Kanye West made headlines this week for accidentally insisting that a wheelchair-bound concertgoer stand up. The rapper reportedly insisted that everyone in the audience at a recent concert in Sydney, Australia stand up before he continued the show. West spotted the handicapped person sitting and had his bodyguard check on the situation before continuing with the show.
The incident was blown out of proportion in the entertainment media, with even fans at the concert stating that it was obviously a mistake. Tabloids stumbled over themselves to spur outrage over the amusing concert moment.
Kanye causes outrage AGAIN after demanding disabled fans stand up at a gig in his latest rant: http://t.co/nKG8YXsaES pic.twitter.com/VndNxnZd2u
— The Sun (@TheSunNewspaper) September 13, 2014
Despite the overblown nature of the coverage surrounding the incident, West remained strangely silent on social media. Now, the rapper has responded, attacking the media in a rant during his final Australian concert.
According a Daily Beast report, West spent five minutes on-stage in Sydney speaking about the “sensationalized” coverage and several other topics. West invited everyone at the concert to share the video of the wheelchair incident.
“It’s like, ‘Welcome to today’s news, ladies and gentlemen,'” said West. “We’ve got Americans getting killed on TV. We have kids getting killed every weekend in Chicago. We have unarmed people getting killed by police officers.”
“You know, it makes you want to just reflect on what are the things that are a little bit more sensationalized than others.”
West said that he chose the concert as his venue to respond so that he could speak directly to his fans. He said that if he had not had one last concert in Australia he may have tweeted a response or released an official statement. The rapper also challenged the media to stop “demonizing” him.
“I’m a married Christian man with a family,” said West. “At my concerts I make sure everybody has as good a time as possible. So all this demonizing me…it ain’t gonna work after a while. Pick a new target. Pick a new target. ‘Cause I’m not one of these dumbass artists that you’re used to. You come at me, I’m going to take my platform and i’m going to break this shit down for real, intelligent people every night so they can understand – then we’ll get back to the music.”