What's the deal with Kanye West?

This morning Kanye West came out on some radio show and said MTV took advantage of Britney Spears when they had her kick off this year’s Video Music Awards. She clearly wasn’t ready and they just did it for ratings, he alleged. This is an excellent point and at first it sounded like an all-too-rare example of one star sticking up for another rather than kicking her while she’s down. Then West went on to say: "They exploited her, they played me and I really don't mess with MTV.”

Apparently Kanye was really mad that MTV chose Britney to open the show instead of him. His new song “Stronger” was written “for stadiums,” and he felt disrespected that he had to play it in a suite. Meanwhile Justin Timberlake hosted a sweet and closed down the show on the main stage. Oh, and West also threw a tantrum backstage after getting shut out of each the categories he was nominated in.

Is he serious? Does Kanye really require that kind of validation? From a washed up dinosaur like MTV no less? I’m not a big rap fan so I can’t really judge how talented Kanye West is, but my friends who like the hip-hop tell me he’s one of the best. You’d think that would be enough for him. But apparently he needs to win the Quadruple Threat moon man too.

Come on Kanye, buck up. Ungrateful petulance is so 1996.