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You may not get a full-on apology from Kanye West but you’ll get a couple of explanations. The controversial rapper-producer clarified statements again that he made about Beck during a phone interview with ‘On Air With Ryan Seacrest’ on Wednesday morning (Feb. 11).
It seems that Yeezy feels all the backlash that has come his way since his E! News rant, has been misconstrued. Now West is trying to clear things up.
The ‘Only One’ rapper insists that he wasn’t trashing Beck when he said that he should “respect artistry.” “I think it came off the wrong way, and that was a mis-wording on my part because obviously Beck is one of the most respected artists and respects artistry,” he said. “Beck is one of the nicest guys and one of the most respected musicians in the game. So, there’s nothing that I will want to do as a fellow musician to disrespect him in any way.
He then pointed to a time when he lost an award to pop band Maroon 5 as an example.
“There’s like many of times I gave other people my award, literally made them come up onstage,” the Chicago native explained. “Maroon 5, when they won Best New Artist, [Adam Levine] mentioned me because it was ‘The College Dropout’ and [it received] 10 nominations at that.”
West also wanted to make it clear that it’s not a race thing between him and Beck.
“I want to stress to people that it’s not a black or white thing at all,” he says. “It’s not me always standing up for a black artist. I feel that racism is a distraction to humanity. We are one race, we are the human race, period.”
He also added that the Grammys tend to project their elitism and classism on the artists, which is why they don’t always get it right when it comes to honoring the correct artist in a particular category.
“I felt that even though the Grammys sometimes gives awards to people who you wouldn’t think should win in the category, as a respect to artists, we mention the other artist’s name in our speech,” he stated.
The ‘Late Registration’ creator also said he plans to work with Taylor Swift, despite their beef from years ago when he interrupted her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
“She wants to get in the studio and we’re definitely going to go in” he promised. “Any artist with an amazing point of view, perspective, fan base, I’m down to get in the studio and work.”
