Kanye Flips On Photographers, Understandable Or Poor Form?

Kanye West has never been known for his particularly pleasant demeanor. Over the years, he’s had run-ins with other celebrities, with journalists, with photographers and with at least one person from damn near every group you can think of, which is why it should surprise no one that he went at it with yet another member of the paparazzi at an airport earlier this week.

West was reportedly entering Los Angeles International Airport when he was approached by several photographers who began taking pictures. One of them started telling the musician about how much he loves his new album when Kanye reportedly flipped out. According to TMZ, he screamed at the photographer to stop talking to him. He then reportedly screamed at all the photographers to never talk to him or anyone he knows again before taking a swipe at the first photographer’s camera.

How someone treats a waiter is often a great lens into his or her personality, and the same could be said for pretty much any employees in the service industry. There’s no reason why people can’t go out of their way to offer smiles, a few thank yous and even a few extra dollar bills if the situation calls for it. Consequently, it’s easy to be pretty pissed off at Kanye for giving the business to some photographers who are just doing their jobs.

On the other hand, however, members of the paparazzi are a pretty special case. They definitely invade the private lives of celebrities, and they definitely cause more than their share of stress. No doubt Kanye has been followed around with a particular vigor ever since his girlfriend Kim Kardashian got pregnant, and it seems a bit natural that he would harbor negative feelings related to that intrusion.

Part of me thinks we should all give Kanye a free pass because of how much stress he’s clearly been under lately between the leaked video and fatherhood. Part of me thinks we should not run too hard to defend photographers when they're the ones invading his space. The other part of me, however, thinks Kanye needs to grow the fuck up and start acting like a decent human being. Yes, photographers are annoying, but if he would give them a wave and a smile, he could get past them and onto his plane. Besides, this dude was seriously trying to pay him a compliment. Why the hell wouldn’t he just take it?

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Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.