Kanye for president? Rapper announces he wants to run in 2020
Mercurial rapper Kanye West used the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles to announce a run for the White House in 2020 after winning a career achievement award.
Cheered by his biggest fan, pregnant wife and reality star Kim Kardashian in a lace-up olive dress that left little to the imagination, he was greeted by an extended standing ovation.
“I have decided in 2020 to run for president,” he bellowed into the microphone at the end of a rambling address.
The hip hop star joked that people would think he smoked “something” before stepping out for the evening.
MTV’s Video Vanguard lifetime achievement award has previously been given to artists including Madonna, Michael Jackson and Beyonce.
West, who famously stormed the stage and snatched the microphone from Taylor Swift in 2009 during her acceptance speech, was given the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award on Sunday by Swift, in a VMA moment that came full circle.
“Everyone in the world knew about our infamous encounter at the VMAs, but something you may not know is Kanye West’s album‘College Dropout’ is the very first album I bought on iTunes,” Swift said.
She added, in a parody of West’s 2009 speech when he hijacked her award, “to all the other winners tonight, I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish, but Kanye West has one of the greatest careers of all time.”
The 38-year-old boundary-pushing rapper also won best Video With a Social Message for One Man Can Change the World with Big Sean and John Legend.
Otherwise the night saw pop superstar Swift take an early lead, winning two of her whopping 10 nominations and burying the hatchet with rapper Nicki Minaj.
Swift won Best Pop Video and Best Female Video for her hit Blank Space, beating Beyonce in both categories and former foe Minaj in the second.
But if Minaj hugged and made up with Swift, then Minaj called out host Cyrus for telling The New York Times in a recent interview that Minaj was “not too kind” and “not very polite.”
Cyrus, who made MTV award history two years ago by twerking on stage with Robin Thicke in a flesh-colored bikini and cavorting around with a foam finger kept her response civil.
“We’re all in the industry, we all do interviews, and we all know how they manipulate” what we say, she said.
It was perhaps one of the rare moments on stage when Cyrus was not swearing.
Dressed in a variety of barely-there outfits, Cyrus cursed her way through her hosting duties, flashed her bare breast accidentally and performed a new song about taking drugs.
Singer Justin Bieber returned to the VMA stage after a two-year break to perform two new tracks, tearing up at the end of his performance. - Wires
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