A Brief History Of Kanye West’s Greatest Celebrity Feuds

A brief survey of recent history might tell you that Kanye West possibly has trouble playing well with others. The rapper has a bad habit of getting caught up in feuds, stemming from his combination of incredible hubris and sometimes thin skin. The latest throw down is between Ye and Wiz Khalifa, after West misunderstood Khalifa’s weed preferences as a slight to his wife, our future First Lady Kim Kardashian. The fight may be petty, but the tweets are incredible.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/692421786605084673

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/692424248103718916

This is hardly the first time that Kanye has started beef with various other celebs, so let’s take a walk down memory lane through some of his biggest celebrity smackdowns.

George W. Bush

2005 was a different time. Kanye had released The College Dropout, but he was still a largely unknown entity. However, during the nationally televised fundraise for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Kanye came for the President of the United States himself. After an impassioned, if at times nervous, speech about the way that the media was portraying black residents of New Orleans, he declared “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Mike Myers has never looked more uncomfortable.

Taylor Swift

Before Taylor Swift had her squad, she was still accepting all of her awards with the same look of utter shock. It has been debated that the look is one of faux surprise, but it was absolutely genuine when Kanye decided to swoop onstage at the 2009 VMAs and utter the immortal line, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all-time! One of the best videos of all-time!” The media played out the scene with Taylor as the victim and Kanye as the villain, but either way, it helped make him a legend.

This isn’t the only time that Ye has revealed his inner Beyoncé stan. When Beck beat out the pop diva in 2015 for Album of the Year at the Grammys, Yeezy poked fun of his previous stunt by pretending to rush the stage. While the action was a joke, the sentiment was not. Kanye spoke out on social media, criticizing the Grammys and praising Beyoncé’s “artistry.” He eventually apologized to Beck.

South Park

The team behind South Park have roasted their fair share of celebrities over the seasons, and Kanye was no different. However, the often short-tempered rapper handled this one a little better than some criticism in the past. Sure, he felt the need to write a pissy blog post about it, but he handled the situation a little more chill than expected:

“’South Park’ murdered me last night, and it’s pretty funny. It hurts my feelings, but what can you expect from ’South Park?’… I actually have been working on my ego. … Having the crazy ego is played out at this point in my life and career. I used to use it to build up my esteem when nobody believed in me. Now that people do believe and support my music, the best response is ’Thank you’ instead of ’I told you so!’… I’m not actually a huge douche. I’m sure the writers at ’South Park’ are really nice people in real life. Thanks for taking the time to draw my crew. That was pretty funny also.”

Jimmy Kimmel

In 2013, Kanye did a now infamous interview with Zane Lowe, in which he declared himself the “#1 rock star on the planet.” That statement got endlessly lampooned by pretty much everyone, including Jimmy Kimmel, who spoofed the interview in a skit with child actors reciting Kanye’s words. Kanye… didn’t handle it well, leading bros everywhere to shout “NO DISRESPECT TO BEN AFFLECK” long after the joke was dead. While the tweets have long been deleted, the Internet is forever…

JIMMY KIMMEL IS OUT OF LINE TO TRY AND SPOOF IN ANY WAY THE FIRST PIECE OF HONEST MEDIA IN YEARS

JIMMY KIMMEL, I DON’T TAKE IT AS A JOKE…. YOU DON’T HAVE SCUM BAGS HOPPING OVER FENCES TRYING TO TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR DAUGHTER

JIMMY KIMMEL PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES … OH NO THAT MEANS YOU WOULD HAVE GOTTEN TOO MUCH GOOD PUSSY IN YOUR LIFE…

YOU CAN’T PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES. YOUR FACE LOOKS CRAZY… IS THAT FUNNY?… OR IF I HAD A KID SAY IT WOULD IT BE FUNNY???

SHOULD I DO A SPOOF ABOUT YOUR FACE OR YOU FUCKING BEN AFFLECK… #NODISRESPECTTOBENAFFLECK #ALLDISRESPECTTOJIMMYKIMMEL!!!!

I LIKE YOU, YOU KNOW ME, I WENT TO YOUR FAMILY’S WEDDING

WHO YOU MADE IT CLEAR TO ME WASN’T YOUR FAMILY WHEN I WAS ON THEN PHONE WITH YOU 5 MINUTES AGO, YOU MANIPULATIVE MEDIA MUTHERFUCKER.

SARAH SILVERMAN IS A THOUSAND TIMES FUNNIER THAN YOU AND THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS IT!!!

50 Cent

The supposed rivalry between Kanye and 50 Cent has been around since early on in their careers, highlighted by the infamous Rolling Stone cover showing the two rappers as squared off rivals. According to both men, the rivalry was mostly fabricated to fit into the hip-hop narrative.

50: “It’s the competitive nature of hip-hop, we gotta compete on some levels.”

Kanye: “Hip-hop is just dropping albums, like there ain’t no competition. When Biggie/Wu Tang, Jay Z and Nas coming out the same time, people were like I want that Raekwon. I wanna have the best joint.”

50: “The competitive nature of this art form doesn’t exist in R&B or in classical music or jazz, they make great music, but it’s not as competitive as hip-hop music. It’s why you get the friction. They say it’s beef, that’s the new terminology for battling.”

Kanye: “I look at it as a sport… This the only sport that people really going for that number one spot… going for that moment to be the most important, most talked about….”

However, after Beck’s Grammy win in 2015, 50 threw a little shade Kanye’s way over Beyoncé’s supposed “artistry” while sharing his thoughts with People.

“[Beck] produced his record, wrote the record-there’s eleven producers on Beyoncé’s album. Kanye being a producer and a writer should see that. I felt that I deserved ‘Best New Artist’ for my first album – it’s the largest debut in rap with 13 million records sold, and when’s the last time you ever saw Evanescence? Crickets, crickets. It’s just the way it is.”

Amber Rose

Yes, there was a time before Kim and Kanye were a thing. When Kim and Kanye got together 2012, he was bound to be entering a world of drama with the Kardashian klan. However, much of that drama was of his own making, especially regarding his ex, Amber Rose. In an interview with Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club” on February 20, 2015,  Kanye had some unkind words about Rose:

She’s just soaking in the moment. If Kim had dated me when I first wanted to be with her, it wouldn’t be an Amber Rose … It’s hard for a woman to want to be with someone that with Amber Rose. She wasn’t sending me no pictures. I had to take 30 showers before I got with Kim. But I just wanna be respectful, man.

Ooof. Between her past relationship with Kanye and her opinions about rapper Tyga’s grossly inappropriate relationship with Kylie Jenner, Rose has long been a prominent figure with the Kardashians. For her part, Rose was not going to take those criticisms lying down.

And this is hardly where this feud has ended.