Kanye West Gossip (Page 2)

Before we get to the controversy involved in the death of Donda West, here's a statement her son issued on behalf of his mourning family:

"Kanye West, his family and friends would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support and kind words that have come in from across the country since the death of his mother, Dr. Donda West.

After working in higher education for 31 years, Dr. Donda West and Kanye West co-founded the Kanye West Foundation with the mission of helping to combat the severe dropout problem in high schools across the country.

The first and signature initiative of the Kanye West Foundation is Loop Dreams. Designed to capitalize on students existing interest in hip-hop, Loop Dreams challenges students to learn more about what's behind hip-hop culture in order to help them develop skills, express themselves creatively and be empowered.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Dr. West's name to the Kanye West Foundation/Loop Dreams Teacher Training Institute."

But there's more. The doctor who performed the procedure, Jan Adams, is taking issue with anyone who claims he contributed to the tragic death...

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TMZ has uncovered more details in the death of Donda West, Kanye West's mother, who tragically passed away over the weekend as a result of plastic surgery complications.

Reportedly, 911 responded to a call at 7:35 Saturday night from Donda's home. Paramedics transported West to nearby Centinela Freeman Hospital in Marina del Rey, stating that it was a "sick person call."

A hospital spokesperson told TMZ that an unresponsive West was brought to their ER around 8:00 p.m. Saturday. They attempted to resuscitate her, but were unsuccessful. The rapper's mother was pronounced dead around 8:30 that night.

Donda West, the mother and onetime manager of rapper Kanye West, died Saturday in Los Angeles.

No other details are available at this time.

Donda was a retired professor and former chairwoman of the Chicago State University English department. She was known for supporting her son and his fiance, Alexis Phifer, often stirring up controversy in the face of critics.

"Kanye likes to think as a hobby and speak his own mind. He was always like that," Donda West told InStyle earlier this year. "He came out of the womb looking like he had that attitude."

In a rare moment of humility at the BET Hip-Hop Awards on Sunday night, rapper Kanye West won - and said he was undeserving of - an award.

After winning the Video of the Year award for "Stronger," West took the stage and poked fun the many honors he was passed over for - and was not happy about - at the recent MTV Video Music Awards (also the site of the infamous Kid Rock / Tommy Lee fight and the Britney Spears embarrassment).

"Every time I'm nominated for something I fix my scarf, but then I don't be comin' up," the somewhat egomaniacal fiance of Alexis Phifer cracked.

He then became uncharacteristically humble and said that he thought UGK and Outkast deserved the award instead, for "International Players Anthem."

"I've been waiting for the opportunity to win an award I shouldn't win," Kanye West said, calling the groups to come take the statue from him.

After UGK and Big Boi of Outkast took the stage, they thanked the 30-year-old rapper but then gave the award back to Kanye West, saying that he deserved it. Yes, it was a gigantic love-fest at the Hip Hop Awards!

West, Common and T.I. each won two trophies. T.I. was not on hand to receive his awards or perform because he was arrested over the weekend for planning to pick up some machine guns and silencers his bodyguard had ordered. Standard.

Based on his new single, we thought Kanye West was getting Stronger.

Guess the supposedly tough rapper meant Dorkier, though.

At the Dior fashion show in Paris yesterday, Alexis Phifer looks embarrassed to be spotted next to her Steve Urkel look-alike of a fiance.

This is the dude who was gonna fight 50 Cent?!? He looks like he can barely handle Miley Cyrus.

Celebrities are sure able to convince people to drink a certain soda or eat crappy fast food, but when it comes to politics, their word carries little weight.

In other words, if Hillary Clinton wins the White House, it's probably not going to have much do to with the support given to her by 50 Cent.

According to a telephone survey of more than 1,000 people, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, celebrities' endorsements for U.S. presidential candidates don't do a whole lot - in fact, in some cases they would actually cause people not to vote for a candidate.

For example, when asked whether an endorsement from rapper Kanye West would make them more or less likely to vote for a candidate, just 4 percent said it would make them more likely, but 15 percent said they'd be less likely.

Kanye West: Great at rapping and complaining to the media about not winning awards for it; Bad at influencing the public endorsing political candidates.

Other celebrities who had a negative impact on voter choices were Donald Trump, Jay Leno, Toby Keith and - here's an absolute stunner - Bill O'Reilly.

The endorsement Barack Obama got from Oprah Winfrey was a wash - 15 percent said an endorsement from Oprah helps, while 15 percent said it would hurt.

Looks like Oprah should stick to recommending books! Barack, meanwhile, might want to think of making Amber Lee Ettinger his campaign manager.

Kanye West has been an angry man these days.

Following the Video Music Awards, he lashed out at MTV, saying the network exploited himself and Britney Spears and vowing to never work with the channel again.

Fortunately, fiancee Alexis Phifer was by the rapper's side at the Emmy Awards last night. And by the looks of the couple, she seems to have calmed Kanye down.

Alexis Phifer knows how to help her man chill out. Earlier in the evening, West was furious to discover that Kyle Chandler wasn't even nominated for an Emmy.

Kanye West continues to bash MTV, saying Friday that the network "used" Britney Spears to get higher ratings for Sunday's Video Music Awards.

"I just felt like she wasn't ready and I felt like they had to get their ratings. ... It just shows you it's not a black and white thing; it's a money thing," the rapper said on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show.

"I felt bad for her too. I felt bad for everyone involved."

West, whose backstage meltdown behind the scenes at the VMAs is now part of YouTube lore, said MTV should have stopped Spears after seeing her rehearsal.

"Someone had to be at that practice and be like, 'Wow. This is not good.' All the lip-syncing, everything," West said. "I mean, that performance, even had it been pulled off perfectly, still wouldn't have been up to par to start off the MTV Music Video Awards."

Selling a reported 420,000 records on the first day his new album Graduation was released, West seems on track to be the victor in his battle to out-perform fellow rapper 50 Cent (whose new album dropped the same day) on the charts.

But Kanye West's battle with MTV continues.

"MTV didn't give me the opportunity to rock the way I wanted to rock," he said, calling his five VMA nominations but no wins a "slap in the face."

"I told the guy at MTV, 'There's only a few things important in music this year: Umbrella, Amy Winehouse,'" he said. "it's not just me. Britney Spears is not important in music, but she's important to the tabloids and stuff like that."

So basically, Kanye West is saying that Britney Spears is only relevant because celebrity news publications are obsessed with her, and she's no longer a force in the music business. A bold, bold statement. Way to go out on a limb there!

Move over, Hillary Clinton.

50 Cent is singing the praises of another buzzed-about woman - Britney Spears - and saying Kayne West's outburst against her Sunday was unwarranted.

"He was upset," 50 told Ryan Seacrest on his radio show, referring to West's backstage meltdown. "He's not used to not being recognized. Period."

Kanye West, however, will be recognized in one unlikely place â€" Seacrest announced Wednesday that Kanye will perform at Sunday night's Emmys.

As for 50 and Kanye, both rappers appeared on BET's 106 and Park on Tuesday, and West said he wished he could have opened the VMAs.

"It was always my dream to open the show with 'Stronger' but they talked me into doing the suite thing," he said. "Then when they had Britney Spears open, I said, 'How are you going to have Britney open? Because she's not ready'."

But, according to 50 Cent, Kanye West was out of line.

"[Kanye] expressed that he felt that Britney Spears shouldn't be actually opening the Video Music Awards - almost like he forgot that Britney Spears sold 50 million records. She did," the rapper told Seacrest.

"He is not thinking about her full body of work. She deserved to headline the show better than anybody else that was on it ... even in the state she is in."

Asked if he thinks West will go through with his threatened boycott of MTV, 50 Cent answered: "I don't think he can. I don't think it's possible. I think he [got] carried away in the moment. MTV doesn't need him."

After he appeared with 50 Cent and looking friendly on BET, later that day Kanye West bailed on a scheduled TRL appearance.

"He's nervous," 50 Cent joked about West's cancellation. "You think he had a problem with MTV? Nah. He knew he had to be here today ... He was like, 'You don't want to give me no trophies? Okay, I quit.'"

West also pulled out of a scheduled appearance on the Today show.

A rep for West told the New York Post: "It was a creative decision. There were problems ... Kanye wanted to do things a certain way with an elaborate light show and he would have had to move indoors for that ... He was contrite."

Kanye West prides himself on being an educated, thinking man's rapper, a class act a cut above the typical gangsta-thug lyfe hip-hop fare.

That he may be. But he's also a raging, petulant egomaniac.

West has been on the warpath since being blanked at the MTV Video Music Awards yet again, taking issue with the voters as well as the program itself, chiding an unprepared Britney Spears as well as his own relegation to performing in a Palms luxury suite rather than the main stage.

And that's just on the record.

The rage of Kanye West is evident in a video sweeping the Internets, in which the rapper has a backstage meltdown punctuated by profanities toward MTV ...

Yikes. Accentuating the positives (if there are any), MTV responded to Kanye West's blistering criticism about his treatment by lavishing him with praise.

"MTV has a long and collaborative relationship with Kanye and we hope and look forward to continuing that meaningful relationship," MTV' said in a statement.

Good to see they're taking the high road. Hopefully, Alexis Phifer can convince her talented, arrogant fiance to do the same.