Kanye West may have appeared to be poking fun at himself Sunday night when he half-rushed the stage as Beck accepted the album of the year Grammy.
"Kanye almost pulled another Kanye," read the headlines.
But it turns out that no, Kanye really, really did want to pull another Kanye. Because in his eyes, Beyonce once again got robbed.
As Beck stepped up to the microphone to accept his award for "Morning Phase" Sunday, West briefly jumped up on stage and looked ready to grab the statue from the indie artist's hands. But just as quickly, he smiled and jumped back down, to the laughs of his friends.
(Note the brief look of dread on Beyonce and Jay-Z's faces)
Later in the evening, West made it clear he wasn't actually joking around: he really did want to do it again.
West told E! after the broadcast that he didn't think Beck should have taken the Album of the Year award. In fact, he said, Beck should have just handed the statue over to Beyonce.
鈥淏eck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé,鈥� West said.
Never one for modesty 鈥� West once declared himself "the number one most impactful artist of our generation" 鈥� the rap mogul suggested the Grammys needed to show more respect to "real artists" like him.
"I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain't gonna play with them no more," he said.
鈥淎t this point, we tired of it because what happens is when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental feats in music, you鈥檙e disrespectful to inspiration. And we as musicians have to inspire people."
Kanye of course, made back in 2009, when he yanked an MTV Video Music Awards statuette out of Taylor Swift's hands and declared that Beyonce "had one of the best videos of all time!" and should have won Swift's Best Female Video award.
West suggested Sunday he was itching to do it again, but checked himself, out of respect for his wife and kids.
"I got my wife, I got my daughter, and I got my clothing line, so I'm not going to do nothing to put my daughter at risk. But I am here to fight for creativity. That's the reason why I didn't say anything tonight. But you all know what it meant when 'Ye walked on that stage," he said.
For his part, Beck says he has nothing but love for Kanye. The alt-rocker told Us Weekly late Sunday that he wasn't offended by West's post-Grammy comments, saying he too assumed Beyonce was going to win the category.
"I thought she was going to win. Come on, she's Beyonce!" Beck told the magazine.
"鈥ou can't please everybody, man. I still love (West) and think he's genius. I aspire to do what he does."
