I’ve been listening to a lot Kanye West lately. I guess ever since the rapper’s now infamous outburst at last week’s Video Music Awards, the guy’s been on my mind quite a bit. I’ve always been a Kanye apologist; the music he puts out is-in my opinion at least- consistently fantastic and despite his frequent crashing of award show acceptance speeches, I consider the man a very talented musician.

Interestingly enough, some of West’s past songs seem to foreshadow (or perhaps warn?) his rude faux pas. One song in particular, “Everything I Am,” from 2007’s Graduation , seems even more relevant now than it did two years ago. In the song, West is uncharacteristically insecure; lamenting that he’ll never be as perfect as Beyonce or as stylish as will.i.am. He seems sad, but content with the fact that maybe his personal antics will always overshadow his musical achievements. Which is a gosh darn shame, because I believe West is still one of the more musically gifted and experimental artists working in hip-hop. It’s hard to imagine anyone else making the nakedly emotional, Auto-Tune heavy, rap-light album, 808’s and Heartbreak, which may go down in history as the world’s first emo hip-hop record.

I hope all of this VMA noise dies down eventually. I hope West gets back to making music, and that America is forgiving enough to give it a listen. Because in spite of his many flaws and bristles, Kanye is still an engaging and exciting musician and his music, unlike his award show antics, is always worth listening to.