Taylor Haran

Haran 1

Professor Melton
English 5
18 March 2016
I Made That B*tch Famous -Kanye West
The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards had just began, and Taylor Lautner was introducing
the award for Best Female Video. He opened the envelope to reveal that his girlfriend, Taylor
Swift won the award. The camera zoomed to Swifts well-known surprised expression, as the
crowd cheered and she made her way on stage. Swift accepted her award, and said, Thank you
so much. I always dreamed about what it would feel like to win one of these someday but I never
wouldve thought it would actually happen. I sing country music so thank you for giving me a
chance to win a VMA award, I- and the crowd continued to cheer. Before Swift could say
anymore, Kanye West jumped on stage and took the microphone from her. So Taylor, he
started. Im really happy for you, Im going to let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best
videos of all time. The camera moved to show a surprised and seemingly uncomfortable
Beyonce. West continued, One of the best videos of all time! Kanye shrugged, and gave the
microphone back to a stunned Swift. This essay examines this incident, specifically West as a
person, his intentions in interrupting Swift and his ineffective use of logos in his rant.
To give context, West has had a reputation of being outrageous and controversial. For
example, in September of 2005 during a charity event for Hurricane Katrina, West was on
national television and deferred from his script. He stated after a rant that George Bush doesnt
care about black people (Huffington Post). Also, at the 2006 MTV European Music Awards
West stormed on stage when his song Touch the Sky didnt win in its category, and claimed he

should have won into the winners microphone, according to Capital FM. So when West at the
2009 MTV Video Music Awards interrupted Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech claiming
that Beyonce had the greatest video of all time, it was shocking but not something the world
has not seen from West. Wests relationship with media and the world because of these instances
is mostly negative; even as a Grammy-winning artist his personality negatively overshadows his
art.
Wests intention for interrupting Swift can only be assumed since he has only apologized
for the incident and not explained why he did it. Although a reason that can be inferred is that
West believed Beyonce deserved the VMA, and that speaking out would insinuate a change,
even though that has never happened at an awards show. West is an advocate for appreciating
artists and how they create art, but contradicts himself when he acts out in ways such as this.
Although some say that the bottle of Hennessey West was photographed gulping before the
awards began could have been an influencing factor, the fact that he has spoken out like this
multiple times invalidates that assumption as a leading motive. There also is no evidence of West
having a prior conflict or problem with Swift; this was at the beginning of Swifts fame and West
stated in his debatably genuine apology on his now-deleted blog that he was sooooo sorry to
Taylor Swift and her fans and her mom (Capital FM).
Wests efforts to persuade the audience and voters that Beyonce had the greatest video of
all time are attempting to evoke a change of mind, and out of the three rhetorical appeals he
most closely uses logos. Logos can be defined as an appeal to logic, and a way of persuading an
audience by reason, according to yourdictionary.com. When recalling Wests outburst, logical
is not the first word that comes to mind, but persuasion by reason does, even if its claiming
that Beyonces video was the greatest of all time. Wests choice to begin his interruption with,

So Taylor, Im really happy for you is an attempt to appeal to emotion; he was trying to
make his interjection seem like he wanted the best for Swift, but by suggesting that Beyonce
deserved the award she was given. From the overwhelming amount of boos from the audience,
its evident that Wests actions were not effective. Elliot Wilson, who sat in the front row that
evening, reported that as West was booed off stage, he flipped the middle finger to the crowd; a
moment that was not captured by MTV cameras.
West holds an unfriendly, harsh persona that he carried with him onstage to discredit
Swifts win. Not only was his choice of interrupting Swift rude timing, his choice of words and
the tone he used was demeaning. In his defense he posted on his blog saying, Im a fan of
real pop culture! As if claiming that his outrageous and unstoppable behavior is justified by his
credibility of knowing real pop culture.
Considering Wests reputation of being outrageous when things do not go his way, this
VMA incident is not surprising. It can be inferred that West wanted to insinuate a change by
speaking out, but his use of logos was unsuccessful in doing so.

Works Cited
Strachan, Maxwell. The Definitive History of George Bush Doesnt Care About Black
People.Huffington Post 28 August 2015. Web. 10 March 2016.
C., Alessandro R. Kanye West interrompe Taylor Swift no VMA 2009. Youtube.com. N.p., 15
August 2013. Web. 10 March 2016.
"16 Unforgettably Outrageous Kanye West Moments." Capitalfm.com. Capital FM, n.d. Web. 10
March 2016.
"Logos Dictionary Definition | Logos Defined." Yourdictionary.com. YourDictionary, 2016.
Web. 16 March 2016.