Kanye West hasn't learned to shut up. Just days after causing drama when he dissed Beck at the Grammy Awards, the musician and professional headline-grabber told Ryan Seacrest that the "voices in my head" told him to invade the stage AND he can offer a load of advice to the world's top hit-makers, because he's just so generous.
Seemingly wanting to clear the air after two days of headlines, Kanye called On Air with Ryan Seacrest early Wednesday morning to explain his side of the Grammys drama with Beck. During Sunday's ceremony, Beck was awarded Album of the Year for Morning Phase, a gong many, including Kanye, expected to go to Beyonce. The rapper was not happy and invaded the stage, like the infamous 'I'm going to let you finish Taylor..' moment in 2009. It seemed like a big joke at first, but Kanye told E! News after the ceremony that "Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé."
Kanye steals the Grammys spotlight from Beck (CBS)
Speaking to Seacrest today, Kanye said of the drama: "You know, I felt like just the whole Grammys, right when that happened, everybody was looking at me and then people started screaming, “Kanye! Kanye! Go do it!” Ok, that didn't really happen, these were voices in my head. So the voices in my head told me go and then I just walked up like halfway up the stage. You know, what I really wanted to do is just joke around about what had happened before, but I just really didn't want to take away from Beck's moment or the time he's having to talk because you know the Grammys, they play music really quick no matter who you are and everything. So I didn't want anything to take away from his screen time. So I just walked back down because you know, it was kind of a joke like the Grammys themselves."
When Ryan pointed out that it seemed pretty disrespectful to Beck, Kanye jumped in with "Well first of all, Beck is one of the nicest guys and one of the most respected musicians in the game. So, there's nothing that I will want to do as a fellow musician to disrespect him in any way. And the weird thing is like, and I don't feel like I have the right to take away from people's moments, but the reality of it is — and case in point by who came up to me right afterwards — is it's almost like a chiropractor. You know, you just get a little crook out like, “Wow, this crook has been there!” It's just a little jolt of truth, right? And then you know, everyone feels better after the fact, or everyone is way more famous after the fact, or everyone sells way more albums after the fact, and then Kanye just goes on being an a**hole to everyone."
What a night! Kanye puckers up to Kim K on the red carpet (AKM-GSI)
"And when I said that thing about respect artistry, I think it came off the wrong way, and that was a mis-wording on my part because obviously Beck is one the most respected artists and respects artistry. But I felt — and this is my opinion and he's his own man and he's not wrong and we'll still go play basketball and stuff [unless] he doesn't want to do it — but I felt that even though the Grammys some times gives awards to people who you wouldn't think should win in the category, as a respect to artists, we mention the other artist's name in our speech. And that was the point I was making about it. There's like many of times I gave other people my award, literally made them come up onstage. Maroon 5, when they won best new artist, [Adam Levine] mentioned me because it was the College Dropout and [it had] 10 nominations and all that."
Everyone clear? No? Kanye went on to confess his love for Taylor Swift, insisting that the two chart-toppers will "definitely" be going into the studio at some point. "Any artist with an amazing point of view, perspective, fan base, I'm down to get in the studio and work. I don't discriminate," he says. "I don't have an elitism of music because of like how many Grammys or you know, the amount of ratings you get on an album. I think that everyone loves music, whether they love hip-hop, alternative, country, and if I could be involved in giving people any type of energy, advice in the studio, whether you're Beyoncé, whether you're Taylor Swift, whether you're Jay Z, whether you're Beck, whoever, and they can be reciprocal with that, I'd like to be involved with that."
