We all know how upset Kanye West was when he lost the award for best music video to Justice and Simian at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards. In case you don’t know: he crashed the stage and told the guys that it wasn’t a personal thing, he didn’t know who they were, but his video cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it, and he was jumping across canyons, therefore he should have won. Afterwards, the media was all over him for being a megalomaniac sore loser. I personally thought he was just taking the mick, giving the media just what they were always accusing him of. Either way, his appearance was one of the sparse highlights of that show, and he did have a point. After all, it was the first time I had heard of Justice and Simian, too – and I do still watch MTV.
Looks like Kanye and I have both cultivated our musical horizons since. While I have always loved Kanye’s works, both as a producer and a performer, it took me a while to “get” electronic music. After a long struggle, I can enjoy Justice, Simian (Mobile Disco), Daft Punk and all the other usual suspects as much as the next person. You have to leave it to Kanye, however, to take a relatively lame Daft Punk sample and twist it into the best song of the year. And back it up with a fantastic video too: Daft Punk robots, fabulous outfits, beautiful women, and Japanese iconography – and I love the way Kanye dances. He’s also the only person who can pull off those sunglasses. I’m not sure who the director is, but it does have some of Hype Williams’ signature shots. (ETA: It was indeed directed by Hype Williams. The beautiful lady in the vid is no stranger, either. It’s Cassie.) If this does not win the next EMAs, then MTV is even more out of it than I assumed.
