He didn't get famous by not stirring the pot.
There's the contentious divorce, the Twitter rants, the trainwreck shows, his bid for president,
and his polarizing stance on everything else.
Here's a peek into the mind of Kanye West.
"I'm in front of the joke.
The joke is on everyone else."
Even people who aren't fans of Kanye West or Taylor Swift know about him storming the
MTV VMAs stage and crashing Swift's acceptance speech.
But for anyone feeling foggy on the specifics, it was back in 2009 when Swift won the award
for Best Female Video.
Unsatisfied with the results, West unexpectedly took the stage and grabbed the mic for himself,
saying,
"Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the
best videos of all time!
One of the best videos of all time!"
In the audience, Beyoncé looked shocked by the display.
But, of course, the embarrassment was a million times worse for Swift.
The backlash was fast and furious.
Even Obama called West out for his bad behavior.
Eventually, the two artists would make peace with the incident and seemingly put West's
outburst behind them.
"You don't have to forgive, and you don't have to forget, to move on.
You can move on without any of those things happening."
But the white flag wouldn't last for very long.
Fast forward to 2020 when West claimed on Nick Cannon's podcast,
"If God didn't want me to run on stage and say Beyoncé had the best video, he wouldn't
have sat me in the front row."
Back in 2005, NBC hosted a fundraiser concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina — featuring
stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Harry Connick Jr., Lindsay Lohan, and of course, Kanye West.
But when it was Kanye's turn on the mic, he ignored the teleprompter and offered an impromptu
speech instead.
After reflecting on how the media poorly portrayed the Black community, he famously stated,
"George Bush doesn't care about Black people."
West would later defend his comments on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," claiming he was just
being honest.
He also garnered support from Jay-Z and Reverend Al Sharpton, who cited the right to free speech.
But President George W. Bush definitely didn't agree with anything West said.
"I resent it, it's not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments in my presidency."
In 2018, West would again address the incident, offering this explanation to People:
"I was very emotional and I was programmed to think from a victimized mentality.
Of a welfare mentality."
Things between Kanye and Taylor Swift had seemingly mellowed out since the VMAs incident.
So much so, that in 2015, Swift even told Vanity Fair,
"Kanye and I both reached a place where he would say really nice things about my music
and what I've accomplished, and I could ask him how his [kids are] doing."
But by 2016, the pair's feud reignited with the release of Kanye's track "Famous."
At the time, a rep for Swift stated via Billboard that West never alerted her to the now infamous
lyric, "I made that b---- famous."
The argument centered around a phone call West made to Swift regarding the song before
its release.
West claimed Swift had approved the lyric beforehand.
And even Kim Kardashian spoke out in defense of her then-husband.
"You give me some advice, but I don't listen to it."
But by 2020, the entire call would be leaked via Rolling Stone.
It revealed that Swift had not been made aware of the phrase in the track, bringing a much-needed
end to the lyrical beef.
As a polarizing figure himself, perhaps it comes as no surprise that Kanye naturally
associates with other controversial stars.
And in 2021, West brought Marilyn Manson and DaBaby — who were facing sexual assault
and anti-gay allegations — onstage for a "Donda" listening event.
Immediately after, fans took to social media to slam the move.
While some suggested it was West's attempt at addressing the pitfalls of cancel culture,
another tweeted:
"Wait so Kanye has DaBaby and Marilyn Manson on the stage with him?
A homophobe and an alleged abuser?!?
I cannot."
Regardless, the performance was not at all the first time Kanye was called out for his
contentious connections.
Back in 2016, he sparked outrage when he tweeted:
"BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!"
Everyone from A-listers to fans shared their shock and disappointment with West's statement.
And as Billy Eichner offered on Twitter,
"Are we sure Kanye isn't just a character from 'Zoolander'?"
In 2018, Kanye again made headlines after notoriously telling TMZ,
"When you hear about slavery for 400 years.
For 400 years?!
That sounds like a choice."
During the interview in-studio, Kanye discussed everything from what he called "free thought"
to his admiration for Donald Trump.
But after he made the remark about slavery, TMZ staffer Van Lathan confronted the rapper,
stating,
"I'm appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into
something, to me, that's not real."
Kanye immediately apologized to Lathan, but the damage was already done.
According to Vox, Kanye then apologized on a Chicago radio station — which only made
his eventual 2020 presidential campaign even more baffling.
As Entertainment Weekly noted, during a rally in Charleston, South Carolina, the artist
went on several rants, one of which focused on Harriet Tubman.
One fan recorded him saying,
"Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves.
She just had the slaves go work for other white people."
As Kanye turned up the salaciousness, fans turned away from his platform.
In 2016, during a show in San Jose, California, Kanye claimed that even though he didn't vote,
he would have voted for Trump.
According to Politico, some concertgoers immediately threw various items at the stage.
But upon closer investigation, the situation got even more complex.
West and Trump shared a somewhat strange history.
Reportedly, back in 2009, Trump advised TMZ to boycott West over his, quote, "disgusting"
behavior with Taylor Swift at the VMAs.
Still, by 2016, the air had apparently cleared a bit.
And Trump wished Kanye and Kim well on their marriage during a sit-down with Extra.
That same year, the duo met the president-elect at Trump Tower — just to chit-chat — at
Kanye's request.
"We've been friends for a long time."
In 2018, West tweeted out his love for the president and famously visited Trump at the
White House.
But, by 2020, things had slightly soured for Kanye, however briefly.
As he sat down with Forbes to discuss his 2020 presidential run, Kanye noted,
"I am taking the red hat off, with this interview."
In true on-brand fashion, Kanye announced his run for president on the Fourth of July
in 2020, tweeting:
"We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building
our future.
I am running for president of the United States."
"We will be the kind of nation, the kind of people God intends us to be."
Fans and critics went wild, with many wondering how serious he could possibly be about the
White House.
Of course, the rapper had plenty to share about his political values.
Claiming he was running on the newly-minted Birthday Party ticket, Kanye explained to
Forbes,
"Because when we win, it's everybody's birthday."
With a polarizing stance on everything from vaccines to Black History Month, unfortunately,
Kanye's presidential run eventually came to an end.
As Billboard reported, West ultimately received 60,000 votes and zero delegates after sinking
almost $6 million into the operation.
But his vision for the country lives on; it's still each of our birthdays one day out of
the year.
If you're a Kanye fan, you have learned to expect the unexpected.
And in 2016, while he was in Sacramento for the "Saint Pablo" tour, Kanye stopped everything
in the middle of his track "Famous" to go on a 15-minute rant.
At the time, he was just three songs in.
"I want people to come to the 'Pablo' shows and know it's just gonna be the best time
they had in their life."
West first addressed the confused audience, then went on a tangent about Google and Facebook,
claiming that they were spreading lies to the entire world.
From there, he slammed the amount of radio time that artists like Drake and DJ Khaled
typically get, while also commenting on politics and then Mark Zuckerberg.
West wrapped things up by noting the inevitable media blitz about his speech, saying,
"Get ready to have a field day, press."
Then, he canceled the rest of the show, walking away from what amounted to a 30-minute concert.
"I think I use art as a superpower to protect myself in a capitalistic world."
While some of West's controversial actions might cross into the realm of performance
art, it's not hard to see why he managed to stir things up when he brought Jesus into
it.
While West commonly expresses spiritual enlightenment in his songs, ABC News took his 2006 Rolling
Stone cover to task, for going too far.
As the outlet noted, in "Yeezus," the rapper refers to himself as "a God," and in "I Don't
Like," he compares himself to Jesus with a line claiming he's been crucified by bad press
— just like Christ was crucified on a cross.
TIME also pointed to his album "Jesus Is King," in which Kanye alleges he is judged just like
Noah was, before the flood.
According to the outlet, reactions were split, with West receiving support from gospel artists,
and criticism from theologists.
Kanye's Sunday Service also drew backlash, with outlets like Premier Christianity magazine
noting,
"He's employing a choir of people who are not only singing his songs, but are all dressed
in his apparel.
Is Christ really at the center of this gathering?"
In January 2022, TMZ reported that West was under investigation for allegedly physically
attacking one of his fans.
Kanye supposedly shoved and punched a fan who wanted an autograph, ultimately knocking
him to the ground.
Witnesses claim that West told the reported victim he didn't want to be photographed,
before things got physical.
But the investigation apparently hasn't slowed down any of Kanye's plans for early 2022 — including
"Donda 2" and Coachella.
According to The Mercury News, Kanye was previously arrested in 2008 and 2013 for reportedly attacking
photographers who were just trying to get shots of the rapper.
In both cases, he was prosecuted and ordered by a judge to receive anger management counseling.
The victims in those cases also received undisclosed settlements.
Even die-hard Kanye fans probably cringe when he makes comments about his children in the
press.
Back in 2020, during his run for president, West revealed that his then-wife, Kim, had
considered an abortion before giving birth to their daughter, North West.
But in the years since, even more from Kanye has hit the mainstream media — seemingly
triggered by the couple's divorce, and Kardashian's new boyfriend, Pete Davidson.
In early February 2022, Page Six reported that Kanye claimed in a since-deleted Instagram
post that Kardashian was preventing him from seeing their daughter Chicago — and had
even kidnapped her.
On Super Bowl Sunday in 2022, West released a series of Instagram posts, directed at his
family, Davidson, or both.
And as part of one of them, he said to Davidson,
"NO YOU WILL NEVER MEET MY CHILDREN."
A later post was focused on the same topic with the artist stating,
"I DIDNT WAKE UP AND FIGHT FOR MY FAMILY TO TREND OVER THE SUPER BOWL."
"Other than that, it's pretty — it's pretty fine.
It's not, like, it's not awful.
Like, it could be way worse."
Further illustrating the devastating toll that the messy split has taken on the entire
family, West claimed that he simply wanted to watch the big game with Kim and their kids.
Since their divorce, and during their contentious separation, West has made plenty of shocking
statements about his now ex-wife, Kim.
Us Weekly noted that during a speech on Skid Row, Kanye claimed that he bought the house
next door to Kardashian.
And he alluded to the possibility that God would ultimately reunite the pair.
The outlet also noted West's callout to Kardashian during a 2021 benefit concert in Los Angeles,
during which he incorporated the phrasing,
"I need you to run right back to me.
More specifically, Kimberly."
Then, in January 2022, the rapper made the wild claim that he allegedly prevented a second
sex tape of Kardashian and Ray J from getting out.
"I haven't had a movie premiere in a really long time.
I mean, actually, I only had that one movie come out, and no one told me it was even premiering."
And in a convo with Hollywood Unlocked, West said that Kim cried when he delivered the
video to her.
He then declared that those tears from Kardashian showed how no one really loves her and proved
that she's just a family commodity.
Then, in February 2022, Us Weekly reported on one of Kanye's deleted Instagram posts
in which he claimed,
"YESTERDAY KIM ACCUSED ME OF PUTTING A HIT OUT ON HER."
Despite a brief relationship with actor and model Julia Fox, Kanye's pleas for Kardashian
to rekindle their relationship and bring their family back together have only heightened,
ever since their split.
"I'm sure there's still some sort of residual feelings and it's like, it's normal, it's
human."
While we can see only a small portion of the real story from the outside, we wish both
West and Kardashian the best as they work through this sensitive matter with their children.
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