The 4 Things You Really Should Be Taking From Kanye’s VMA Rant
Innovative. Artistic. Visionary. Angry. Arrogant. Conflicted. Down right crazy as all hell.
When you hear those combinations of words, how could you not instantly think of Kanye West. Some love him, some hate him, and some feel a mixture of both of these emotions when talking about him. And with the duality that comes with being a Gemini, I can see why Kanye’s ideas may come off as confusing and even contradicting at times. But there’s always a lesson to be learned every time Kanye makes a speech, or a “Ye Rant” as I like to call it. This years acceptance speech for his’ Video Vanguard Award’ at last night’s VMAs was no exception.
1. Believe and Manifest Your Ideas
Ideas are the foundation of greatness. It’s the core of every invention, product, piece or art, clothing or anything else that we have seen and/or acquired. But it also one of the most overlooked components in creation. Truthfully, majority of ideas aren’t new. Rather a remix of an idea that we’ve already been pre-exposed to. We as a society are conditioned to see what already works and to imitate that. You can see this happening with any products from cars to smartphones. One company adds a feature, the next company adds an upgrade or alternative to the same feature. And so on, and so on. Kanye simply calls this out. Everytime!
At the base of every Ye Rant is the importance of fostering, owning, and manifesting ideas that may not seem traditional to others. He calls for our generation to not be scared to push the envelope. To not be discouraged when people laugh at your ideas. To not quit when people don’t see your vision. This type of courage that Kanye installs in the youth creates the ideal environment for ideas to grow uninhibitedly.
2. This Generation is just different
Millennials are just different. First you have to know that most millennials reached young adulthood in the early 2000s. You know, that decade filled with catastrophic events like 9/11, the War on Iraq, The Great Recession (which was technically a Depression), and a slew of other events that have made us see life in a very different light than the Generation X-ers who have come before us.
We don’t want tradition. We want revolution. We want our grand ideas on a grand stage and Kanye exemplifies that. And definitely didn’t fall short of providing that at this year’s VMAs.
3. Men lie, women lie, but passion is transparent
I’ve been a Kanye fan since day one. A few of his actions have prompted me to scratch my head and a couple of his rants definitely had me giving him the side eye, but even with that being said, I never wavered as a Kanye fan. Even when Yeezus came out and I was initially left unimpressed, I was still as much of a Kanye fan then as I was when My Beautiful Dark Fantasy dropped. Why? Because with Kanye, the music isn’t the overall picture. Yes, its a big portion of the picture, but it does not take up the whole canvas. Whether you hear a Kanye project that you don’t like, witness a Kanye rant that leaves you even more confused on his “ideas” or see an article of clothing he designed that doesn’t appeal to your eye, you can not deny the passion he put behind it. That he puts behind everything he does. The same that he calls us to put in ourselves and our creations.
4. Its Okay to be Angry
Sometimes life isn’t fair. And sometimes it is fair, but it may not seem that way to you. Everything that we face in life is not sweet. We all have hurdles to overcome and walls to knock down, and it’s okay to do those things without a smile. It’s okay to get angry. Its okay to not always have on the happiest of faces. Anger is a natural of an emotion as joy, and to hide it is to hide a part of yourself and what you’re feeling.
Sometimes you have to yell, sometimes you have to curse because in the end it’s all about self- expression… At least that’s what “Yeezy Taught Me”.
