Kanye West: 'Closet racism' to blame for Taylor Swift’s 2009 VMA win

It’s been almost seven years since Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s VMA speech in 2009 to declare that Beyonce, in fact, had the “best video of all time,” but the rapper can’t seem to let the topic go. In a new radio interview with Steve Harvey, Yeezy brought up Swift out of the blue, even after Harvey said he “really wasn’t” trying to talk about her.

“It’s not about Kanye West. It’s not about Taylor Swift,” West said. “There’s a lot of people in America that feel like they don’t have the platform to stand up and express their closet racism. Before they had that platform, one really easy way to express it was to say, ‘Eff Kanye West.’”

West went on to blame Britney Spears’ 2007 meltdown, saying, “As soon as Britney shaved her head and they saw that money going down, they had already marked what that award was going to be that night,” indicating that the powers-that-be saw Swift as the next pop superstar.

“They ain’t expect no activist that had just lost his mama a year later, sitting there with a bottle of Hennessey,” he added of himself. “The only reason I drank the Hennessey in the first place is because I said, ‘Imma just have to get drunk to deal with all the lies I’m about to see.’”

West later apologized to Swift for the incident and she presented him with the VMA Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 show. But then earlier this year, West released a song called “Famous,” in which he rapped, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.”

In a recent cover story for Vogue, Swift noted that she’s done with the feud, saying, "I think the world is bored with the saga. I don't want to add anything to it, because then there's just more."

As for some of his other beefs, West apologized again for insulting Wiz Khalifa and his ex Amber Rose earlier this year on Twitter.

“One thing I want to express to people, every day I look and I play with my daughter and I play with Saint,” the father of two said. “I’ve talked to Wiz, Amber’s talked to Kim, but I really want to stress the amount of respect I have for parents.”

After declaring he “owned” the former couple’s son, Sebastian, West told Harvey, “There is no concept of anyone, anyone being able to own someone else’s child. So every day I feel more deeply, deeply apologetic about that concept, because I only want to put out positive, positive, positive concepts.”

West went on to praise his wife, Kim Kardashian, saying, “She’s breaking boundaries on so many levels. You can’t give me an example of as popular of a mixed couple. I got friends that have had white wives that before there was a Kimye, they’d go to the amusement park and people would be talking down to them, treating them a certain kind of way. She’s broke boundaries with that, she’s broke boundaries in fashion, where designers wasn’t trying to make clothes with women with shape. And now, they’re all about really embracing and empowering women… Can’t nobody disrespect my wife, ever.”