The responses came, swift and furious the world over. Aside from the leers and jeers directed at West, who was promptly escorted out of the ceremony, social networking sites had a veritable explosion, with Twitter bursting at the seams with the predictable ‘omg wtf is wrong with Kanye’ lines while Facebook status updates flowed like an unstoppable tap. Youtube, that other wonderful source of democratic opinion, was also inundated with videos of tweens, teens and adults, all of whom had something to say, and all of which, from the very serious tone of their messages were clearly of vital importance to the future of the world. Out of the vast blue nowhere of the internet also came a slew of jokes, spliced videos, captioned images and the like, the darkest so far featuring a picture of West and the recently deceased Patrick Swayze, with the attached caption: “Yo Patrick, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Michael Jackson had one of the best deaths of all time”. And it hasn’t even been three days past the event yet. [at the time of this writing].

But what an event it was! – Sure, Antarctica didn’t melt and no new Middle Eastern countries were invaded, but in the world of pop culture, all it took was one outrageous moment in the spotlight to expose exactly what really, really matters. Or, to put it in words of our own Lewis Parry: “I for one am glad to see Kanye still has the power to top himself. It just couldn't be 2009 Year In Pop without Kanye doing something outrageous”. We can breathe a sigh of relief. Everything is in the right place. After all, it’s not like West has a reputation of being calm and composed at awards ceremonies. Take the 2006 MTV Europe Music Video awards, where West went apeshit after his “Touch The Sky” lost out to Justice Vs. Simian’s “We Are Your Friends”, storming the stage and announcing: “Oh hell no, you guys won already. Share the wealth. Fuck this!”. The year after that, Kanye famously flipped out in front of cameras after losing in all five categories he was nominated in, this time screaming “I lost to the fucking Black Eyed Peas last year, man. I’m never fucking coming back to MTV”. This all coming from the man who alluded himself as a presence as big as Jesus and declared after hurricane Katrina that “Bush doesn’t care about black people”. Clearly.

But in spite of all this, despite what some might cite as overwhelming evidence of West’s sheer stupidity (and lets be honest, it is pretty overwhelming), I refuse to believe West is an idiot. One doesn’t get to be any sort of Kanye West without being one of the most ruthlessly intelligent people ever. Of course at this point I’d like to draw attention here to Paris Hilton, who is without a doubt an unparalleled genius of our generation and possibly the most brilliant manipulator of the pop mind to ever grace the earth. (Surpassed only, I suspect, by Marilyn Monroe). But I digress. Take a look at the man’s music for one. For those who remember, 2007 saw another marked moment in pop culture history which saw West and 50 Cent facing off in an epic duel of sales after releasing their respective albums, Graduation and Curtis on the same day. Fiddy promised never to make another album if West ‘won’ while West promised that Graduation would be a milestone in the history of rap, filled as it would be with anthemic, stadium filling tunes. (The inspiration? U2, whom West had toured with the year before. Who’d have guessed).

The ‘battle’ was over before it even begun. See, whereas Fiddy kept within the confines of East-coast gangsta rap, Kanye appealed to a previously untapped demographic that was on the verge of bustling its way onto the mainstream – indie kids. Graduation was laced with pop culture references, exemplified by the lead single “Stronger”, West’s appropriation of the Daft Punk classic “Harder Better Faster Stronger”, released just as the revered House duo themselves embarked on a world tour to reestablish themselves as the coolest thing since sliced bread. Even “Stronger”’s music video took its cue from the Katsuhiro Otomo’s anime classic, Akira, scoring an unparalleled number of hipster points with fringe cuts boys (and they are boys) everywhere. In the end, it didn’t actually matter which album was better, West had it down even before either one even hit the shelves. It was a brilliant move, taken even further with his latest, 808s and Heartbreak, the album which entrenched the now infamous auto-tune in the registry of pop music, now seen everywhere from the booty shakin’ of Shakira to the fuzzy hearts of indie darlings like Bon Iver and Discovery.

To put it shortly, Kanye West is brilliant man. But not at the moment. Oh no, not now that pop morality has declared resolutely that thou shalt despise Kanye West for his bad, bad behavior! And we will listen. Intently, and with utmost attention. Which is to say, for about a month. For as terrible as the suffering of Ms. Swift was, like I said – Antarctica didn’t melt and no new Middle Eastern countries were invaded. No, what happened was far more important. In fact, Katy Perry, for all her carefully cultivated pin-up doll image, captured the moment in far better terms than I possibly could: “It’s like you stepped on a kitten”. In front of millions. And for this, he shall pay.

Post-scr1pt: 50 Cent releases his newest album, Before I Self Destruct on 11/11/2009 (Interscope).

Alex Silveri, 09/15/09

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