Kanye Calls Out Taylor, Compares Himself To Steve Jobs & Walt Disney at VMAs

All things considered, you really can’t blame Taylor Swift for skipping this year’s VMAs.

Kanye West was given several minutes to do “whatever he wanted” at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, and as everyone was expecting, he took some of that time to call out things like Taylor, Amber Rose and violence against the black community.

“I came here to present my new video, but before I do that, I’mma talk,” Kanye announced, as the crowd interrupted several times with chants of “Yeezy, Yeezy.”

Entertainment Weekly has the full transcript here:

“Now, later tonight, ‘Famous’ might lose to Beyoncé but I can’t be mad. I’m always wishing for Beyoncé to win so… for people to understand just how blessed we are, [‘Famous’] was an expression of our now, our fame right now, us on the inside of the TV. You know, just to put… the audacity to put Anna Wintour right next to Donald Trump. I mean, I put Ray J in there bro! This is fame, bro! Like, I see you Amber… my wife is a G…

He also referenced the 22 people recently killed in Chicago to put things in perspective, before calling out his feud with Taylor Swift: “I love all y’all. That’s why I called her!”

Kanye also fired back at people who criticize him for calling himself a genius among the ranks of Picasso and Beethoven.

I know times for me, I sit down and talk to older, like, like, rich people, you know? A.K.A. White. And, uh, they tell me don’t compare yourself to Steve Jobs. Don’t compare yourself to Walt Disney. And my friend [J. Sakiya Sandifer], tells me, don’t compare yourself to these people. My friend [J. Sakiya Sandifer] told me there’s three keys to keeping people impoverished: taking away their esteem, their resources, and their role models. My role models are artists, merchants. There’s less than 10 I can name in history: Truman, Ford, Hughes, Disney, Jobs, West.

Kanye’s new music video starring Teyana Taylor is available as a TIDAL exclusive.