VMAs 2015: The Best GIFs, Tweets, Videos, & Kanye West’s Speech
Out of all the award shows, the VMAs seems to be the one to have the most memorable moments, though most of them are probably manufactured by the network itself. Thanks to the power of Twitter and technology, everything shows up online almost instantaneously, and we’re collecting all the #hashtag-worthy moments right here for you to peruse and enjoy. Stick with us all night — come josh around in the comment party, rewatch Taylor Swift’s amazing “Wildest Dreams” video during every commercial break, take a shot for each time Miley Cyrus sticks her tongue out, and check out all the VMAs 2015 goodies below.
VIDEOS
Nicki Minaj & Taylor Swift:
.@NICKIMINAJ just killed it opening the #VMAs and so did her special guest! http://t.co/Xpl2djiKQ4
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Macklemore:
.@macklemore just kicked things off in downtown LA! #VMAs http://t.co/TdVFvkd0X4
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
The Weeknd:
Demi Lovato & Iggy Azalea:
Are you Cool For The Summer? @ddlovato is. #VMAs http://t.co/rGIAO2maLg
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Justin Bieber:
BRB going to watch this @justinbieber #VMA performance 1,000,000 times http://t.co/8QReVFULQD
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Taylor presenting Video Vanguard award to Kanye:
.@taylorswift and @kanyewest together once again at the #VMAs http://t.co/TF8kWtkcTb
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Kanye’s Speech:
Does he have your vote America? @kanyewest accepts the Video Vanguard award http://t.co/pyg3SBh8gq
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Twenty-One Pilots & A$AP Rocky
Love this collab! @twentyonepilots + @asvpxrocky #VMAs http://t.co/6Y9erK6cyX
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Taylor Swift Video Of The Year Acceptance Speech:
Video of the Year #VMA goes to @taylorswift13 and she brings the #squad onstage to accept! http://t.co/2rsVdpWGFg
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz:
GIFS
TWEETS
This is what you're missing if you're not watching our All Access streams at the #VMAs: http://t.co/fN6kxF2UPD pic.twitter.com/DVcUFLComh
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
it's cool technology progressed so far that music videos developed reproductive organs and are now categorized as "male" or "female" videos
— sadie dupuis (@sad13) August 31, 2015
You know, any time's a good time for the network that airs the Scream TV series to acknowledge the passing of Wes Craven, MTV.
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) August 31, 2015
Why Macklemore let them old niggas dress like sons of anarchy
— Vince Staples (@vincestaples) August 31, 2015
These skits <
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
The dreads <
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
I think shorty said "my real mammy" <
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
An accurate depiction of me watching @JustinBieber's #VMA performance. #BieberIsBack pic.twitter.com/Pv1dBztVx7
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
kanye recording "through the wire" with his jaw wired shut is not an obscure kanye fact. it's the entire point of the song. shush
— Simon V-L (@simonwilliam) August 31, 2015
Kanye West in the role of Jacqueline Bisset
— Sam Lansky (@samlansky) August 31, 2015
yes kanye pic.twitter.com/ZY8q6yHH6b
— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) August 31, 2015
Kanye West taught me to be fearless
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
Kanye West taught me to be fearless
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 31, 2015
VOTE KANYE pic.twitter.com/yOsPaqQ3Iv
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) August 31, 2015
I hope that if a woman wins Video of the Year, she's an upstanding lady so that Ice Cube doesn't get upset 🙂
— Rich Juzwiak (@RichJuz) August 31, 2015
Bro!!!
— Big Sean (@BigSean) August 31, 2015
WOW! I just found out! Rest in peace you are such an important inspiration to me @wescraven
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) August 31, 2015
Miley's nipple ??😂 pic.twitter.com/Ldysj39VpD
— Miley Cyrus Updates (@CyrusEvolution) August 31, 2015
Kanye is so cute, y'all.
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) August 31, 2015
Jokes, you guys… Jokes.
#chill
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) August 31, 2015
VINES
WINNERS LIST
Video Of The Year
Taylor Swift – “Bad Blood” (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Best Female Video
Taylor Swift – “Blank Space”
Best Male Video
Mark Ronson – “Uptown Funk” (Feat. Bruno Mars)
Artist To Watch
Fetty Wap
Best Pop Video
Taylor Swift – “Blank Space”
Best Rock Video
Fall Out Boy – “Uma Thurman”
Best Hip-Hop Video
Nicki Minaj – “Anaconda”
Best Video With A Social Message
Big Sean – “One Man Can Change The World” (Feat. Kanye West & John Legend)
Song Of Summer
5 Seconds Of Summer – “She’s Kinda Hot”
Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award
Kanye West
TRANSCRIPT OF KANYE WEST’S SPEECH
“Bro. Bro. Listen to the kids. Jeremy, I gotta put it down for a second. It’s beautiful—Jeremy Scott, the designer. First of all, thank you, Taylor, for being so gracious and giving me this award this evening. Thank you. And I often think back to the first day I met you, also. You know, I think about, when I’m in the grocery store with my daughter and I have a really great conversation about fresh juice at—you know. And at the end, they say, ‘Oh, you’re not that bad after all.’ And like, I think about it sometimes—like, it crosses my mind a little when I go to a baseball game and 60,000 people boo me. Crosses my mind a little bit.
And I think if I had to do it all again, what would I have done? Would I have worn a leather shirt? Would I have drank half a bottle of Hennessy and gave the rest of it to the audience? Y’all know y’all drank that bottle, too. If I had a daughter at that time, would I have went onstage and grabbed the mic from someone else’s?
“You know, this arena, tomorrow, it’s gonna be a completely different setup, some concert, something like that. This stage will be gone. After that night, the stage was gone, but the effect that it had on people remained. The… [Long pause] The problem was, the contradiction. The contradiction is, I do fight for artists. But in that fight I somehow was disrespectful to artists. I didn’t know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing. I just—I sat at the Grammys and saw Justin Timberlake and Cee-Lo lose. Gnarls Barkley, and the FutureLove [sic] ‘SexyBack’ album—and bro, Justin, I ain’t trying to put you on blast, but I saw that man and tears, bro. You know, and I was thinking like, he deserved to win Album of the Year. And this small box that we are, as the entertainers of the evening, how could you explain that? Sometimes I feel like, you know, all this shit they run about beefs and all that, sometimes I feel like I died for the artist’s opinion. For the artist to be able to have an opinion after they were successful.
“I’m not no politician, bro. And look at that. You know how many times MTV ran that footage again, because it got them more ratings? You know how many times they announced Taylor was going to give me the award? Because it got them more ratings? [Long pause]
“Listen to the kids, bro!
“I still don’t understand awards shows. I don’t understand how they get five people who work their entire life, one, sell records, sell concert tickets, to come, stand on a carpet, and for the first time in their life be judged on the chopping block and have the opportunity to be considered a loser. I don’t understand it, bro. I don’t understand when the biggest album or the biggest video—I don’t understand it, bro. I just wanted people to like me more. But fuck it, bro! 2015. I will die for the art, for what I believe in. And the art ain’t always gonna be polite.
“Y’all might be thinking right now, ‘I wonder: Did he smoke something before he came out here? The answer is, yes, I rolled up a little something. I knocked the edge off. [Long pause] I don’t know what’s gonna happen tonight. I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, bro. But all I can say to my artists, my fellow artists: Just worry how you feel at the time, man. Just worry about how you feel, and don’t never—know what I’m saying? I’m confident. I believe in myself. We are millennials, bro. This is a new—this is a new mentality. We’re not gonna control our kids with brands. We’re not gonna teach low self-esteem and hate to our kids. We’re gonna teach our kids that they can be something. We’re gonna teach our kids they can stand up for themselves. We’re gonna teach our kids to believe in themselves. If my grandfather were here right now, he would not let me back down. I don’t know what I’m gonna lose afer this. It don’t matter thoug, becaue it ain’t about me. It’s about ideas, bro. New ideas, people with ideas, people who believe in truth.
“And yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for President.” (via GQ)