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I wanna thank everybody for coming out this evening, first of all, and supporting me.
Everybody that got in the building tonight.
As you know, itís been a extremely hard year for me. But it felt so good to give back music,
week after week after week, and just get back into the studio doing what we do, with G.O.O.D.
Fridays, with new albums. Uh, yeah.
And I wanna thank all of they ó I never thought Iíd ever say this ó I would like to thank
the magazines, for perfect scores across the board.
I always felt like I could do anything, but now Ö I feel so fearless, like, to do an
album, right, after the year that I had, and after all the ìYour career is over!î and
ìDie, ***, die!î and ìYouíll never make music again!î And to come back and to
do 100,000 the first day, digital alone, to do, to be slated to do 600,000 in the first
week ó and I, I donít talk about the numbers, but what that number says is that people want
me to keep making music, and for me to not give up. No radio singles. No number-one record,
no top-ten record. They had to re-order, they didnít order enough ó We sold out in Chicago!
Itís sold out at Best Buy on 14th Street tonight! They sold out! They said, ìOh, you
ainít got no radio singles, so, uh, we estimate 250,000 the first weekî or ìWhat about the
fact that we just donít like you?î
But I ainít here for, to do no ***í politics. Iím here to make music. Iím not
here to talk in no ***í interviews, nobody ask me no stupid-*** questions. We
had such a great win. Matt Lauer is not a bad guy, Iím sure. But, if you are a child
thatís being abused by your parent, or youíre a girl being abused by your boyfriend, the
greatest win that you could ever have is when that personíll hit you in public! ìYou see!
You see! I told you!î ëCause every time I went on stage, there was no way to justify
it. There was no way for me to justify it. Play the chords lower, play the chords lower.
Play the chords lower.
There was no way for me to justify the way people judge me. When you do things like what
happened last year, itís disrespectful to everyone thatís creative. Itís a smack in
the face to everyone who tries to do something real. If I wasnít drunk, I wouldíve been
on stage longer. Like, ìAm I the only one whoís not crazy here? Are you *** kidding
me? Are you *** kidding me?î And then they run with it, they run with it, the reason
why ó and donít call me telliní me about what I should do! Iím my own man! Sometimes
you scream on a ***, sometimes you gotta come back and say, ìYou know how I screamed
on you that time? My bad.î
ëCause look at this: Everybody wants to use people, and villainize people, even if you
take the concept of George Bush. There is no leader in history that has been villainized
that way, and didnít get killed at war or commit suicide. So any man that lives through
it deserves one moment of redemption. Any man. Because at the end of the day, we are
all Ö none are without flaw. The thing is people point the fingers, the projections,
the *** that people write on blogs, is a projection of what they feel or what they
scared about in themselves, that they wanna project through the people who are on TV.
And now we are mere surfaces of the energy that they are projecting on us.
Everybody needs a villain, donít we? We need to blame someone at all times. And for me,
to be a considered, a racist for stating a bla ó a blatant truth, an obvious truth!
But the nuances of my words, because I am very particular with my words, and the emotion
that I felt at that time, wasnít worded exactly right.
But everybody came and said, ìOh my God!î ó Iím talking about five years ago, Iím
ó and everybody said, ìOh my God, Kanye! I love you so much! I hated you until you
said that! Now youíre speaking for me! I always thought you were an ***, but now
you said something that represents me!î ó And the whole time, Iím thinking in my mind,
ìThatís not exactly what I wanted to say.î I was emotional, that was not exactly the
way I wanted to word it. But I rode it, I rode it. Just as Taylor never came to my defense
in any interview, and rode the wave, and rode it, and rode it, thatís the way I rode the
wave of the Bush comment. I rode it.
Itís not about popular opinion, itís about when you look in your heart and know whatís
right and whatís wrong. When you look in your heart, look at what the media did, look
at how they exploited him! They said that he said that was his lowest moment, and as
a mass, as America, we took that as a fact. If you look at the interview, he said itís
one of his lowest moments, and he said it about ten different things!
But because the popularity of me, they exploited that! To make you watch the interview, and
make you feel he was stupider than ever! To think that a rapperís comment could be his
lowest moment! Thatís not what he *** said! Thatís not what he said! He said itís
one of his lowest moments!
But it shows you, it showed you what, the way they try to fill a night, the way they
try to do that. Everything wouldíve been okay if they didnít play the audio that day.
None the wiser! None the wiser! They played the audio, they *** up in front of everybody.
They *** up big-time.
If youíre a real artist, have no fear. Say what the *** you want, do what you want,
make what you want! And if itís meant to be, the people will stand up. Like the people
stood for me this week. 600,000, cominí off being the most hated person this time last
year. And thank you so much for the energy from the streets, the energy from the blogs,
the energy from the reporters, the energy from the actors, from the comedians, from
the writers, from the fashion designers, from the models ó oh, the energy of the models.
From the energy of the subway workers, from the doorman, to the cabdriver, to the schoolteacher,
the energy ó thatís the energy that you feel right now. Thatís what happens when
you speak from what people are really, really goiní through. I canít be your role model,
I canít be your savior, I canít be your Antichrist. I donít know what the *** Illuminati
is. I like clothes and I still like girls, I donít give a *** what you think.
And on that note, I love yíall, and all my family that came out that helped me with the
album, that came through tonight, flying in, private jets, everything they had to do to
get here. Everybody in the audiences, that sat through this whole thing, I know yíall
gotta wake up in the morning. Thank you so much, I love you. Good night.