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Kanye West Sings “Let’s Have a Toast for the Douchebags”

Shockingly, there was no face-to-face interaction between Taylor Swift and Kanye West at the 2010 Video Music Awards. Both artists nonetheless made independent impacts at the annual awards show.

Midway through the show, Swift performed a passionate, haunting ballad that remarked “you’re still an innocent.” Based on the lyrics, including a reference to someone still growing up at age 32, the presumption is that her song was a message of absolution for Kanye West. During last year’s awards show, Kanye West stormed the stage during her acceptance speech for Best Female Video to declare that Beyonce was the rightful winner for her “Single Ladies.”

44512, NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Monday September 6, 2010. A very dapper Kanye West steps into his luxury Maybach automobile in Soho. Photograph: PacificCoastNews.com

Other references in the song suggest Swift might have simultaneously talking about the preservation of her own innocence following an encounter that certainly shook her naiveté.

West, meanwhile, closed the show with “Runaway,” a song that sardonically encouraged a toast for the “douchebags,” “assholes” and “jerkoffs.” The focus was not as strikingly pointed as Swift’s (and he traded Swift’s stripped-down set for a visually-stunning stage show), but the content could be just as hard-hitting. West’s lyrics seemed to suggest an insight into his (and society’s, as was evidenced in a discussion about Angelina’s hookup habits during Sunday’s “Jersey Shore” episode) unshakable ability to masterfully find a way to bring out one’s negative, “douchebag” tendencies.

Written by Brian Cantor

Brian Cantor is the editor-in-chief for Headline Planet. He has been a leading reporter in the music, movie, television and sporting spaces since 2002.

Brian's reporting has been cited by major websites like BuzzFeed, Billboard, the New Yorker and The Fader -- and shared by celebrities like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj.

Contact Brian at brian.cantor[at]headlineplanet.com.

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  1. Kanye big ups and respect for that showing… you killed it… best at marketing himself and puttin himself out there… now everyone for another year will be talking about hm again…
    GENIUS

  2. I have total respect for Kanye now. He has reflected and is trying to change his former ways. I’m so impressed with him. It’s awesome to see him acknowledge his actions and try to make it up to Taylor Swift. We’ve all had a “jackass” moment. Luckily..the whole world didn’t see. The song is great! Way to go Kanye!

  3. This is the ONLY way Kanye could ever come back. He totally humbled himself and I would consider his performance a major apology, and an acceptance of his actions.

  4. People need to get over themselves. Talk of Taylor Swift losing her innocence/naivite and this Kanye song as some sort of apology… Please, act like she was molested or something. Kanye West interrupted a girl at an awards show (MTV award at that) – that does not merit a public stoning. A little perspective, please.

    That said, I was surprised by how much I liked this song. He’s still got it.

  5. If it where Beyonce up there excepting that award and oh I don’t know, Russell Brand got up on stage and told her Taylor Swift was supposed to win that award on live tv, he’d be a raciest. Oh wait now I’m a raciest. Isn’t that some shit?!

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