Kanye West has revealed what inspired him to crash the stage and interrupt Taylor Swift during her award acceptance speech at MTV Video Music Awards in 2009.
Swift, who was 19 at the time, was picking up the Best Female Video award at the ceremony for ‘You Belong With Me’ when West unexpectedly stormed the stage with a bottle of Hennessy drink in hand, grabbed the microphone and said;
Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!’
He argued that the trophy should have gone to Beyoncé’s video for “Single Ladies”.
The incident gave way to a chain reaction of events involving Swift, West and his wife Kim Kardashian West, who were subsequently involved in a number of high-profile squabbles.
Speaking about what inspired the incident to actor Nick Cannon on Tuesday, September 1 during for an episode of ‘Cannon’s Class’ podcast, West said God told him to interrupt Swift at the event.
West in the interview claimed his actions were the result of a higher power “giving him the information.”
He explained;
Right now, God is giving me the information. If God ain’t want me to run on stage and say Beyoncé had the best video, he wouldn’t have sat me in the front row. I would’ve been sitting in the back. It wouldn’t have made it so ridiculous of an idea because I had never heard of this person before, and Single Ladies is, like, one of the greatest videos of all time.
West also confirmed that he was drunk during the show, adding;
I was only drinking Hennessy because I didn’t want to go to the awards show because it was a set-up.
Although the rapper stated that it was God who influenced his decisions in 2009, he claims he didn’t start to read the Bible until after his hospitalization in 2016 for psychiatric observation and treatment of temporary psychosis.
West added;
God brought me to my knees multiple times. The first time that I was put into the hospital in 2016, I actually started reading the bible. That was part of what God hit me with. You know, God has a calling on all of us and he uses us in different ways.
The father of four also insisted that he does not want his newfound connection to God to appear ‘uncool’ with his fans.
Watch a video of the 2009 incident below;
