If there's anyone who's benefiting from the Kanye West and Taylor Swift VMA speech disruption, it's Jay Leno. The former Tonight Show host launched a new show yesterday and asked the controversial rapper questions that he knew would generate much buzz. A humiliated Yeezy opened up on his self reflection in the aftermath of his pro-Beyonce outburst.
Kanye didn't exactly bawl, but he got choked up and his responses kind of broke my heart. There really is no excuse for what he did and I think missing his mom does not replace common sense or the benefits of sobriety (he was drinking on the red carpet), but it must be very difficult to deal with your mistakes publicly. Backlash is no joke.
Kanye said, "It was just very rude, period."
"Obviously, I deal with hurt, and so many celebrities, they never take the time off, and I never took the time off, really. I've really never taken the time off. It's been music after music and tour after tour. And I'm just ashamed my hurt caused someone else hurt."
I'm all for Kanye taking time off if that time off includes some extensive therapy. The man needs help! His Napoleon complex has been raging outta control for years now and I truly believe that he would continue to act the fool if he didn't receive such negative responses on Sunday.
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September 15th, 2009 2:20 PM
Kanye came across as sincere to me when I watched him on the Jay Leno show last night, but two main things struck my mind though: why did the majority of the studio audience applaud when he walked out to greet Leno and why was he coddling to West throughout the interview?!
It seems like they were all rewarding his behavior to some degree from Sunday night! This is America, Kanye has the right to explain himself (ahem, for the third time), so Leno wasn't rewarding him by granting him an interview, however.
Okay, the new Jay Leno show is not exactly a Meet the Press news program. However, more hardball questions should have still been lobbed at West in addition to the "what would your mother have thought?" question, which was great but somewhat personal for Leno to have asked in the first place. Leno could have gone increasingly further to press West about his behavior at past award shows and his notioriously ass-holish public attitude. Leno is not a journalist, but it still would have been nice for him to ask though.
And it was just awkward to me that West had just conducted that brief emotional interview with Leno and abruptly stood up afterwards to walk to the stage to perform with Rhianna and Jay-Z immediately afterwards. Strange timing.
In all, it seemed West genuinely wants to change his negative public persona for the better (I don't think they were crocodile tears from him in the interview) and Leno could have done an improved job with the interview without the cringe-worthy repeated slapping of Kanye's knee and acting like the caring, surrogate parent of West. Just kiss-assish. I guess that's Leno, though.
Tense, emotional, and awkward interview for me to watch. Whether it's effective PR for Kanye remains to be seen in the long run, though...