Entertainer of the Year: Kanye West

Many artists would say that maintaining a healthy relationship with MTV is key to that kind of goal. Your backstage meltdown at this year's VMAs cannot have helped. I didn't have a meltdown. They call it a meltdown, but I don't know why. Somebody caught me on tape backstage. I said exactly the kind of thing that goes on backstage all the time. It was a real moment. But, I guess, as a pop star you have a responsibility to not be real anymore.

The backlash probably wouldn't have been as harsh if you hadn't erupted the year before at the MTV Europe Music Awards. The European thing is ridiculous. I was joking around. I was like, "Oh, hell no. Man, they doing it to me again. Fuck it." And it came off as if I was extremely upset.

In the YouTube clip of the incident, you do look like you're having fun with it. Duh. MSN had clips that made it look like I was bitin' this baby's head off. But backstage at the VMAs, I was upset. Not just because of the ridiculous [snubs year after year]; it was more because they made me perform in that suite and told me I didn't want to perform on the main stage. They told me Justin [Timberlake] wasn't performing on the main stage, either.

Which turned out not to be the truth. The thing is, the people at MTV know where I'm trying to go. And I feel like, "Why do you not want me to reach my full potential?" If I've got a record like "Stronger," which is blowing up all across the world, call an audible! It's like, "Yo, let's let him take over the fuckin' world the way we helped Justin take over the world." Because, at the end of the day, if Justin can charge, like, two million for a private event, I think, partially, it's because MTV helped make him the No. 1 artist. Okay, now I work my fuckin' ass off -- first to fight back from all the award-show backlashes, then to have the No. 1 song in the world. And a [hard-rocking] song like that as a black man? That is next to impossible. Yet you're gonna open the show with Britney and close with Justin?! To me, you're saying, "We don't want another Michael Jackson, we want Elvis!"

Have you talked to MTV? I tried. I had a meeting with them and we were supposed to squash it, but they never played "Good Life." I had "Good Life" as Video of the Week, and halfway into the week, they took it off and put up 50 Cent and Robin Thicke. How credible is that? I apologized to them for my spazzes. But I think it's fucked-up that I had a meeting with them and they still didn't play my video. My thing is, you gotta let me know, "Yo, by the way, Justin is performing on the main stage." And this is the thing: I love Justin. To me, he is the pinnacle. Black people like him, white people like him, girls like him, gay people like him. Do you know how hard it would be as a black artist to get to that point? [Sanguinely] I know that the right thing to do would have been to not say anything to MTV, because that's just made it harder for me. And I honestly think they felt that they were giving me a [quality] moment. But it's just so -- my biggest thing is impatience. Maybe God is saying, "It's not your time yet."

[Ed. note: According to an MTV rep, the network offered West the choice of performing in a suite or on the main stage, denies conferring with West on Timberlake's performance, and points to main-stage appearances by Rihanna and Chris Brown as evidence of MTV's color blindness.]

You've been through a lot this year. Do you have a sense of how you've changed as a person? Every year I learn more. Times are still scary, but I got to sit down with Daft Punk and Madonna, and with a lot of incredible individuals, and learn from them. I'm gonna keep making music so that ten, 20 years from now, I'll be able to be where Mick is. Where Bono is.

The 2008 Grammy nominations will have been announced by the time this story comes out. What would you like to have happen this year? Um, I want to have the most nominations of all time? I was always the kid who, when asked how much money do you want, said, "Thirty trillion dollars!"