Kanye spent $68m in a year on one thing

Few moments in recent awards show history have shocked quite as much as Kanye West bounding up on stage to snatch the microphone off Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs.

Now, presidential candidate West has opened up about the bizarre move in a wide-spanning interview discussing religion, Planned Parenthood, Forbes, his presidential campaign and the 2009 VMAs, claiming he only interrupted Swift’s speech because it was God’s plan.

In a 45-minute interview for Nick Cannon’s podcast, Cannon’s Class, the rapper explained what was going through his head before the notorious onstage sledge.

“Right now, God is giving me the information,” he said.

“If God ain’t want me to run on stage and say Beyoncé had the best video, he wouldn’t have sat me in the front row. I would’ve been sitting in the back.”

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While a then-teenage Taylor Swift gave her acceptance speech for winning Best Female Video for You Belong With Me, West got up on stage, bottle of Hennessy in hand, and uttered the now-iconic words: “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish.”

He continued: “Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” he said of her Single Ladies clip.

Speaking this week, he stood by the brutal claim: “It wouldn’t have made it so ridiculous of an idea because I had never heard of this person before.

“And Single Ladies is, like, one of the greatest videos of all time.

“I was only drinking Hennessy because I didn’t want to go to the awards show because it was a set-up,” he added.

West and Swift have been locked in a bitter feud for years since the incident, after West referred to the songstress as “that bitch” in his 2016 song Famous.

KANYE’S $68 MILLION CHURCH SPEND

Elsewhere in the two-part interview, he discussed his personal finances and a bizarre plan to “buy the paparazzi”.

Apparently, his increasingly elaborate Sunday Service productions have quite the high price tag attached, which West, 43, says he paid for with his Yeezy marketing budget.

“I spent every dime that I have for marketing from Yeezy on Sunday Service,” West claimed.

“Every dollar I had. I spent $50 million ($AU68 million) last year on Sunday Service if you add up the operas, if you add up the flights. It was 120 people going to Jamaica.

“The Yeezys, they were selling themselves. So instead of paying for ads, I invested it in the church. I invested in spreading gospel.”

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West also announced that he’s been mulling over the idea of buying the paparazzi. As in, all of them; he says it’s “always been an idea of mine.”

“I’ll hop in the car with a paparazzi; I hire paparazzi,” he said. “I know (business is) down ’cause of COVID, I am hiring. I’ll buy all the paparazzi companies. I wanna pick the exact photos.”

RECENT MENTAL HEALTH STRUGGLES

The interview comes amid a tumultuous time for West, who recently sparked concern for his mental health following his behaviour on Twitter.

West claimed his wife Kim Kardashian tried to fly a doctor to Wyoming to “lock me up like on the movie Get Out” because he cried about “saving” his daughter North’s life during a recent rally in his bid to become president.

He also referred to his mother-in-law Kris Jenner as a “white supremacist” and claimed that he had been trying to get a divorce from Kim for some time.

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West, who has bipolar disorder, later apologised to his wife for the tweets, writing: “To Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.”

Kim also broke her silence about her husband’s mental health in a recent statement posted to her Instagram.

“Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand,” she wrote.

“I’ve never spoken publicly about how this has affected us at home because I am very protective of our children and Kanye’s right to privacy when it comes to his health.”

But Kardashian said she felt compelled to speak out because “of the stigma and misconceptions of mental health”.

The pair’s very public troubles come as West’s bizarre bid for presidency hit another snag this week: He has now been dropped from presidential ballot consideration in New Jersey after a court order ruled that the signatures on his petition were invalid.

Despite this, West is still charging ahead with the bid, this week announcing a little-known running mate who once declared that mental illness could be solved by completing domestic chores.