Guess he wasn’t kidding after all? When Kanye West rushed the stage after Beck beat out Beyonce for Album of the Year at the Grammys on Sunday, Feb. 8, everyone assumed it was a joke, especially since he grinned and returned to his seat. He’d done it seriously once before, to Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs, but that had not gone over well.
Although he stopped himself from saying anything onstage this time, he couldn’t hold back during E!’s after show. Interviewed alongside wife Kim Kardashian, the “Only One” singer slammed the Grammys and said he thought Beyonce should have won the golden gramophone over Beck and everyone else in the category.
“I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us,” he told E! (via Billboard). “We ain’t gonna play with them no more. And Beck needs to respect artistry and he should’ve given his award to Beyonce.”
He went on to say that he was “tired” of the Grammys “diminishing” art and not giving credit where credit is due. “What happens is, when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration,” he said. “And we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day, and they listen to that Beyonce album and they feel like it takes them to another place.”
So what stopped him from going full Kanye and saying all of this onstage, in front of the crowd at Staples Center and the millions of people watching at home?
“I got my wife, I got my daughter, and I got my clothing line, so I’m not going to do nothing to put my daughter at risk — but I am here to fight for creativity,” he explained, referring to Kardashian and their little girl, North West. “That’s the reason why I didn’t say anything tonight. But you all know when it meant when ‘Ye walked on that stage.”
