Kanye
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Evidently from Igbo Kanye, although inspiration from other African languages may have contributed. The verb is a reference to Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
Inflected forms:
form: Kanyes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: Kanyeing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: Kanye'd
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: Kanye'd
pos: verb
tags: past
form: Kanyed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: Kanyed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: To interrupt the speech of (someone).
pos: verb
tags: slang
examples: Taylor sings her monologue song on Saturday Night Live with Bill Hader (left) and Jason Sudeikis (right) making sure she doesn’t get Kanye’d again.
In what probably put his film on the map more than winning the Oscar itself, the short documentary winner Roger Ross Williams got Kanye’d when accepting his award for “Music by Prudence.” As Mr. Williams, the director, was making his speech, Elinor Burkett, the producer, jumped onstage with him and began talking over him, shades of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift at the Video Music Awards last year.
Author’s note: Possibly one in the form of a very short rapper with extreme attention and small man issues who interrupts and insults you during high points of your life, ruins your train of thought, accuses some white guy of not caring about black guys, yells “YOU’VE JUST BEEN KANYE’D!” laughs maniacally, and then scampers off to create more havoc elsewhere.
You Got Kanyed: Seen but Not Heard
Kanye’d from Kanye West (b. 1977) meaning to have a speech interrupted.
To Swiftly tackle the Taylor debacle / What if he had tossed her a $mirk / When he hi-jacked the VMA mic on that historic MTV night? / Even President Obama said that he behaved like a jerk. / But was Kanye right for saying what he had said? / What if he had simply flashed her a Kanye smile instead? / Mollified Molly with it like a pillow on a bed / Hypnotized her / Kanyed her / Got in her head, / Simply slipped her a Kanye smile like a micky among her meds.
Ironically, this attempt to steal his thunder gave him even more publicity when news outlets publicized how the more Black director, Williams, was “‘Kanye’d’ by Burkett” (McDonald 2016).
After a few more speeches and several moments of self-reflection the woman who made the remarks—or better yet Kanye’d me during my speech—I walked up and started a conversation.
A few seconds into her performance she can be seen in the video getting interrupted by a fellow student, who grabbed the microphone out of Valerio’s hand saying “This is my senior graduating class and I think I deserve to sing the national anthem.” This shocked the judges. ”She just pulled a Kanye West!” Katy Perry said, referring to West stealing the microphone during Taylor Swift’s 2009 acceptance speech for Best Video by a Female Artist at the MTV Music Awards. ”She got Kanyed,” Luke Bryan added.
gloss: To interrupt (a speech).
pos: verb
tags: slang
examples: Roger Ross Williams hopes "God Loves Uganda" will give him another shot at an acceptance speech after his first was "Kanye'd" by a disgruntled collaborator.
The G.O.O.D. Music founder may have had a smile on his face when he almost Kanyed Beck's Album of the Year acceptance speech at the Grammys last night — and Beyoncé was laughing when she said "No Kanye, no" from the audience — but his crashing of the stage was no joke.
Third, when Jay-Z interrupted West at the 2012 BET Awards, and when West repeated his interruption at the 2015 Grammys, they were enacting memetic performances, referencing, replicating, and escalating an embodied behavior for collective appreciation. Alas, others have not widely joined in, and no “Kanyeing” trend has taken off.
James Corden took the stage with his team. Naturally, I jumped up, ripped the mic out of his hand, and Kanye’d that shit.
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