Kanye West recently tried to mend his reputation after a string of public outbursts (think George Bush rant, Taylor Swift at the Video Music Awards etc etc) with a calm sit-down interview with The Today Show.
Instead, it looks as though he’s only made matters much worse.
First, he lost his temper in the interview. Then ranted about it on twitter. I’m not surprised his media trainer quit.
According to the New York Post, although his image consultants advised him not to do the interview, West decided that he wanted to accept The Today Show’s Matt Lauer’s invitation of an interview to use the opportunity to apologise for criticising George Bush over his reponse to the New Orleans hurricane.
His team hired Susie Arons, executive vice president at Rubenstein Communications to save his media relations. And although she advised West against going through with the piece, Arons received a phone call when West was already at the NBC studios headquarters and about to go ahead with the live interview and so rushed to the studio to help him out.
“West shut himself in a dressing room with Susie, and could be heard rehearsing possible questions and answers. But the interview began, and it was as though he had crammed for a test and then his mind went blank”.
Not only did he go blank, he also completely lost his cool when Lauer played the clip of his interruption of Taylor Swift at the VMAs 2009, in response to which he ranted: “Yo, how am I supposed to talk if you’re going to run the thing in the middle while I’m talking?”
During the break, Arons apparently tried a last minute coaching session with him, but the damage had already been done. The interview aired on the Thursday, and apparently Arons resigned from working with him on Friday morning. Of course, the Today Show refuses to apologise. It’s clear that the fault lies with the rapper.
We’ll see if any of our trainers are free….
Gemma Carey, Bluewood Training Ltd – www.bluewoodtraining.com