14 DAY TRIAL // Since many still can’t forget about the infamous “Imma let you finish…” VMA speech Kanye West gave in 2009, cutting short Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, the rapper is talking about it again, this time with the October issue of XXL Magazine.
The collector’s edition features Kanye on the cover, together with a full spread inside, as well as his first magazine editorial ever. Since he wrote it himself, the topic of the Taylor incident was bound to come up.
Just like he said on his Twitter page almost two weeks ago, the incident was not a result as a personal grudge he had against Taylor, nor something he did because he was a racist.
Simply put, Kanye didn’t stop to think how his actions would affect others, Taylor in particular. From that, people and the media spun things into something bigger, something he didn’t mean to happen.
“I stress that the incident wasn’t about Taylor personally. And it definitely wasn’t about race. Where I messed up is, at the end of the day, it’s your show, Taylor. It’s your show, MTV,” the rapper writes.
“The relationship with the public and with your fans is like the relationship with your girlfriend,” he the goes on to say, speaking about the aftermath of the incident.
“How could I not, at a certain point, be like, ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been at the awards show. I’m sorry.’ Not that I don’t deserve to get beat up or change who I am inside, to make sure that that doesn’t happen again,” he adds.
To prove that he realized his mistake, Kanye went into hiding, even prompting speculation on his whereabouts at one point. He dedicated himself to his work and to showing the fans he was a changed man.
“I knew I wasn’t in a great spot publicly after the incident, but I would just block it out and work as hard as possible and let my work be my saving grace,” the star writes.
“In a way, I had thrown a Molotov cocktail at my own career, and it gave me an opportunity, for the first time, to go away and find out who I was. Because I felt very alone,” Kanye explains.
The result of Kanye’s self-imposed isolation is fresh new music and even a 40-minute noir film called “Runaway,” which he sees as a parallel to his own story, that of a Phoenix risen from its own ashes.