Kanye West is making headlines with his presidential campaign. However, this is not the first time that the billionaire rapper shocked the world and drew criticism. Here are some of the Kanye West's most controversial moments:
Mic Steal from Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift won "Best Female Music Video" during the MTV Video Music Awards. During her acceptance speech, Kanye West went up the stage to interrupt and steal the mic from Swift.
At first, the billionaire rapper assured Swift that he was "happy for her and would let her finish." However, he expressed his disagreement by sharing that "Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time." West believes that "Single Ladies" deserved the award more than Swift did.
The interruption drew a lot of criticism from fellow musicians, journalists, and even former President Barack Obama.
Running for President
As if interrupting Taylor Swift was not enough, he shocked everyone again during another MTV Video Music Awards when he announced he is running for president. He delivered the announcement when he received the "Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award." The rapper said he will be running for president in 2020. He also tweeted "2024" back in April 2018, implying that he intends to run during that year instead. Fast forward to today, it appears that he stayed true to his initial words. Kanye West is making his way into the presidential ballots and hoping to get elected this coming November.
Support for Trump
Many fans knew that West did not identify with any political party. However, he tweeted his support for President Donald Trump in 2018. He showed fans his signed MAGA hat, expressing that he backs Trump's vision to "Make America Great Again." Because of this, celebrities and friends unfollowed him on Twitter. Additionally, West received criticism for supporting Trump and clarified in another tweet that "you don't have to agree with Trump." He further clarified his political stance by releasing the song "'Ye vs. the People." Additionally, he admitted that he only agrees to "half" of what Trump does.
Million Debt
In 2016, the billionaire rapper revealed in true heart that "he was 53 million dollars in personal debt." On top of that, he reached out to businessmen to invest in his ideas - one of which was Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Naturally, many were shocked knowing that West was successful in his music and fashion lines. The rapper later clarified that the debt was to be invested for his business projects and that he was doing well on his own.
Slavery Was a Choice
In a TMZ interview back in 2018, Kanye West suggested that "when you hear about slavery for 400 years. That's not like a choice." He implies that the slaves back in the day could have chosen to rebel and take arms for freedom. The show's host Harvey Levin and show's producer Van Lathan were shocked that both had to interrupt and disagree with West. Many criticized West for his comments, prompting the latter to delete some of his tweets trying to defend his stance. In some of those deleted tweets, he clarified that he was referring to a state of mind rather than an escape to the oppressive system.
