Beck too thought Beyonce was a sure winner

Feb 10, 2015 09:35 GMT  ·  By
Beck calls out to Kanye West to come back on stage after Grammys 2015 interruption
   Beck calls out to Kanye West to come back on stage after Grammys 2015 interruption

The biggest upset at the Grammys 2015, which took place on Sunday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was Beck winning Album of the Year, over industry favorites Beyonce and Sam Smith. Rapper Kanye West was perhaps the most upset about it, nearly ruining Beck’s big moment in the process.

Now, unlike Sam Smith, Beck isn’t a newcomer. Not to say that Sam Smith is a flash in the pan, but seeing how he just blew up on the scene, there still are chances his career might turn out to be just that.

Beck has been working in the industry for far too long to know better than to treat the Kanye West debacle too seriously, because that would present the rapper with the opportunity to fight back and thus prolong this unpleasant situation.

The Kanye West debacle

At the Grammys 2015, Kanye rushed on stage after Prince called out Beck’s name as the winner of the Album of the Year award, “joking” that he wanted to take the Grammy and hand it to Beyonce, next to whom he was seated.

Backstage, Kanye told the reporters that he believed Beyonce should have won, scolding Beck for not giving the award to her right after he was presented with it. By failing to do this, Beck (and the Grammys) disrespected artistry and gave grounds to real artists to stop showing up at the gala.

So it turned out that the “joke” was in earnest, because Kanye really did want to pull the same stunt he’d pulled on Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards 2009, when he also stood up for Beyonce by denying Taylor had any right to the Video of the Year award.

Beck responds in a very admirable manner

The Internet reacted accordingly to Kanye’s newest rant, by pretty much telling him that he needed a lesson in manners and professionalism. More recently, even Shirley Manson from Garbage schooled him on how not to act like a spoiled brat who kept throwing his toys away whenever something didn’t go as he imagined it would.

Beck isn’t playing this game, though. Asked by E! News what he thought of Kanye’s rant, he offers a very admirable answer: Kanye is Kanye and he does Kanye stuff. That doesn’t mean that he’s not a genius.

“I was so excited he was coming up! He deserves to be on that stage,” Beck says of the moment he saw the rapper heading towards him on stage. “Absolutely I thought [Beyonce] was going to win. Come on! She’s Beyonce!”

Winning took Beck by surprise too, but he’s not holding a grudge against Kanye for going on the record with his opinion that Beck isn’t a real artist. “I aspire to what he does. How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right?” he says, adding that Kanye is a genius who deserves respect.

We assume the implication is that, because he’s such a genius who delivers impressive work, he should be excused the occasional stupid outburst.