Dear Kanye West

Dear Kanye,

When you lashed out on poor country-pop superstar Taylor Swift at the MTV VMA's last year, you had pretty much cemented yourself as the world's biggest jackass. Like an uncle we expect to get drunk and make a scene at Thanksgiving dinner every year, your proclamation that "Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!" was somewhat expected, because if you don't win for something (or in this case, the person you were pulling for doesn't win something), the world must stop for you and listen to how royally rat-fucked....again.

Then again, when you've made three critically acclaimed rap albums (The College Dropout, Late Registration, and my personal favorite Graduation), and earned your place as one of the best MC's to rock a microphone, then I guess you have every right to bitch and moan about how you've become music's version of Scorsese (let's be honest, you did get screwed over the last few years). Still, we all believed that your latest temper tantrum was the latest in people telling you to keep your ego in check and to shut the fuck up, and no harm would come from this.

That was, until last night, when Swift won sympathy votes from the Grammy voters for your outburst, and picked up the ultimate prize: Album of the Year.

Kanye, this could have all been avoided: your no-show at the Grammys this year, your dumbassery to steal the spotlight from Ms. Swift last year, the President of the United States himself calling you a jackass - all of this could have been avoided, if you had just kept your mouth shut. If you hadn't tried to make Taylor feel like crap onstage and make her America's sweetheart overnight, your girl Beyonce would have walked away with AOTY for I Am...Sasha Fierce. Now, we're stuck with this lovely, but awful live singer (let it be known that Swift and Fleetwood Mac don't mix).

Music today has become polluted with balls-less artists, marginally-talented teen queens and endless dance-club pop/hip-hop records, and I still consider you one of the best musical artists to come around in the new century. But you just gave Grammy the go-ahead to announce what we already knew to be the truth: huge record sales and mediocre talent talk, artists who put out quality work that pushes the genre and the industry as a whole can go straight to hell.

Thanks, Kanye.

Sincerly,
Jonathan Holmes