Everyone watching the Grammys was in shock and awe when Prince presented Beck with the Album of the Year award, especially since he was in the same category as Beyoncé. Everyone also thought Kanye West was joking when he ran onstage, then immediately went back to his seat with a smile on his face—pretty much because West did the same thing years back when Taylor Swift beat out Beyoncé in a Grammy category.
But the laugh is on everyone who thought West was just kidding around. Because he wasn’t.
In an interview with E!, West discussed the real reason he jumped onstage.
“All I know is if the Grammys want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain’t gonna play with them no more. Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé, and at this point, we tired of it,” West stated. “Because what happens is, when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration, and we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day and they listen to that Beyoncé album and they feel like it takes them to another place.”
He continued: “Then they do this whole promotional event, they’ll run the music over somebody’s speech, the artist, because they want commercial advertising. Like, no, we not playing with them no more. By the way, I got my wife, my daughter and my clothing line, so I’m not going to do nothing to put my daughter at risk, but I am here to fight for creativity. That’s the reason why I didn’t say anything tonight. But you all know what it meant when ’Ye walks on the stage.”
And here’s the priceless reaction from Beyoncé and Jay Z as their friend took the stage again. What would be more interesting to know is how Beyoncé actually felt when she found out she’d lost to an album that some people only realized existed on the night of the Grammys.