Kanye Goes Off-Script
Teleprompters are just for little people, apparently. During a live TV fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina days after the storm, Kanye ditched the lines prepared for him in favor of a minute-plus political diatribe. As co-presenter Mike Myers stared blankly ahead, the rapper blasted the media's portrayal of Katrina's black victims and added, memorably, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," at which point the show's producer cut him off and abruptly moved to the next presenter. NBC later disavowed the harangue and edited the accusation out of the program's West Coast rebroadcast, but Kanye's point was made. By sheer coincidence, of course, earlier that week he had released the album Late Registration, which went on to sell 3.5 million copies.