you shut up and shuck and jive
@Obvious Nicely said!
@black orchid you are speaking from living in the south. not everywhere is like that. the problem we have is not with Kanye being black, it’s the fact his ego is so huge and he believes he “is the voice of this generation”.
our problem is that there was a medi created hype about him that he bought into, and he believes he is greater than he is, and that what he says has no repercussions. I’m sorry that the people where you live do not value you for who you are, but that is not the fault of people in general.
My problem is again, I do not like bush-and defending him is up there with allred to me, but he is NOT a racist, but Kanye called him one. I take offense at that. I take offense at his drunken shenanigans, and his bigotry towards white people (yes it’s true look back-but again only my opinion).
I would feel the same way if a white person said these things. Please don’t think i’m attacking you because i don’t mean to be, but I find your theory, while acceptable from your experiences, moot on a larger scale.
He’s a dork.
@Obvious, I think you may have missed the bigger point of black orchid’s post. He is saying that, largely, white people have difficulty accepting blacks who don’t conform to a “less threatening” presentation of what black is. It’s not a southern thing, either. I was born and raised north of the mason-dixon line and I can tell you that on many occasion I’ve been told by some white friends that “they don’t think of me as black” because I didn’t fall into a stereotype they had in their minds about black people in general…like that’s some sort of compliment. I recognize that the sentiment as expressed by my friends wasn’t intended to be offensive, but when analyzed, it is very telling.
I’m not defending West’s behavior overall…I’m just saying that the assertions made by black orchid shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand because it’s not YOUR experience. On a larger scale they are very, VERY accurate.
@Jayne E, I see your point, and I wasn’t saying it was a southern thing at all, but the people themselves Black Orchid is dealing with. I do not for a second believe all Southern’s are like this. My family is form Mississippi.
My point was while I believe he has a valid argument pertaining to those specific people he has dealings with, i do not believe it applies in general-at least from my experiences.
I do apologize if I wasn’t clear enough, sometimes it’s hard to say things how you think them, nothing ever comes across right, so I love being able to respond to questions and such.
Maybe by living in SoCal my dealings with others are quite different from yours.
But my main point was we (as a great many people on the boards have expressed in the past) dislike Kanye for believing his hype and for his massive ego, and not being able to shut up. We dislike John Mayer for the same exact reasons. I am a white girl, but I dislike Kanye and John for the same reasons. I dislike Chris Brown because he is an abuser, I dislike Mel Gibson for the same reason. Too most people it’s not a race thing-it’s an action thing. We are threatened by all sorts of people because of their ACTIONS not because we believe they should behave a certain way. Maybe I read Black Orchid’s post wrong, but my response was in the way I perceived his words. I apologize for the length of this one guys!
Black orchid here again. Did obvious say she believes kanye has shown bigotry towards white people? This man, going off his actions, has been the most inclusive artist since…kc and the sunshine band lol (jon brion, Adam levine, miri Ben ari, 30 seconds to mars, Elton John, that band Jessica simpsons brother in law is in, Chris Martin of coldplay, even John mayer) you brought up John mayer, glad you did. He and kanye was never and will never be judged on the same level. Mayer said the n word and humiliated Jessica sexually publically…his tour still went on and people still paid and pay to see him. Kanye says “wait, beyonce wins video of the year, which all of America knows and the dance and phrase put a ring on it all of America knows….kinda weird she doesn’t win for best female video” and his career is over, he can’t even sell tickets to a tour he has with lady gaga…GAGA! My original post wasn’t to defend kanye, as the first thing I said was that he was a symptom of a bigger problem. Whether you like it or not, white America would prefer to accept black people as non threathening as possible. When they have a Michael Jordan, great, when they have an NBA with hip hoppers who are tatted up with corn rolls, suddenly NBA isn’t as watchable and oh yeah why do they make millions of dollars? I can go on with many more examples. Not saying anyone is racists or that’s its just a southern thing…..I maybe be a dork as one guy says, but I am here defending as logically as possible what facts seem to be pointing out….damn the message board just did me like kanye lol
is G.W. Bush a racist?
Republicans at election time-with their conservative entertainment subsidiary news networks work hard to discredit voters in urban area’s which are predominantly “black” or not “white”. As they do accuse and attack minorities as Sarah Palin tried pigeonholing Barack Obama as a Muslim in election 08′, as she knows a population of whites fear Muslims and will vote against him because of it, or Sharon Angle of Nevada who is also a Republican with her racist campaign commercials about immigration which aired this past season. Or the republican Governor in Arizona wanting all immigrants out of her state. Lets not forget President Bushes right wing Christian political party- the “Republicans” who discredit voters in housing projects, attempted to ruin Acorn in smear campaigns to be certain Democrats lose in the elections and imposing a opinion on the public which paints a base of voters for “Obama” as welfare recipients. And G.W. Bush doesn’t know how his party runs their campaigns? He funds them. G.W. Bush cares? At some point you have to make it seem like you do. Does anybody remember G.W. Bush insulting John McCain for having a black child? I do- so does John McCain’s daughter. -MikeAlike (independent recording artist)
Kanye referred to himself as “rationale?” Now, that’s funny. I’m sorry, the guy is just a jerk. He needs anger management in a big way. Telling people offstage to be quiet twice in that interview, was just laughable. Kayne’s the one who really needs to be quiet.
Really? “Look at his face, what would you say to him?”
I’d tell him to go fuck himself. That his response to Katrina was based on race. Leaving a population high and dry would not happen in Malibu. It was racial. To say otherwise is to ignore the entire socioeconomic history of the United States. And for Bush to get hurt over being called racist when he approved torture and oversaw some of the most disgusting perversions of civil liberties in American history?
Bush is the one that needs to be looking into faces and apologizing. Specifically the faces of the parents and loved ones of fallen service members who he sent to die needlessly in Iraq.
@black orchid: good post, well said and true. keep posting 🙂
I understand exactly what you meant in your first post
@Jaye E: well said enjoyed your response
Swift and West (that’s catchy) could perform a duet- to end this pain, hurt, regret,Interesting how both Rap and Country express the same emotions. Anyway- Put Rap and Country together to make a new genera, ‘Crap’- a little joke.
Possible lyric line:’you’re my sour grapes, my fate, I don’t love you, like you, nor hate you either, just made a mistake-asking forgiveness in this business- Hollywood is the place where differences are brought together, for the better.-music-ba boom ba boom Wa Wa Wa-
I’m gonna say I think what Kanye did to attempt to “control” the set during the interview was a MUCH BRAVER “performance art/authentic self” moment than his “freak out/drunken” stunt at the VMAs. But he is ACTING out what we are all saying here. The Big Media System in this country does not like beginners. TV News is a joke, for the most part. The methods by which they manipulate the people they interview are EXTREME. Kanye just busted down one little wall of a big structure of Television Institutionalized News for White People.
Again, I’m a middle age, middle class white woman who knows too much about journalism. And Loves Real Journalism.
Lauer is a class A jerk. He has no respect for anyone that might have a different point of view or isn’t part of the girlyman liberal establishment he is part of. Yes, he set Kanye up which is his style to embarrass a guest so he can hammer his political leftist point of view. Once a jerk always a jerk and that’s being too kind. NBC should send him to Siberia to broadcast from deep within a snow cave with no access to the world. He can live on twinkies so he can maintain his “intellectual” high. NBC, do us a favor and dump the the jerk.
Kanye makes bipolar people look bad. He really needs some meds and a shrink. He seems very troubled, I can see why some people say he sold his soul to the devil. lol
@Jacqueline…I think you are right. As a bipolar person, I recognize the behavior and I’ve been saying for a while now that I think Kanye needs meds and therapy. Maybe that’s why I empathize with him…he reminds me of me…without the delusions of grandeur and the millions of dollars.
Oh my god, Kanye West has too high of an opinion of himself. He also needs to learn to shut his mouth. He acts like his words are the greatest thing ever said. He thinks he is a genious. And he is a racist over all. He talks about others being racist when they have not done anything wrong; nor have they implied anything racist. He needs to stop playing the “race card” and start thinking on why those instances would happen. And i dont want him to start thinking about the black peoples struggles today.. News flash you didnt have to struggle through the hard times. Your ancestors did. Get over it, it was an ignorant time back then. And we have been kissing your ass ever since slavery was abolished.