Kanye Didn't Do ISH!!

OK. So Taylor Swift's Fearless won Album of the Year at last night's Grammys. And tons of my friends were in uproar. Facebook statuses consistently displayed how folks thought that it was a travesty that she won...and how she is just America's little princess...and more often that not, she ought to thank Kanye West for making her career. And, each time that I read one of those statuses, I gave the side eye, and thought...I'm going to need to you know the facts before making such an ignorant statement...particularly if you have never listened to her album or tracked its success.

Now, I am by no means a Taylor Swift stan. In fact, I think her performance last night with Stevie Nicks was horrible. They sounded a hot ass mess. However, Kanye West has NOTHING at ALL to do with the quality and popularity of her album.

Let's look back:

1. The 2009 MTV Awards, where Kanye acted a damn coon, and jumped on the stage while Taylor Swift was accepting her award for Best Female Video aired on September 13th, 2009.

2. Kanyegate happened AFTER MTV had already chosen her to win Best Female Video. I state this because I think people forget that she was on the stage to accept an award before Kanye entered her life.

3. Fearless was released November 11, 2008, selling nearly 600K copies in its first week. Though released at such a late date in 2008, the only two albums to sell better than that in 2008 were Lil Wayne's The Carter 3 and Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. Indeed, Fearless sold 2.1 million copies in 2008. And, as a reminder, Kanye didn't happen into September 2009.

4. In its debut week, seven songs on the album charted in the Billboard Hot 100. Debut Week: November 2008. Kanye: September 2009.

5. Two of Taylor Swift's albums were in the Top Selling Albums of 2008, Fearless at No. 3, and her self-titled debut album, at No. 6. With this feat, she became the first artist in the history of Neilsen Soundscan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on a year end album chart. This was 2008. Kanye: 2009.

6. Fearless continued to sell like no other in 2009, staying in the top 10 for weeks on end. In fact, the album topped the Billboard 200 for 11 non-consecutive weeks and topped the Billboard Top Country Albums for 35 non-consecutive weeks. This was all prior to Kanyegate.

7. On July 3, 2009, it was announced by Yahoo! Music that Fearless was the top-selling album of the first half of 2009 in the United States. Kanye didn't happen until September 13, 2009.

8. Prior to September 13, 2009, the album had spent an unprecedented 42 or 43 weeks in the Billboard Top 15...and in fact, I think the Top 10. Again, this is all prior to Kanye. And, yes, the album is STILL in the top 10 more than a year later. In fact, not only was this album the 3rd top selling album of 2008, it was THE top selling album of 2009, most of the sales coming PRIOR to September 13, 2009.

I'm sure there are many other facts...but now let me talk about some of her awards and nominations, prior to Kanye:

1. In Feb 2009, she was nominated as Best New Artist at the Grammys.
2. In 2008, she won Top Female Vocalist, and her debut album was nominated for Album of the Year, at the Academy of Country Music Awards.
3. In 2008, she won Female Country Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards.
4. She won 3 BMI Awards, which are awarded to songwriters, in 2007 and 2008.
5. She won 3 CMT Music Awards in 2007 and 2008.

OK...so there are countless others that came before September 13, 2009...the day that Kanye decided to act like an ass! But, you get my drift.

And, another thing. Let's not forget about that fact that she wrote, produced, and composed every track on the album, with only half of the songs having a co-writer. And, I'm not talking about 12 co-writers for one song like many other artists have; I'm talking about one, maybe two, other co-writers. All of the rest of the songs she wrote by herself.

And all of this by a COUNTRY artist...which makes her MTV Video Music Award all the more amazing b/c we all know that MTV isn't a haven for country artist. The fact that she won that award signifies her stellar crossover success.

So...chill out on saying that Kanye made this girl's career. No ma'am. No sir. SHE made her career long before Kanye acted a fool. And, yes...maybe YOU didn't hear of her before Kanye, but that's because YOU don't listen to country music, or any stations that play Top 40 music. That ain't her fault...that's yours. But, clearly she has been killing it before Kanye, and has continued to continued to after him.

Now, I will say that I still wanted Lady Gaga or DMB to win Album of the Year last night. LOL! I mean, Gaga KILLED it this year, and her album was excellent. And, DMB...well, they consistently come with an amazing album, and Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King did not disappoint. But, I can understand and agree with Taylor winning.

That is all.

Carry on.