Kanye West Discusses His Year Of Post-Taylor Swift Soul-Searching On ‘Ellen’

Robbie Daw | October 19, 2010 1:05 pm

For those interested in hearing the whole Kanye West/Taylor Swift 2009 MTV VMAs debacle dredged up for the umpteenth time, check out the Runaway rapper’s appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. ‘Ye tells Ellen that he spent the months following the incident living in Rome and then Hawaii, and just taking time to regroup and rethink who he was as a person, and who he wanted to be.

“I mean, what was good about going away was that it was the first time I got to stop since my mom passed, because I never stopped and I never tried to even soak in what all had happened,” the dapper rapper told DeGeneres. “It was a time to take a break and develop more as a person and as a creative…focusing more on my thoughts and my ideas, what I want to bring—just what I want to bring to the world.”

Later Ellen asked if Kanye had interrupted Taylor Swift’s MTV VMAs speech because he had been drinking. “I feel like in some ways I’m like a soldier of culture,” he responded. “And I realize that no one wants that to be my job.”

Culturally militant Kanye even gave Taylor the courtesy of having the earlier album release date this fall—while her third LP Speak Now is due out next week, West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is currently scheduled to arrive on November 22.