Kanye's Ego Bigger Than Previously Thought

After my Kanye-centric post yesterday, I went to the TV Guide Emmy afterparty at Les Deux in Hollywood, where John Legend, a meek and humble cutie, performed a nice long set of passionately sung emotional songs that all melded together into a performance that many people seemed to love, but that was, for me, background music. A surprise guest followed his act: none other than yesterday's blog session obsession Kanye West.

It's so strange to see the way that people respond to Mr. West, who recently released his album Graduation. When Kanye took the stage, the celebrity-stuffed party froze to figure out if it was really Kanye (yes!) and then hundreds rushed toward him like the Beatles were onstage tuning up with John Lennon's ghost for one last go.

So, Kanye dances around and tears it up for a couple of songs until the audience is going nuts. People just seem to love the shit out of him. He performs Golddigger, and then stops because he has something to say to the audience, and that's when th scene turns strange and uncomfortable for anyone who lives within the parameters of tact:

Kanye West is absolutely obsessed with how well his album sales have been going and he wants to make sure that everyone in the tent, there to celebrate the Emmy's, knows how amazing his accomplishment is. He says, "I think that the number one album this year sold 400 or 500 thousand the first week. Graduation sold 455,000 the first day," and repeats with emphasis, "445,000 the first day, family." I don't know if I've ever seen anyone over the age of, say 13 or 14 years-old, act the way that Kanye does and talk the way that Kanye does --

-- maybe Noel Gallagher comparing Oasis to the Beatles?

Perhaps it is a good idea to blow your own horn about how great you are until it simply drowns out any opposition and people would have to distract themselves too much from their own lives to beg to differ?

Should we all be boastful like Kanye? I've always thought that you were supposed to keep your mouth shut about what you think is great about yourself, but if Kanye's breaking records and everyone's loving him every second, what's the point of being modest?

I was watching Bill Maher the other day and they were talking about Al Gore being modest about taking part in creating the internet, I believe. They were making the point that he downplayed his strengths to appear gracious and modest, but that that doesn't work anymore because people don't understand that kind of complex emotion. They just understand exactly what you tell them, which seems inanely simple, but it might just be the best, most straightforward way to communicate.

It's like Kanye West said to a group of people who were out to celebrate an Emmy party, not him: "Right now, the way I’m feeling right now is that before the day I die, I’m going to touch the sky."