To be blunt, I watched the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards because of one man: Kanye West. It would probably sound better to say I watched it for Beyoncé’s show-stealing performance, Rihanna’s Lifetime Achievement Award or even the chance to see The Chainsmokers crash and burn on stage. But it was the promised four minutes of unfiltered Yeezy that looked to make the VMAs Very Much Awesome.
And why wouldn’t it? Kanye is single-handedly responsible for some of the yearly award show’s most entertaining — and entertainingly awkward — moments in forever. From the Great Interruption of 2009 to last year’s announcement of presidential ambitions, anytime West graces MTV’s aggressively neon stage it’s guaranteed to be stop-and-stare worthy.
Except the one year he was supposed to be.
Not that Kanye’s four-minute speech wasn’t predictably Kanye. It touched on all his favorite topics: fame, his own brilliance and the notably absent Taylor Swift. It contained enough awkward silences and “bro!”s to make the world’s most awkward bro feel right at home. But as far as ‘Ye speeches go — this one felt tame.
“My role models are artists, merchants,” he professed. “There’s less than 10 I can name in history. Truman, Ford, Hughes, Disney, Jobs, West.”
It was a simple introduction to Kanye’s 2016 ideas; a syllabus day refresher in the course “The Rhetoric of West.” And while the delivery was scattered at best (at one point culminating in a screamed “BRO!! BROOOOOO!!”), the actual thoughts strayed away from the controversy that both plagued Kanye and made him a VMA staple. There was even a self-aware joke about his infamous support of Beyoncé, an oddity from the 39-year-old rapper.
But it was just the calm before the storm. After heartfelt shoutouts to his wife, Chance the Rapper and 2 Chainz, Kanye did what MTV was banking on: He made people talk.
“I’m gonna play y’all a piece of my art and I hope y’all have a good time,” he smiled before debuting the video for his grooving The Life of Pablo track “Fade.”
Across America, young fans of the Jonas Brothers, watching the VMAs with their parents, were introduced to Kanye’s directorial vision in the form of Teyana Taylor’s nearly nude, writhing body — and not much else. The 80s-styled video made Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj’s cunnilingus-themed performance seem relatively prudish. But despite being single-handedly responsible for the premature sexual awakening of America’s youth, “Fade” actually works much better as a video than the immensely provocative “Famous”: It’s aesthetically pleasing and well-produced, much less experimental.
And when the video’s shocking conclusion arrived in the form of shower sex, Iman Shumpert, feline transformation and a number of sheep (piece it together yourself), Kanye’s fairly reserved speech made more sense: Why steal the show from yourself when you have something that will do it for you?
