Kanye West's Controversial Glastonbury Performance Interrupted as Comedian Charges the Stage
Kanye West's performance at Glastonbury was rudely interrupted on Saturday when a British comedian brazenly charged the stage in an obvious effort to steal some of his spotlight.
Sound familiar?
The outspoken West, who has his own reputation for such theatrics stemming from episodes interrupting Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs and Beck at this year's Grammys, quickly called for security to haul away Lee Nelson. In both instances where he took over the microphone, West let it be known he felt the awards Swift (Best Female Video) and Beck (Album of the Year) were receiving should have gone to Beyoncé.
According to Yahoo!, on Saturday, West was performing at the Glastonbury Festival when Nelson, dressed in a "Lee-zus" T-shirt, made his way to the stage and actually tried to rap alongside "The Jesus Walks" artist. The "Lee-zus" reference was an apparent play on West's 2013 platinum selling "Yeezus" album.
Nelson later took to Twitter to reflect on the experience, posting, "Some people were saying Kanye shouldn't headline Glastonbury so I thought I'd give him a hand."
According to the New York Daily News, 135,000 people signed a petition calling for West's headlining spot to be given to a rock band instead and reports from the festival tell of audience members booing the hip-hop mega star and heckling him during his performance. In spite of -- or perhaps buoyed, in part, by -- the controversy over his appearance, West drew a huge crowd.
Long a lightning rod for controversy, some are speculating West's reputation may have taken even more of a hit since his coupling with reality TV wife Kim Kardashian.
"I don't think the Jenner/Kardashian association helps him necessarily; it's another strike against him," Lyndsey Parker, managing editor of Yahoo! Music recently told The Wrap.
Parker later speculated that some Kanye fans might be disappointed in his choice of what some see as a "trophy wife." Given his intellect, she added, some may have expected him to unite with someone more on his level as opposed to the "incredibly vapid, superficial and not very smart" Kardashian.
TruthCo. CEO of brand consulting Linda Ong thinks in recent times West may have deferred to his wife a bit too much, which only stands to create more potential long-term issues for him.
"In some ways, he's become more of a Kardashian than Kim has become Mrs. West, and that sort of shows you the power of the Kardashian machine," she said.
In the end, Ong hints West may have to reestablish himself and again show the world what it is that made him "Kanye West" to begin with.
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