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Kanye West VMAs Speech Transcript Is A Bit Confusing

by Zakiya Jamal

It seems every year at the VMAs, Kanye West does something that the world will never forget. This year MTV decided to save viewers all the trouble of waiting for him to do something surprising by giving him four minutes to do whatever he wanted. As was to be expected West gave us quite possibly the greatest VMAs speech of all time. If you missed it, check out the full transcript of Kanye West's VMAs speech below and you decide if he was actually speaking true wisdom or just rambling.

I am Kanye West and that feels really great to say especially this year. I came here to present my new video but before I do that, imma talk now.
Later tonight, "Famous" might lose to Beyoncé but I can't be made because I'm always wishing for Beyoncé to win. But for people to understand just how blessed we are, it was an expression of our now, our fame, right now. Us on the inside of the TV. You know, the audacity to put Anna Wintour next to Donald Trump. I put Ray J in there bro. This is fame, bro. I see you Amber. My wife is a G. Not a lotta people's wives would let them say that. We came over on the same boat, now we all in the same bed. Maybe different boats.
But if you think about last week there was 22 people murdered in Chicago. You know like people come to me like, "Man that's right tell Taylor to..." Bro, like, I love all of y'all. That's why I called her. So I was speaking at the Art Institute last year and one kid came up to me and said, "three of my friends died and I don't if I'm gonna be next." And you have to think like, you know when you're a senior, and it's like it's the last month and you just don't feel like doing anymore work? If you like you're seeing people dying right next to you, you might feel like what's the point? You start to feel worthless in a way.
I know times for me I sit down and talk to older like rich people.Yyou know, AKA, white. And they tell me, "don't compare yourself to Steve Jobs. Don't compare yourself to Walt Disney." And my friend, Zakiya, told me, "Ay yo bruh bruh." They tell me don't compare yourselves to these people. My friend Zakiya told me.
There's three keys to keeping people impoverished. That's taking away their esteem, taking away their resources, and taking away their role models. My role models are artists, merchants. Less than 10 that I can name initially. Truman, Ford, Hughes, Disney, Jobs, West. Bro. Bro!
Tonight we're going to have fun. I'm standing in front my idol, Puff Daddy. I'm standing in front of my wife, Kim Kardashian-West. I'm standing in front of the future, Chance the Rapper. 2 Chainz. Bro. We are undeniably the influence, the thought leaders. I'm going to play y'all a piece of my heart and I just hope y'all have a good time. Play that.

Overall West's speech touched on everything everyone probably expected to hear. He referenced Beyoncé and Swift and even mentioned the phone call now heard around the world. It was perfectly West and everything that MTV probably expected when they gave him those four minutes. Brilliant.