Kanye West‘s performance of “Runaway” ran away into a speech about celebrity, discrimination and dreams, among other things, during his show at Wireless Festival in London on Friday. From the media to the fashion industry—even his own face—nothing was safe from Kanye. This might just be a good contender for the 2014 edition of “The Best Kanye West Rants.”
“I said how many people came with their friends tonight?,” he began “Runaway,” dropping bars through “Let’s have a toast for the douchebags” before freestyling “Don’t let nobody tell you what you can do, what you can believe, what you can achieve,” he sang, his frame backlit and looking like he was a preacher at a podium.
Then he broke from the sing/talk to straight-up testifiying. “You know people be looking at me like I got a problem or something, like I’m uncontrollable or something, like I don’t do what I’m supposed to do or something.”
“Rumors, lies, media, marketing. It’s like they want to steal you from you,” he continued. “They sell you back to you after they stole it. They want to make you feel less than who you really are.” He also added, “As far as I’m concerned everybody’s a star.”
We’re not sure who the “they” is here, but there were others he name-dropped, including some high-profile brands in the fashion industry: “When I take these meetings and s–t, people talk to you like you’re stupid or something… I’m not gonna call no names. I’m not going to mention Nike or nothing like that.” He then dropped Luis Vuitton and Gucci into the mix. “I’m not dissing Luis Vuitton, I’m not dissing Gucci… I’m just saying, don’t discriminate against me because I’m a black man or because I’m a celebrity… ‘Cause you know damn well ain’t no black guys or celebrities making no Louis Vuitton.”
Later, he explained why he was wearing a mask. “That’s why I got this f—–g mask on. ‘Cause I ain’t worried about saving face. F–k my face! That sounded wrong. Pause,” he laughed. “Well, they finally got a headline. But f–k whatever my face is supposed to mean. And f–k whatever the name Kanye is supposed to mean. It’s about my dreams.”
Then he brought it on home. “And it’s about anybody’s dreams. It’s about creating. It’s not about the idea of being a f—–g celebrity,” he said while talking about how he was breaking down walls before mentioning a conversation where Spike Jonze advised him to instead say that he was going to try to break them down. “And I said I AM gonna do it. I told Kim seven years ago ‘I’m gonna marry you.’ I didn’t say I was gonna try.”
“You know, I just wanna make something awesome, I just wanna be awesome, and I wanna hang around my awesome friends, and change the f—–g world. And that’s exactly what I plan to do,” ‘Ye concluded. Of course, there were some haters who booed the speech and wanted Kanye to get back to performing. But we’re not among them. Preach on Kanye!
Watch the 15-minute clip.
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