We all remember the Kanye West/Taylor Swift encounter at the 2009 VMAs; she won an award, accepted it looking so happy and fresh-faced and innocent, and then Kanye stormed the stage and declared Beyonce the real winner, shattering Taylor’s moment and working the media into a hot frenzy.
Now, Gawker says they’ve obtained a recording supposedly taken at an afterparty later that night which captured Kanye going off about the whole thing to a table of fellow musicians. The rant is interspersed with swearing, boasting, and musician-bashing, which certainly sounds like something Kanye would say. You can listen to the audio here and judge for yourself. Below is a transcript, courtesy of Gawker.
It probably doesn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: the audio is riddled with swear words, NSFW.
I’d rather just let the [inaudible] speak for itself. You know, it’s like, I was happy to be in a situation where people couldn’t say, oh, I was trying to promote my own song. For the times that I’ve, like, defended myself… [Tape break] I’m pushing the envelope! I wrote my fuckin’ ‘Run This Town’ verse for a fuckin’ month! When I heard Eminem’s verse on the Drake shit, I went back and rewrote my shit for two days. I canceled appointments to rewrite! I fuckin’ care! You know what I’m saying? And that’s what I’m saying. Because I did that, Taylor Swift cannot win over Beyoncé! Because I wrote my verse in two days, Taylor Swift cannot beat Beyoncé. As long as I’m alive! And if I’m alive, kill me then! Kill me then! As long as I’m alive, you gon’ have to deal with it. ‘Cause there ain’t gonna be no more motherfucking Elvises with no James Browns.
[A female voice asks, “Why are you so angry? What’s the anger?”] Because my mother got arrested for the fuckin’ sit-ins. My mother died for this fame shit! I moved to fuckin’ Hollywood chasing this shit. My mother died because of this shit. Fuck MTV.It ain’t no love. What the fuck was Pink performing? Don’t nobody know that song. Pink performed twice! Two songs? How the fuck Pink perform two songs and I didn’t even get asked to perform “Heartless.” “Heartless” is the biggest song of the year! It had the most spins of the first quarter! I don’t know that Pink song! But I noticed that she’s pink! They put me in a fuckin’ room and [inaudible – maybe “projected it”].
[A male voice asks, “How the fuck did Eminem get the Best Hip-Hop song in 2008?”] Eminem won Best Video! Rap Video! Yo, when he wont that shit, I was so happy. I was so happy I [unclear – “ran all this shit,” maybe]. I said, “Nigga, I’m gon’ do this until y’all put a bullet in my head. I’m runnin’ up to y’all, put a…” [tape cuts].