The man of the night for 2015 VMA, Kanye West took his time in the spotlight to go into a barely coherent rant that began with him finally clearing the air about his most famous TV moment and ended with his declaration that he'll run for president

"I first met Kanye West six years ago...at this show actually," Taylor Swift said in as she presented the 2015 VMA Vanguard award to West, referencing that now historically notorious VMA incident between her and the "College Dropout" rapper, when he jumped on the stage in 2009 and took the mic away from her. He intro was filled with admiration for West, including the revelation that his first album was also the first piece of music she purchased on iTune.

After accepting the award, West spent many of the first few moments talking in the applause and yells of the crowd before breaking his silence by saying "Listen to the kids!" and pointed to audience members chanting "Yezzus."

West than thanked Swift for her graciousness over the incident and then revisited the incident by asking "If I had to do it all again, what would I have done?" explaining that "the contradiction is I do fight for artists, but in that fight I was disrespectful to artists." He then slammed MTV for playing up the incident because "it got them more ratings" and went on to criticize award shows. And that's about when things took a left turn into a craziness.

Among the many other things that West said in his speech:

That he would die for art.
Did he smoke something before he came up here? The answer is yes.
Telling people not to worry about others, but "just worry about how you feel."
Something about how this is a moment for Millennials.
A comment on how we're not going to raise our kids to be controlled by brands...in a heavily branded broadcast on a heavily branded network
The exact phrase: "I'm not no politician, bro!"
And..."I have decided in 2020 to run for president."

And here's the full video of Kanye West's speech:

Complex has the full transcript of West's speech, which we've gone ahead and quoted below.

Bro, bro, listen to the kids. Jeremy, I gotta put it down for a second. First of all, thank you Taylor for being so gracious and giving me this award this evening. Thank you. And I often think back to the first day I met you also. I think about when I'm in the grocery store with my daughter and I have a really great conversation about fresh juice at the... you know. And at the end they say, "Oh you're not that bad after all. And like, I think about it sometimes it crosses my mind a little bit when I go to a baseball game and 60,000 people boo me. It crosses my mind a little bit.

And I think if i had to do it all again-what would I have done? Would I have worn a leather shirt? Would I have drank half a bottle of Hennessy and given the rest of it to the audience? Y'all know you drank that bottle, too. If I had a daughter at that time would I have went on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else's? You know, this arena tomorrow is gonna be a completely different set up-some concert... This stage will be gone. After that night, the stage was gone but the effect that it had on people remained.

The problem was the contradiction. The contradiction is that I do fight for artists but in that fight, somehow, was disrespectful to artists. I didn't know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing, I sat at the Grammys and saw Justin Timberlake and CeeLo Green lose. Gnarls Barkley and the [FutureSex/LoveSound] album, and bro, Justin I'm not trying to put you on blast but I saw that man in tears, bro. And I was thinking he deserved to win album of the year. And the small box that we are of entertainers of the evening, how could you explain that?

Sometimes I feel like you know all this shit they run about beef and all that, sometimes I feel like I died for the artist's opinion, for the artist to have an opinion after they got successful. I'm not no politician bro, and look at that. You know how many times MTV ran that footage again? Because it got more ratings? Do you know how many times they announced Taylor was gonna give me this award? Because it got more ratings?

Listen to the kids, bro.

I still don't understand award shows. I don't understand how they get five people who work their entire life one sell records, sell concert tickets to come stand on a carpet and for the first time in they life be judged on a chopping block and have the opportunity to be considered a loser. I don't understand it bro. I do not understand when the biggest album or the biggest video I don't understand. I've been conflicted bro. I just wanted people to like me more. But fuck that, bro. 2015. I will die for the art for what I believe in and the art ain't always gonna be polite. Y'all might be thinking right now, "I wonder did he smoke something before he came out here?" And the answer is yes, I rolled up a little something, I knocked the edge off. I don't know what's gonna happen tonight what's gonna happen tomorrow bro but all I can say to my artists is just worry about how you feel at the time. I'm confident I believe in myself. We the millenials bro. This is a new mentality. We're not gonna control our kids with brands. We're not gonna tech low self esteem and hate to our kids. We're gonna teach our kids that they can be something. that they can stand up for themselves. To believe in themselves and if my grandfather was here right now, he would not let me back down.

I don't know what I'm finna lose after this it don't matter though because it ain't about me, it's about new ideas bro people with ideas people who believe in truth. and yes, as you probably could've guessed by this moment I have decided in 2020 to run for president.

Tags
Kanye West, 2015 VMAs, President