Less than a week since going after Beck for refusing to “respect artistry,” Kanye West was fed a spoonful of his own medicine Thursday night at a free concert in New York City.
The rapper, who interrupted alternative rock artist Beck’s Album of the Year acceptance speech during the Grammys last Sunday, was forced to perform his set at the annual Roc City Classic near a huge display of the word “BECK!”—created on the windows of a nearby building.
A company called PNYC is credited with the bold response to West’s interruption, according to the Gothamist.
Two PNYC employees, Matt and Jason, told the publication:
We are an agency actively researching the effects of Out of Home advertising. We found out Kanye was playing outside of our building and we wanted to make a point about being in the right place at the right time with the right message and how that can be amplified through digital channels. And… don’t f— with Beck.
A Twitter account for the company also released a statement about the welcome sign and said, “The voices in our heads made us do it.”
Beck was awarded Best Album of the Year on Sunday, much to the dismay of Kanye, who, once again, felt Beyoncé was more deserving of the accolade.
“All I know is if the Grammys want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us,” West told E! News after the show. “We ain’t gonna play with them no more. ‘Flawless,’ Beyoncé’s video. Beck needs to respect artistry, and he should have given his award to Beyoncé.”
In an interview with Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday morning, West explained his actions, and offered a disingenuous apology to Beck, wherein he blamed the voices in his head for his actions.
“Everybody was looking at me and then people started screaming, “Kanye! Kanye! Go do it!” Ok, that didn’t really happen, these were voices in my head. So the voices in my head told me go and then I just walked up like halfway up the stage,” West told Seacrest.
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