As Kanye West wrapped up his Australian Yeezus tour in Brisbane overnight, he gifted fans with a lengthy anti-media rant. The subject of this rant was the way media organisations have handled the incident which took place during one of Kanye’s Sydney shows, in which the rapper stopped performing after wheelchair-bound fans didn’t stand up.
As seen in footage of the rant (below), Kanye began by discussing Matt Lauer, host of the Today show in the US. “I wanna start with Matt Lauer, because I heard the [wheelchair] story’s gonna hit the Today show tomorrow,” Kanye said. “Matt, when this runs tomorrow morning, I want you to do me a favor. Don’t try to force me into some fake apology like the last time I was on the show with you.”
Kanye then addressed the wheelchair incident directly, teasing Lauer to run the footage of the incident (below) in an attempt to “demonise” Kanye. “What I want you to do, Matt, what I want you to do is I want you to run the video that everyone is talking about where I so-called screamed at somebody. I want you to run that, since this is such big media press news and obvious shit where you try to demonise people,” Kanye said.
The rapper furthered this, offering comparisons to other news stories currently flooding news channels. “We got Americans getting killed on TV, we got kids getting killed every week in Chicago, we got unarmed people being killed by police officers,” he said, attempting to suggest that his Sydney wheelchair incident isn’t as news-worthy.
“[The media] got this thing where they want the masses, people who never even heard one of my albums, to somehow read a headline that reads negative and to think I’m a bad person or something,” Kanye told the Brisbane crowd. “I’m a married Christian man with a family,” he continued, met by loud cheers from fans.
“At my concerts, I make sure everybody has as good of a time as possible… Pick a new target, because I’m not one of those dumb ass artists you’re used to.”
Kanye also addressed the controversy which often follows him, calling himself “a true artist” and defending his personal brand. “Oh, so wait a second, that’s like my brand. I curse, I say really offensive [things],” Kanye said. “This is rap-fucking-music. This is real music, this is real expression, this is real artistry.”
Footage of Kanye West’s Sydney wheelchair incident emerged online only yesterday, confirming that once Kanye was made aware of wheelchair-bound fans in attendance, he jumped right into the song Goodlife.
Earlier in the Yeezus tour, Kanye went into rant mode during one of his Melbourne shows, in which he appeared to tell off members of his management team, not the media.
Watch: Kanye West’s Rant On The Media (Brisbane, 15/09/14)
http://youtu.be/OUDmXNCX8Y4
Watch: Kanye West’s Wheelchair Incident (Sydney, 12/09/14)
