As I covered yesterday, Kanye West performed at the Verizon Wireless Festival in London over the weekend. He was a last-minute replacement for Drake, who had to cancel due to illness. Kanye pretty much brought his Yeezus-style insanity to London, and those British people didn’t know what to do. During the first night’s performance, Kanye ranted for about 15 minutes about Luis Vuitton and genius and racism, and he was booed by many, many people. They took to Twitter to yell at him too. Then on Day 2, Kanye decided to wax rhapsodic on the nature of fame and how getting pap’d is like getting raped. Yes, he went Full Charlize.
In a sick rant onstage this weekend, the American rapper, who is married to reality TV star Kim Kardashian, moaned: “Everybody needs a day off, everybody needs the right to say ‘hey, you know what I need a minute to breathe. I want to bring my family to the movies without 30 motherf*****s following me. Everybody here, they like sex right? Sex is great when you and your partner be like ‘hey, this is what we both want to do.’ But if one of those people don’t want to do that, what does that constitute, that’s called rape. That is called violation.”
I don’t have a problem with Kanye or any celebrity talking about paparazzi intrusions as a “violation.” But I do have a problem with any celebrity saying it’s like rape. NOTHING IS LIKE RAPE EXCEPT RAPE. Repeat that, over and over, if you’re a celebrity. Besides, since this is a Kanye-specific discussion – he should really talk to his famewhore wife about this whole thing, especially considering she has a “paparazzo” who travels with her during her vacations so that he can take the most flattering “exclusive” photos of her, which they then sell to Us Weekly. Yes, “they.” Kim gets a cut of the paparazzi photoshoots that she sets up. This is not about rape. This is not about violations. This is about wanting to image control and profit control.
Meanwhile, Us Weekly put out the weirdest story about how Kanye wasn’t really booed at the Verizon Wireless Festival. Except that in literally every video from Kanye’s performances, he’s being booed.
Must have been someone else! Kanye West’s recent performance at the Wireless Festival in the UK was anything but negative. Despite recent reports that the rapper was booed off stage, Us Weekly can exclusively confirm that the majority of West’s fans were extremely supportive throughout the entire night. People in Kanye’s camp who were present at the show tell Us that the “Bound 2” entertainer gave his all during the show, and received a round of applause after speaking about his adorable 12-month-old daughter North West, whom he shares with wife Kim Kardashian.
In his speech, the 37-year-old star talked about his baby girl’s innocence, and how she’s entitled to be free of the harassment that he sometimes receives from the press. With that, the concert ended on a high moment with the explosive “Blood On The Leaves.”
The response? Nothing but love! “The audience immediately went crazy once the music resumed,” a source told Us. West then brought down the house with several of his hits, including “All Falls Down,” “Touch the Sky” and “Good Life.”
“The audience immediately went crazy once the music resumed.” Which means they hated his stupid rant and they did in fact boo him when he started ranting about the paparazzi and rape. And Us Weekly is ignoring the wording he used too. So stupid.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Dear Kanye,
Please take ALL the seats
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/New_Meadowlands_Stadium_Mezz_Corner.jpg
Sincerely,
Everyone who doesn’t have their head up their arse
At this point, if you are giving this loser a cent of your money or a second of your time, I’m judging you more than him.
I so agree. Time to stop giving this little fool any money and certainly no time.
+infinity
YES. I mean, at this point we all know what he is going to do. Don’t go to a show and boo him for it, just dont go!
Yes, if he hates the paps and fame so much, let us ignore him, and then we will see what he is really made of. How does he even have fans?
+10000
@Mia45: So I take it it took you less than second to read the article and post your comment? 🙂
Oh FFS…
+1
The Bankrupt Super Loser stole Beyonce’s mesh mask thingy? That’s about all the interest I can muster up for this.
I wish celebrities would make some kind of pact not to call anything rape unless it is actual rape. I don’t consider myself overly PC, but it is such a horrifying and traumatizing experience that comparing anything banal to it-like, say, being followed by photographers- is just completely disrespectful and inappropriate.
Then again, this is Kanye we’re talking about.
I wonder if he actually thinks anybody is buying this “I’m so persecuted by the papparazi” shtick. He married a Kardashian, I believe he’s been on their show, and they call the paps regularly. Why pretend like you’re being persecuted here?
Also make a pact to stop comparing things to war. I just can’t with these celebrities.
Also a good one, @swack.
And to the Nazis. Lazy offensive comparisons – unless it involves mass genocide and unbelievable suffering, it’s not really like the Nazis
And to the Nazi’s. Lazy offensive comparisons – unless it involves mass genocide and unbelievable suffering, it’s not really like the Nazis
@Faye, I was going to say what you said but am glad I read comments before I did because you said it so well.
I just can’t process how he thinks he is a VICTIM of the paparazzi when he just bent over backwards to accommodate and perform for them during his two week publicity tour for his wedding.
I have a teeny tiny itty bitty bit more understanding of celebs when they say they feel victimized and they are actually trying to live private lives when they aren’t working. But Kanye and the troll he hooked up with are not in ANY way trying to live private lives. They aim to live a commercial life: something that is sold and treated as a commodity in every way.
Ugh. Kanye is intolerable ever since getting with Kim
I used to like him 🙁
He was pretty intolerable before. IMPO.
He was nuts and eccentric but not as bad imo
Or maybe he was just less noticed. He was at least less hypocritical
It’s a tragedy that he is his own worst enemy, because the man is genuinely very talented.
NO TALENT.
Please, this narcissist fool would fall apart of his picture stopped getting taken.
^^This!
Can you IMAGINE the tantrum that would cause?
I think he’d shrivel up and die if no one took his picture!!!
Wahwahwah Wahh wah wah…
Don’t want to get your photo taken? Don’t stay in the public eye! Don’t make a boat load of money by staying in the public eye. Oh, but, I forget. Being an accountant is beneath your genius isn’t it? That’s for us plebs. Oooo, here’s another good pro-tip for not having your picture taken. DON’T marry into a family of narcissistic, fame hungry, walking slime molds. Especially ones with zero talent that rely *solely* on having pictures taken of their fake arses.
If you choose to walk in the shallow puddle of humanity that your *fabulous* life is, your clothes will get dirty. Deal with it. As for comparing this to being sexually assaulted, don’t even get me started.
Ugh. Exactly.
You just said everything I was thinking.
I wish someone would say these things to him at a press conference. It’d make a great youtube video.
Well said, Maya.
F*ck him. Like, seriously. You can’t complain about paparazzi when you willingly procreate with a woman whose job it is to be papped. And then you don’t put the baby in a Vogue spread. And comparing it to rape is ignorant as all hell. Especially considering the thousands of women who are victims of sexual assault. Bye, bitch.
Far more famous and important people have managed private lives for their children. It’s a choice, and it can be done. He’s just too lazy, too needy, or too stupid to make it happen for his own child.
This is true. Many Alisters can stay out of the public eye and keep their kids out without much trouble. Angie Jolie had surgery and everything and not a word got out until she announced it herself.
Jolie’s case is what has proven to me that, IF YOU TRY, you can still lead a very private life, outside of most paparazzi pics. OF COURSE there will be the stray shot or two, but if you want to, you can.
which is why EVERY time you see a celeb at the market, the farm stand, the park, the pumpkin patch, the Ivy, (or whatever that super-pap hang out is), etc….they WANT to be seen. it may not be an arranged shot, but they ARE deliberately putting themselves out there.
I know that part of their job is to promote themselves and keep themselves “in the news”, so I don’t begrudge them that, but to COMPLAIN about it when you actively engage is bogus. cry me a f*cking river.
Yes, but these two are nowhere NEAR as intelligent and PR-savvy as Brange.
The J-Ps really are exceptionally talented at controlling the media-using them when they need promotion, and skillfully hiding from them when they seek privacy.
It takes a lot of calculating, not to mention professionalism, to achieve this balance.
Besides the fact that Brad and Angelina have never made media attention their career. Are either of them even on Twitter or Instagram?
I think that’s taking it a little too far. it doesn’t mean you want to be seen there, it means you want to be there more than you want to avoid being photographed (not everyone, obvs, as I get the impression a lot of celebs love the attention, like this dumbass and his dumbass wife).I can understand wanting to just live your life is normally as possible and going to places you actually enjoy, despite be well aware that paps might be there. and paps can show up anywhere, especially in the LA area. but the hypocrisy of Kanye West complaining about paps when he married kim kardashian is insane. where does he think all that money came from?
You know, by now all celebs should’ve learned that comparing taking photos of them or being followed by the paparazzies to rape is something that generates negative feedback. Unless they follow the rule: any publicity is good publicity, Which I guess is what’s happening here.
I’m sure the audience did go crazy when he resumed. They were delirious with happiness that the boring, never-ending rant was over and they could get back to what they came there for, entertainment,
Kanye is the westboro church at this point ni this sense. If you keep covering him you’re feeding the problem. He gets a god/me against the world complex.
He’s said this stupid comment before and he’ll say it after this. He has no true sense of what he’s saying anymore very mmuch like that clan mentioned above. It’s become very sad when thinking back to early career status. He was a somewhat unknown on Chappelle show as the end of the show music guest.
All falls down, Gold digger, Diamonds, Harder Better Fast Stronger.
He was great. Now, not so much.
Tell your urinal of a wife to stop alerting the papz to her every move.
+1
I wasn’t going to post again in this thread but I had to give you a standing ovation for this comment on my way out!
Brilliant!
Rape is rape. Nothing can compare to it. Shut the f up.
+1,000!! It makes my skin crawl when anyone uses the term ‘rape’ to describe anything but the horrific attack it is. Don’t use it as a slang term, don’t use it as a comparison, don’t use it period for anything other than what it truly means.
Yes Nicolette I agree.I find it insulting.I was almost raped by someone that followed me home from a neighborhood get together.It is something you never forget about and it is traumatizing.This loon will rant and rave about anything.You suck Kanye.Get over it.
What would Donda have to say about all of this? SMH what a petulant, whiny man-child.
To quote Kaiser
NOTHING IS LIKE RAPE EXCEPT RAPE. Repeat that, over and over, if you’re a celebrity.
I find it particularly disgustingly hypocritical that he of all people had the gall to say something like this considering he married into a family of gutter trash famewhores, of which his wife and mother in law are the princess and Queen.
P.S. You want your kid to have a normal, pap free life? Get a divorce today and go into witness protection. Oh yeah, and QUIT WHORING HER IMAGE OUT FOR A VOGUE COVER. If he ever really wants to know why his kid won’t ever have a normal life, he just needs to take a long look in the mirror. His ginormous ego simply will not allow it.
Exactly.. to make this rape analogy again is atrocious. STFU please.
I was at the Friday show and admittedly I’m a big fan of his music, I did expect the rant and I also warned my friends ahead of time so it wasn’t such a shock for me when it happened. His set up until that point was amazing. The whole crowd was buzzing and singing along. Some people did leave during the rant (it also started to rain a little around that time) and it was clear that after 5-10 minutes people were switching off, bored and wanted to hear songs instead of speeches – hence a fair bit of booing. Kanye however, wasn’t going to stop… it was definitely awkward…..but once it was over – everyone got back to the business of having a good time.
The comment in this story aside (gah Kanye why?!), some of what he said was actually quite inspirational, but no-one wants to hear a 20 minute sermon when you are there for a good time, especially from someone who has so much more money and privilege than you do.
Especially when it’s not his audience that came for him. Drake was the headliner (one of them) at the festival and Kanye filled in when Drake fell ill. Kanye’s own fans are more tolerant of his rants. A festival is far different anyway with a mixture of fans and just concert-goers who paid for an all-inclusive three-day pass or whatever festival price. Then add in Drake being one of the named headliners, not Kanye, and it’s just different than fans paying a ticket to go see Kanye at his concerts.
But it’s a planned rant anyway since he does it at every show. It’s as choreographed as everything else in the show.
Ugh. To hell with this idiotic troll.
Charlize got ripped a new one for making that comment. You all are taking it pretty easy on Kanye.
Because we’ve come to expect this kind of ignorance from Kanye. He’s set the bar pretty damn low.
The bar on Kanye and Kim is so low, we now have to hire archaeologists to excavate it from the strata of the Earth’s crust. Oh, and by the way-F8ck you, Kanye. Don’t talk anymore. Go pee in a gold toilet and make some more leather jogging pants.
LMAO!! brilliant.
Also, after a certain point, when something like this or wearing a Native American headdress, has been in the news several times, I think the people who continue to do it are trolling. So I try not to give it the attention I gave to the original perpetrator.
If we got excited with his every stupid comment, we would all have high blood pressure…
After reading up on and watching the endemic child prostitution problem in Brazil, made worse by the World Cup, these sorts of comments infuriate me to no end.
Rape is rape. There is no synonym. F$@k you Kanye.
Kanye loves playing victim doesn’t he? If designers don’t want to work with him, he yells racism. Now if paps take his pic, he calls it rape. Shut up Kanye, you’re slapping the faces of real victims.
During a rape scenario, it’s usually the VICTIM that gets physically attacked. Hey Kanye, wasn’t it YOU who hit the photog ???
Oh and Kanye, you might want to talk to your wife about the paps, after all SHE is the one who calls them and let’s them know when and where to show up and willingly poses for them AND makes a profit off the selling of the pics…rape not so much…prostitution…maybe…
By dressing as Worf from Star Trek the next generation, Kanye could make his concerts more exciting; Kim could be Deanna, making her appearance the stage in an elaborate hair Deanna-Troi- like-do and Blue Ivy could be Wesley when she’s older. Khloe could be number 1, Kris – Captain Picard and Courtney’s husband is the perfect Data!
Huh why would Blue Ivy want any part of that?
Probably meant North.
This guy needs some therapy. And medication. And, mostly, become poor.
I was there both nights he played at Wireless (and i’m in no way a super fan of Kanye) but the media definitely over hyped up the whole ‘booing’ – it really was a small minority towards the end of the ‘rants’ and overall his performances were amazing. He is mad as a fruitcake but at least he interacted with people and mixed it up both nights after stepping in for Drake last minute
Next celeb to whine about having their pictures taken being like rape, needs to be forced to volunteer at a rape crisis center. I hate being photographed (and deal with it a lot less often), but never, ever, ever would I compare something that is mostly just annoying, to something that is horrible and dehumanizing in every way.
Reading Kanye’s comments was like being murdered.
Anything you need to know about West you could learn by watching the episode of Punk’d that he was in. His behavior was about as dishonorable as you would expect. No class, no sense of respect and definitely did not act like a man. A loser all the way around.
I think that Kanye fancies himself as an agent provocateur. This is performance art to him, even though he’s a moron. The depressing part is that it’s working.
Now, comparing everything to rape has become a trend amongst celebs???? For the love of God… just don’t do that, DON’T… It’s so, so, so… I’m speechless…
The definition of rape does include the way Kanye used the word. Please consult the dictionary before you react. Being female I understand TOTALLY the primary definition and use of the word and why it’s not a word to throw around lightly, however I also defend proper use of the English language. He was not misusing the word, whether we like it or not.
So if people gossip about me it’s not a misuse of the word if I say it felt like rape? OK. That should shake a few people up.
Yes and gay has another meaning as well but you don’t use loaded terms like that without some consideration to the people who feel like these are loaded terms. He’s an idiot and his use of this particular word is indefensible.
Rape is an English word with an old history (as a word) and has several proper definitions and usages. It can also mean “being carried off” or “pillaged” – there are old paintings and poems which refer to this usage. As a word it is *not* limited to a definition of sexual assault (or to male>female). It also refers to violation or improper or abusive treatment and that was the sense in which Kanye was using the word. Violation does *not* specifically refer to sexual assault either. One of its definitions is “to disturb improperly or interrupt”. If you insist on the loaded definition of rape (sexual assault), then yes, Kanye looks histrionic and beyond silly. If you believe in dictionaries and historical definitions and proper language usage, then Kanye was properly using the word.
I guess by Rantye’s standards, we are all victims of him raping the English language and our ears
Complete wanker
One: You’re a celebrity. You knew what that meant when you set out to be one. It is actually possible to be a celebrity and not have the paps all up in your business. It happens a lot. If you hate publicity, you married the wrong woman.
Two: The next celebrity who compares anything other than actual rape to rape should be set adrift in the middle of the ocean. Every time this happens, it degrades what actual rape victims have suffered.