1 of 6 | Kanye West and Kim Kardashian arrive on the red carpet for the 32nd annual MTV Video Music Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Aug. 30, 2015. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Hip-hop titan Kanye West, who revealed he smoked something to take "the edge off" before Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, has announced he plans to run in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
West made the remarks after Taylor Swift presented him with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. The pair famously shared a moment in VMA history in 2009 when West interrupted Swift's on-stage speech to say he thought his friend Beyonce actually should have won the prize in Swift's hand.
"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," West kicked off his lengthy monologue Sunday night.
"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 a half a bottle of Hennessy and gave the rest to the audience? Y'all know y'all drink that bottle, too! If I had a daughter at that time, would I have went on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else's?" he wondered. "Sometimes I feel like, you know, all this about beef 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? Listen to the kids, bro!"
West went on to vow he will "die for the arts" and "what I believe in."
"Y'all might be thinking right now, 'I wonder, did he smoke some before he came out here?' The answer is 'yes.' I rolled up a little something, I knocked the edge off," he confessed.
Wrapping up his rambling speech, West declared, "And, yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president."
VMAs' host Miley Cyrus later quipped, "Trump, you had my vote, but now, Kanye West for president!"
