Nothing, however, prepared the room for what happened at 10am, when Steve Bartels bought out Kanye West to say a few words and play some new music. West, clearly in a good mood, began by recounting his career path, from making beats for Jay Z to being part of Def Poetry Jam to getting booed on stage for wearing a Roc-a-Fella necklace, because in his words Unless youd killed four people you couldnt rap. He told a story about going to jail for stealing a maxi-cassette single, because he needed the information on it.
He spoke of himself as a contradiction, that it was his responsibility to innovate and Things are going good so far, so I have risk being KanyeIm the best motherfucker at innovation. Sometimes innovation means you have to move on; sometimes I dont like where Ive moved on to
like not being on the radio. He then said he needed to retract a prior statement he made when the Yeezus record came out about not caring about being on the radio: It was a joke! You werent supposed to take it seriouslyI want to be on the radio! He told candid stories about past interactions with record execs, producers, his managers and working with Sir Paul McCartney. He swore he asked Sir Paul What was pussy like in the 60s? In between tales, he would sing or rap a verse or a chorus of a song and even sang Only One a cappella.
This went on for almost an hour.
West finally played a new song featuring Rihanna that he said hes about to release, pulled the plug on his laptop and walked off stage to a standing ovation. During the break, there were some mixed reactions to what happened, not to mention the fact that his stream-of-consciousness monologue put the day an hour behind schedule. But that said, no one could deny that it was clearly a moment.
