Kanye West recently performed his new song, "Famous," for the first time live at the Paradise International Music Festival in the Philippines and was extremely proud of himself. So proud of himself that he performed the song three times for the audience and even made time for one of his notorious speeches. In this speech he decided to remind everyone why he wrote the Taylor Swift-bashing lyric and defended his actions at the VMAs seven years ago. He stated that [he] was just saying what everyone else was thinking. He later added: "I had to fight every day of my life, with the whole world turned against me, for saying out loud what everyone else felt. But that’s the job of an artist, of a true artist: not to be controlled by their finances, not to be controlled by perceptions, but only to be controlled by their truth."

Kanye defending his major debt in that speech did make me giggle a tad, but Kanye and I both agree on one thing: his video for, "Famous," was art, and that's that, no matter how offensive. He explored his, "truth," and gave us all quite the spectacle to watch while we moved on with our everyday lives. He even arranged the music video to reflect the modern piece of art, "Sleep," by Vincent Desiderio. Desiderio also agrees that the video is harmless and that artists have, "no moral obligation," when presenting their work to the world.

Kanye stated his truth in his way and did not care about offending others. Some of those offended might include a naked Rihanna, who was placed in the video lying next to her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. Or a naked Amber Rose, an ex of Kanye, who did not like being told she was famous just because of her past relationship with the rapper. Or the world, when he included a naked Bill Cosby (who is now being investigated for countless rape charges) in reflection of his [Kanye's] tweet claiming that Cosby was innocent. Many others placed in his video may be offended for their naked portrayal, but the one who everyone has their eyes on is Taylor Swift.

In Kanye's first verse on the track he decides to bash Swift, claiming he was the one who made her famous, despite her always growing career. The lyrics state, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why?/ I made that bitch famous." Even though the video may add a few extra miles to this attack, the lyrics themselves aren't that much different than other songs out there that broadcast or name drop other celebrities. In other words, these lyrics are not a big deal, and are also not totally false. Kanye may have not made her famous, but he did teach her how to control the media in her own way and navigate the public's perception of her. This falls directly in her favor. Any press that may victimize her or give her credit (without her even needing to comment) helps her one hundred percent of the time.

The lyrics might not mean much, but the video was a bit too strong for some. A key player in this opinion of the video is Lena Dunham. Dunham looks at the video as a friend of the attacked Taylor Swift and as a feminist. She claims that: "Now I have to see the prone, unconscious, waxy bodies of famous women, twisted like they've been drugged and chucked aside at a rager? It gives me such a sickening sense of dis-ease." Dunham makes the point that the video glorifies rape culture and shows a lack of progress in our society while we still portray women like this in mass media.

The portrayal of women in his video was honestly too far, but the fact stays the same that this is a music video that portrays the artist's truth, and the video stays classified as art that gained a lot of attention. There are countless videos and song lyrics that state even more outrageous material that never even got close to, "breaking the internet," or even gained substantial popularity. West's video and song lyrics are simply offensive material that gained notoriety. Kanye is doing his job as an artist, and there is nothing more to it. Kanye is an artist controlled by his own truth and will continue to do so as long as he decides to, no matter how infuriated some may feel by his actions.