Kanye West apologizing to George Bush is totally unnecessary. Lauer telling West that he’s only human, and that he makes mistakes is also unnecessary and condescending, especially when Bush’s apology for the government’s response to Katrina was so flimsy and passive. Also, drawing a parallel between West and Bush because West was accused of racism after the MTV incident kinda trivializes the whole Katrina thing a bit, and/or it makes the Taylor Swift thing seem way more important than it really is. I guess that’s the whole point of interviews like this? I don’t know. At least Lauer isn’t trying to make him cry like Leno did.
That said, West definitely overreacted on Twitter to Lauer’s interview technique, which is probably why West deleted his Lauer-related Tweets later on. Just in case you missed some of them, they went something like this:
I feel very alone very used very tortured very forced very misunderstood very hollow very very misused. I don’t trust anyone but myself! Everyone has an agenda. I don’t do press anymore. I can’t be everything to everybody anymore. I can’t be everybody’s hero and villain savior and sinner Christian and anti Christ! Everything sounds like noise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYTHING SOUNDS LIKE NOISE!!!!!!! I don’t trust anyone!
Weird, that was my yearbook quote. Anyway, watch his appearance on the Today Show, below:
Watching the telethon video again, it’s obvious that West was, at that moment, simply nervous and moved by the images coming out of New Orleans when he criticized George Bush. It’s also obvious that Mike Myers’s Second City improv skills were a little rusty:
I don’t know if Lauer asked West anything about My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but it’s out 11/22 via Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella.
UPDATE: Lauer mentions that he’s looking forward to West’s performance on the show on 11/26. West said in a Tweet that he’s canceling: “I’m not performing on the Today Show for obvious reasons. I’m so happy the world got to see just a small piece of ‘the set up’”
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My goodness, Matt Lauer is a slimy penis. Kanye, on the other hand, comes across as very judicious.
Matt Lauer showed him a picture of his Bush.
Matt Lauer can suck it
Just to be clear, Kanye was the first to make the parallel between Bush and himself both being accused of racism. Here’s the first thing I could find
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjTLUxaWtlM&feature=player_embedded#!
I’m pretty sure the only reason he’s responding so calmly and positively to this recent Bush interview is because he feels like he and W are now one in the same, wrongly accused of something nasty, and now he gets it and feels kinda bad.
Anyway, except for Kanye having a minor flip out at the Taylor Swift clip, I thought both parties kept it pretty reasonable. I’m just bummed he broke down there at the end. Sounded like we were about to hear a calm, collected explanation for the VMA incident.
I love Kanye and think the dude is a musical prodigy, genius, legend, etc but he bombs in interviews. He just doesn’t seem to be wired properly to handle the stress of unpleasant questions. It’s almost sad how careful he has to be with what he says to the media for fear of getting publicly belittled for an unpopular comment. Either way he’s channeled something incredibly special into this new album, I for one find it borderline epic.
Agreed, but he’s also sort of socially inept in general.
When he was on Conan to promote 808s he told him he needed to pee in the middle of the interview. That’s not caution towards the media, that’s someone ill equipt to be on television in that capacity. Which again, is fine, but he’d be better off if he just let the music speak for him.
On a side note though, there’s always been a disturbing tendency for older white men to talk down to Kanye, whether it be Lauer or Leno, they both treat him like a “bad child” and it’s insulting to watch a grown man be talked to like that. He’s right when he points out they’re doing all that “TV stuff” because in the simplistic moral realm of TV, you have a breakdown followed by public apology and redemption. None of which are neccesary for a guy who said something emotional after a tragedy (something that’s far easier to defend than Bush’s inaction) and did a dumb thing at an awards show.
When did Matt Lauer become Bush’s No.1 attack dog? I thought that was Sean Hannity’s job. Lauer really wanted that apology. Wow. He comes off as quite the dick.
I don’t have much to add to anything here, as I agree that Matt Lauer should be ashamed of himself for how he is practically begging for that apology, to humble the great Kanye West, but I gotta say that I think the Stereogum analysis of Kanye West here and in the PE have been pretty stellar. It’s made for some good reading lately. Gold Stars for Robot Boys (and Girls)!
I didn’t watch all of the Matt Lauer interview with Bush, so I’m curious, does he fish for apologies from him in the same way?
fish! kanye west! south park! ha!
…wait, you weren’t making a pun?
Agreed.
Stereogum FTW!
Matt Lauer has always hated Bush….it seems like maybe he too is getting nostalgic. And yeah, the analysis of Kanye has been fantastic. By far the most interesting pop star…Lady Gaga’s not even in the same conversation.
Watching this video, I agree that the Today’s show routine tactic of: “LOOK AT THIS LOOK AT THIS FEEL BAD ON CAMERA” is silly, it mostly just reminded me of what a shit bag Jay Leno is for trying to scold Kanye like a child on a much smaller deal.
Looking back on it, the Jay Leno method is especially insidious because he tried to use the memory of Kanye’s recently deceased mother to invoke guilt over an incident that was not a big deal at all. And for what, so that they can vault themselves up to a position of moral authority and say to Kanye “there now, don’t you feel better?”
Why does Kanye have so much credibility on this website? He comes across as a megalomaniacal turd who takes himself way too seriously. Kinda like Bush, circa 2002..
Because we like his songs, and his megalomaniac tendencies 1) Can also be entertaining and 2) Are not going to lead to disasterous government policies that will affect our lives in a meaningful way.
I agree that Kanye gets too much cred on this site. He’s got a big budget and no one to tell him no, so he puts out some funny stuff, but I don’t find any of it to be particularly memorable on either artistic terms or pop terms. It’s his confidence that what he is doing is awesome that makes him fun to watch. Just watch any of his latest SNL performances. Unfortunately, he is not awesome, at least not in the way he thinks he is. And yes, I am arbiter of what’s awesome.
I do however think George Bush didn’t care about black people during Katrina and am sad to hear Kanye back down from that assertion. If Nantucket was under water, that would have gone differently.
Wow he’s talking about someone being entertaining because they think thier awesome, yet you think you know what’s awesome. Wow dude, go out right now and check the reviews for MBDTW, I bet you couldnt crank out something as deep or thought provoking.
because it’s a hipster crap site. it’s ironic to like this idiot
I’d hate to be the person responsible for a former president’s worst moment of his presidency. That’s gonna hang over Kanye for many, many years to come and it doesn’t surprise me Kanye almost broke down. But if you ask me, it was very douchey of Bush to say it in the first place but as things go, even that comment will come back and bite him on the ass.
But wait a sec…
Didn’t Matt bring up the whole Kanye incident while interviewing Bush in the first place? Ok… nevermind the real douche here is Matt Lauer, typical TV talking-head digging his way to higher ratings.
Matt Lauer is completely condescending and belittling in this interview, point blank. He can deny it until he’s blue in the face, but he undoubtedly went into this interview with a clear agenda. Score one, once again for the quality of the American media system.
The obvious sequel to this is to have Kanye say he felt bad about Obama’s “jackass” comment, then have Obama do an interview where he has to watch Kanye feeling bad.
Thanks for reposting that 2005 clip. Goes to show that Kanye’s ALWAYS been a blathering idiot.
For ONCE, i would LOVE to see someone actually interview Kanye about his MUSIC, about what goes on in his head, and in the studio during his recording process, and how he makes the BRILLIANT FUCKING MUSIC he puts out. But no, we get Kanye being asked dumb ass questions about a comment he made 5 years ago about George Bush.
I’ve been seing alot of people quoting this interview on dif websites and saying that Kanye said he was sorry which isnt the case and I dont think he should necessarily be. Sure the race card aspect of it was obviously ignorant and watching the video again in retrospect he obviously didnt put too much thought into it. You can tell though that he didnt want matt to twist around his reasons for coming on to talk about it into something like he was sorry for the entire thing. Which from what I got out of this is that hes sorry that the race card was thrown in there but he doesnt regret the entire thing or calling bush out. Also props to kanye for calling matt out on playing those ridiculous videos while hes speaking just to get a reaction, what a douche.
I’m sure matt lauer has a big mirror at home that he spends alot of time in front of reciting motivational rhetoric. For some reason I’ve always thought his receeding hair comes off as smug…
Matt Lauer doesn’t care about black people.
Wow these comments are really spot on, with the exception of a few. Has it ever occured to these media douchebags, that when it comes to celebs whose words are spun in a diff directions, it’s Kanye that fits that position? But in a world where the media is simply lacking in any sort of morality, why does that comes as a suprise? This Matt Laurer guy is now officially on my worst newscaster lists, you don’t talk to guests like that in a condescending manner, when in fact it was them you asked and begged to come on you’re friggin show. And the formula is just SOOO BAD! I mean really showing video footage of something going on might work on Dr/ Phil or Oprah but you don’t do this crap on to celebs on a morning show. Given this, Kanye has every right to give up doing interviews, the only time I’ve ever seen someone interview him about his brilliant music was on the Conan’s show back in 2008. The guy has top notch stuff dropping in less than two weeks and all the media can do is make him feel like a little kid, rather than to advertise a great CD and help fuel the music industry, but immoral interviews always comes first right Matt Laurer?
Kanye is a child, man up! Or just make your music and shut up.
LMAO @ Scott “Matt Lauer showed him a picture of his Bush”. Now that’s funny folks, and probably true.
That was sad and pathetic. George Jr IS a racist, it’s been shown over and over again. Why put a music personality on the spot for getting in a good shot? K was a little impulsive, but he was saying what everyone else was saying.
If the shrub thinks that was the worst moment of his presidency, he really wasn’t paying any attention those years.
Matt, report on something real. Say something that matters, since you have the mike…