Kanye West Apologizes To Taylor Swift: 'I Bled Hard,' Wrote A Song For Her

NEW YORK — Hip-hop star Kanye West is still feeling the pain over his ambush of Taylor Swift last year – and he's expressing his pain all over Twitter.

West unleashed a torrent of emotions on his official Twitter account Saturday, acknowledging once again that he was wrong for jumping on stage, grabbing the microphone from Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards and saying her trophy should have gone to Beyonce.

But the rapper-producer said that he has experienced enormous pain, been the subject of death wishes and suffered tremendous setback to his career.

"How deep is the scar ... I bled hard ... cancelled tour with the number one pop star in the world ... closed the doors of my clothing office," he tweeted.

The multiplatinum, Grammy-winning superstar had been one of the decade's most successful and critically acclaimed stars, despite sometimes boorish behavior and meltdowns at other awards shows when things did not go his way.

However, when he upstaged Swift – the then-teenage darling of pop and country music worlds _the public had had enough. There was tremendous backlash against West – even President Barack Obama was caught calling him a "jackass."

At the time, he went on Jay Leno's prime-time show to apologize and said he still had not recovered from his mother's death two years prior. He said he would be taking time off from the public eye.

That time off came sooner than expected. He canceled a joint tour with Lady Gaga that fall, apparently due to low ticket sales. On Twitter, West talked about the backlash.

"I'm the guy who at one point could perform the Justin Timberlake on stage and everyone would be sooo happy that I was there," he wrote.

After the incident, he said, "People tweeted that they wish I was dead ... No listen. They wanted me to die people. I carry that. I smile and take pictures through that."

West said he's now "ready to get out of my own way. The ego is overdone."

He also apologized to Swift again, and said he has written a song for her that he hopes she will perform.

"If she won't take it then I will perform it for her," he said.

West is working on a new album that is supposed to come out sometime this fall. A recent member of Twitter, West has been an active user, posting not only his feelings, but new songs and other updates. He has over 900,000 followers since he joined earlier this summer.

"Man I love Twitter ... I've always been at the mercy of the press but no more ... The media tried to demonize me," he tweeted Saturday.

Comments

[Eyez]

11:27 PM on 09/05/2010

Is it me or am I the only person who thinks he did the right thing. I mean Taylor Swift is not all that great of a singer without auto tune. She wins best video of the year???? Whatever I think he did the right thing...

[Jannella]

11:32 PM on 09/05/2010

Who has to be the best singer to win video of the year? It's about a fun video and they're lip-synching. By the way, Beyonce won best video of the year. Taylor won best female video. And how did he do the right thing? There were others that were up for that award, too, not just Beyonce and Taylor It's subjective.. I liked Pink's best.

[Exhaust]

11:42 PM on 09/05/2010

Take me down that bumpy road where you can win best video of the year, not win best female video and be a female yourself.?.? ooops...guess Taylor's award was BS.

[SethBLiNK]

10:55 AM on 09/06/2010

I'm sure you're not the only one that thinks that, but does it give comfort to know that you are wrong but that other people agree with you? Disagreeing is natural. Verbalizing it is acceptable. Physically grabbing the mike from somebody is wrong. If he were not famous, he would have been wrestled to the ground by security and arrested. It was the wrong thing to do, and frankly, even if his opinion was right, an MTV Video Award is not such a big deal that somebody needs to get all bent out of shape over who wins it.

[Jannella]

10:58 AM on 09/06/2010

I fanned you. You're 100 percent correct on all points.

[truthsayer1000f]

10:43 PM on 09/05/2010

wow... a lot of people really care about this. ahhhh.... america!

[firstep]

10:08 PM on 09/05/2010

Do a concert in Nashville Conway, I mean Kanye

[littlebrowngirl]

09:49 PM on 09/05/2010

Love Kanye. I wish it did not take him a year to come up with the song idea with Taylor. I love his music and support him. His last album was a near masterpiece that got no pub after the swift incident. I hope he really learns from his mistake this time.

[Aretia]

09:34 PM on 09/05/2010

People are cruel, man...

Why can't we accept that a) Taylor Swift is a big girl, she'll get over it, b) Kanye West feels remorseful, whether it's because of genuine empathy or because of genuine care about his career, he feels remorseful and wants to apologize and c) we're all human and we all do stupid, hurtful things.

Instead, there's so much hate for Kanye...why? How do y'all summon up the energy for it? Try to be a little positive maybe? Takes fewer muscles to smile than to write harsh comments on Huffington Post.

Of course what he did was offensive and horrible; we all do offensive and horrible things in our lives. Taylor's a big girl - she knows that's how the world works and she'll get over it. Time erases all hard feelings, we forgive and we move on.

[Bob Kellerman]

09:50 PM on 09/05/2010

YOU think he feels remorseful
His personality and the way he "expresses remorse" are not being believed as genuine.

People are insulted that his attempts are lame, so they doubt the sincerity and feel insulted to be presented with what seems to be BS, not truth.

Of course, most of us can't put ourselves in his shoes. He was fatherless, but not raised in poor and uneducated circumstances -- but enjoys having no manners.

REHAB might do it

[Eyez]

11:28 PM on 09/05/2010

I like you throwing in the fatherless comment. Real tasteful.

[mypov123]

06:29 PM on 09/06/2010

"Of course, most of us can't put ourselves in his shoes. He was fatherless, but not raised in poor and uneducated circumstances -- but enjoys having no manners."

Gee, how ignorant and narrow-minded of you to generalize the poor and those who were raised without a father.

[Alfred LaRue]

09:31 PM on 09/05/2010

It won't be long before letting loose on Twitter will be all he has.

[naughtYmike]

09:13 PM on 09/05/2010

He should apologize, but...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/03/chris-robinson-taylor-swi_n_704953.html

[Eyez]

11:30 PM on 09/05/2010

I am glad that someone else noticed that post. Along with the lack of talent Taylor Swift has. I mean she is cute, but no real talent. I do not like Kanye all that much. However I respect him after he said what he said. S#!^t someone had to say it.

[Bob Kellerman]

09:12 PM on 09/05/2010

I AM SORRY I MESSED MYSELF UP
--- over that little White bxxxx

MY MAGNIFICENCE IS NOT SO WELL ACCEPTED NOW
--- you suckers are wrong

[rosegarten]

08:55 PM on 09/05/2010

You have apologized enough, Kanye. Please stop it!

[Jannella]

10:42 PM on 09/05/2010

He has. I guess because it's this time of the year again and Chris' comment happened, it's on his mind. Nice of him to write a song, but he doesn't have to say any more.

[kesiac]

07:49 PM on 09/05/2010

Kanye you are a brilliant artist who only needs to apologize once. Keep making your music.

[santiago sherwood]

09:34 PM on 09/05/2010

it turns out he damaged his sales so this is all commercially oriented, but a duet with Taylor will follow. as long as it get his sales back to where they were.

[Exhaust]

07:26 PM on 09/05/2010

Kanye said what A LOT of people were thinkin', but would have never said. I do think he is sorry, but mostly for himself.

[Bob Kellerman]

09:15 PM on 09/05/2010

OTHERS were thinking "Isn't it nice they gave this award to that talented new kid"

Awards are NOT objective judgements of the best performance -- they are in a context.

[Doctor Nick]

07:11 PM on 09/05/2010

Kanye should be forgiven for spawning the "I'm a let you finish" internet meme alone.

Which far surpasses what either he or Taylor Swift have done musically in terms of increasing the happiness and entertainment quotient of the universe (i.e. my universe). Though I have to give him mad props for sampling Kid Charlemagne by Steely Dan.

http://kanyegate.tumblr.com/
http://imaletyoufinish.com/

[GSR]

06:00 PM on 09/05/2010

I don't know Taylor's work. I listen to 'country' when Springsteen does it but otherwise I'm happily ignorant of the genre. I do however follow Taylor's publicity when it pops up. A couple of years ago I was watching a live telecast of a fund raising concert in support of the victims of catastrophic wild fires in the southern states of Australia.
This 18 year old singer came on in front of a 5 piece band made up of guys old enough to be her father. Her reception was warm from the teens in the crowd. She stood centre stage, wore a dour dress and started singing a plodding country song. Then about 30 seconds into the performance she did a perfectly executed instant velcro strip/reveal of a spectacular gold mini on the exact beat the tempo shifted to rock. She was all over the stage. The crowd went nuts. The applause didn't stop. She politely thanked the crowd for letting her play that one song in Sydney then she and her band drove to the Airport and flew home. All, I would imagine, at her own expense.
It struck me then that Ms Swift was a fine, centred young woman and a terrific ambassador for the US. Now that she has become vastly famous and popular (albeit I still know nothing of her songs ) her conduct during this period has only reinforced my admiration for her.

[Angelaaaa]

05:50 PM on 09/05/2010

I've bled more over a stubbed toe.

[hrc04]

05:36 PM on 09/05/2010

Alright already, enough with the Kanye bashing...he never questioned the girl's talent, the way Chris Robinson just did...and that guy's getting no backlash.

[Stephanie T]

06:35 PM on 09/05/2010

He did question her talent when he said that Beyonce should have won the award.

Mr. West, All I hear from you is how YOU suffered! What about ruining this young woman's first award? You acted stupidly and you suffered the consequences, too bad! As I recall didn't you do something similar to this earlier in your career?