Kanye West urinates on Grammy award in bizarre Twitter video
Kanye West has taken his “stream of consciousness” to a new level in another Twitter rant that saw him upload a bizarre video involving one of his Grammy Awards.
Amid a long and convoluted Twitter spree in which he called the music industry “modern day slavery,” the rapper and presidential hopeful appeared to urinate on one of his Grammy awards that was placed in a toilet.
It’s no secret that Kanye has been angry over his recording contracts, of which he says he has 10 in total with Universal Music Group (home to West’s GOOD label as well as Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam, which have put out West’s music).
Calling himself the “new Moses”, Kanye continues to make the point that the music industry is “modern day slavery,” seemingly because he does not have the ownership he wants of his music.
But his unhappiness extends beyond his own deal, leading him to lash out at the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammys, by taking one of his 21 awards, placing in a toilet bowl and peeing on it.
“Trust me, I won’t stop,” Kanye, who also compared himself to Nat Turner, leader of a slave rebellion in the 1830s, captioned the video.
Kanye is also reportedly upset with his deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, going so far as to posting the contracts online - pages upon pages of documents, uploaded one after the other.
“90% of the record contracts on the planet are still on a royalty A standard record deal is a trap to NEVER have you recoup, and there’s all these hidden costs like the ‘distribution fees’ many labels put in their contracts to make even more money off our work without even trying,” he said in subsequent Tweets.
He went on to say he would “do everything in my legal power and use my voice until all artist contracts are changed”.
“I will not stop I promise you. I am petty and very personal.”
But his rant extended to a little of everything.
Long upset with Forbes magazine for taking so long to declare him a billionaire, he posted the phone number of editor Randall Lane.
He urged his fans to call him, dubbing him a “white supremacist.” Twitter removed the tweet soon after, saying it “violated the Twitter Rules.”
Kanye called for other peers to help him in his fight, from Bono, to some he has continued to feud with for years like Taylor Swift and Drake. (Taylor ironically did not receive similar support from West when she was fighting over her masters last year.)
He did get producer Hit-Boy (real name: Chauncey Alexander Hollis), with whom he has feuded with, to agree with him on the topic.
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But Kanye’s messaging was generally all over the place, with tweets within the rant about the music business touching on topics like his daughter’s favourite emoji, Nick Cannon, Michael Jackson and God, among others.
It is well-documented that Kanye has bipolar disorder. His first presidential event on the campaign trail in July, in which he publicly revealed that he and wife Kim Kardashian nearly aborted their eldest child North, led to the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star trying to have him placed in an involuntary psychiatric hold.
At the time, Kardashian issued a rare statement about her “brilliant and complicated” husband’s struggle with bipolar disorder, which he was diagnosed with in 2016, saying she was “powerless” in helping him during his episode until he himself wanted to be helped.
The couple eventually reconciled. Kim hasn’t publicly commented on the video of him apparently urinating in the Twitter video, but yesterday he posted a video of a black hoodie that said “Kim is my lawyer.” (Kardashian is studying to become a lawyer.)
As for Kanye’s run for office, which is an uphill battle at this point as he’s left off the ballot in many states, West told the New York Times that while 2020 may not be his year, he vows to be present eventually. The story about West was another odd one with a source working with the star telling the paper West asked his campaign staffers to “refrain from ‘fornicating’ outside of marriage,” as part of his anti-abortion beliefs.
Additional reporting by Suzy Byrne.