Kanye West says upstaging Beck was 'a joke – like the Grammys themselves'

Kanye West called interrupting Beck’s Grammy acceptance speech a misunderstanding, describing the incident as a “joke”, and also revealed he may collaborate with Taylor Swift in the future.

West rushed the stage as Beck was accepting the album of the year award for Morning Phase and looked as though he might take the microphone from him, but then walked away without saying anything. He later said that Beck winning the award over Beyoncé was “disrespectful to inspiration”.

Speaking to Ryan Seacrest, West said he wanted to “just joke around with what happened before”, referring to when he interrupted Swift’s 2009 Video Music Award speech.

“So, the voices in my head told me go, and then I just walked up, like, halfway up the stage ... But I just didn’t really want to take away from Beck’s moment, or the time he’s having to talk,” West said.

He went on the criticise the awards ceremony, saying: “It was kind of a joke – like the Grammys themselves”. West hadn’t attended the ceremony for the preceding six years, citing his objections to the voting process in explanation.

West has a history of interrupting awards speeches. He walked onstage in 2009 as Swift accepted a Video Music Award for video of the year. When he took the microphone from Swift he said that Beyoncé had one of the best music videos “of all time” before handing the mic back to a shocked Swift.

But West also told Seacrest that Swift supported his decision to go onstage at the Grammys and later suggested they collaborate.

“Taylor Swift came up to me right afterwards, literally right afterwards, and tells me that I should have went onstage,” said West. “So, this is the irony of my life.”

West’s interview with Seacrest has also sparked rumors the two are collaborating, with the hip-hop star admitting he was interested in recording with Swift, or any artist who has “an amazing perspective”.

“She wants to get in the studio – we definitely going to go in,” he said Wednesday. “I’m down to get in the studio and work. I don’t discriminate, I don’t have an elitism of music, because of how many Grammys or the amount of ratings you get on an album.”

Beck said that he also believed Beyoncé would win album of the year.

“I was just so excited he was coming up,” Beck told US Weekly about West after the Grammys. “He deserves to be onstage as much as anybody. How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right?”

“You can’t please everybody, man,” Beck said. “I still love him and think he’s genius. I aspire to do what he does.”