Taylor Swift gave Kanye West the MTV’s highest honor, the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Taylor acknowledged their legendary moment at the VMAs. “I first met Kanye West six years ago, at this show, actually,” she said, before revealing that, “College Dropout was the very first album my brother and I bought on iTunes.”
But Swift ended on a high note, informing all the other winners of the evening that, “I’m really happy for you and I’ma let you finish but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time.”
“Bro. Bro!” West, 38, began after collecting his trophy to a standing ovation. “Listen to the kids,” he said before thanking Swift. West’s speech touched on the fallout from the VMA incident, referencing boos that he received at sporting events, before musing, “If I had had a daughter at that time, would I have run onstage and grabbed the mic from someone else’s?”
“Would I have worn a leather shirt? Would I have drunk half a bottle of Hennessy?” he wondered.
“I’m not a politician, brah,” West said at one point. “I still don’t understand award shows,” he added.
But the speech took a serious turn at one point: “I will die for the art, for the art I believe in, and the art ain’t always gonna be polite,” West stated. Then it got a little less serious: “I know y’all might be thinking, ‘Did he smoke something before he came out here? And the answer is yes, I did roll a little something,” he continued.
“I have decided in 2020 to run for president,” he concluded.