Odds & Ends: Kanye vs Beck, Suge Knight, Iggy Azalea

Walking on stage at Sunday’s Grammy Awards to pretend to interrupt Beck’s acceptance speech for Album of the Year wasn’t enough for Kanye West. He also had to talk to the press about how Beck should have given his award to Beyoncé.

Can anyone say déjà vu to the 2009 VMAs? Of course we’re talking about that infamous moment in which Kanye grabbed Taylor Swift’s microphone to complain that Beyoncé should have taken the prize for best female video.

“I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back they need to stop playing with us,” Kanye told E! News. “We ain’t going to play with them no more. Flawless, Beyoncé video. And Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé. And at this point we’re tired of it. Because what happens is if you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental feats of music you’re disrespectful to inspiration. And we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day and they listen to that Beyoncé album and they feel like it takes them to another place.”

The rapper complained about the Grammys playing music over winners’ speeches before explaining why he didn’t interrupt Beck.

“I got my wife, I got my daughter and I got my clothing line so I’m not going to do nothing to put my daughter at risk but I am here to fight for creativity. That’s the reason why I didn’t say anything tonight but ya’ll knew what it meant when Ye walked on that stage.”

As for Beck, he wasn’t fazed by Kanye’s antics on stage. He told US Weekly, “I was just so excited he was coming up. He deserves to be on stage as much as anybody. How many great records has he put out in the last five years right?”

Beck says he’s also not bothered by Kanye’s “artistry” talk.

“You can’t please everybody, man. I still love him and think he’s genius. I aspire to do what he does.”

Iggy Azalea has spent Monday morning educating Papa John’s Pizza about how to properly address customer complaints.

The singer contacted Papa John’s via Twitter Sunday to alert the company that she had received “tons of calls and messages” after ordering a cheese pizza. She included a screenshot of one text that said, “Hello is this iggy azalea my brother had delivered something from Papa John’s to u and he gave me the number on Friday night i am ur number one fan call be back please” Another text said, “is this u please answer u r my idol.” Apparantly a supervisor at the Papa John’s location in question had replied back to Iggy in a text to say the driver was on his way home to speak to his parents and sister, promising that more updates would be coming.

In a tweet sent out to all of her followers Iggy wrote, “@PapaJohns was my favorite pizza but the drivers they use give out your personal phone number to their family members.”

Papa John’s responded with a tweet Sunday that referenced her song “Bounce.” The company wrote, “We should have known better. Customer and employee privacy is important to us. Please don’t #bounce us!”

Needless to say, Iggy wasn’t impressed that the company is familiar with her song catalogue. She also wasn’t amused by some of the media coverage about her issue with Papa John’s.

Following a handful of tweets on Sunday (including a message to Papa John’s noting that a lawsuit would be filed unless the company rectified the breach of personal information in a satisfactory way) Iggy tackled the topic again on Monday.  

“I see some of the more mentally challenged blogs think I’m having a war with papa johns,” Iggy tweeted. “No, I just want answers & they have none. They are a company that retains your address, name, number & CREDIT card information, expiration cvc number etc. A lot of damage can be done if that falls into the wrong hands, we give them this information with the expectation it remains confidential. When an employee steals information it’s called data breach. It’s illegal. There are steps a corporation is supposed to follow afterward. They don’t include tweeting out song lyrics to the customer making the complaint, it’s really unprofessional. I want a real answer.

“If someone at T-Mobile got your # after you paid a bill and started calling over and over, you’d expect a real resolution via the company. You wouldn’t expect a tweet that said something like ‘uh oh! Don’t let him use up all your minutes girl!’ From the company. You wouldn’t expect the supervisor to say ‘don’t worry! His mom has spoken with him!’

“And you’d probably want to get a new credit card too. I want answers @papajohns why is customer confidentiality a joke to your company?” 

Suge Knight’s attorneys, as well as the prosecutor handling his case, need more time to prepare for a bail-review hearing, which means that the Death Row Records co-founder is going to be spending more time behind bars.  

The request for the delay was made during a court appearance Monday in Compton, Calif., which was supposed to determine whether bail could be set for Knight. A judge ruled that Knight will stay in jail until his next court hearing March 20, according to the Associated Press.

Knight has been charged with murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run. He hit two men with his pickup truck Jan. 29, killing one man and seriously injuring another. Knight has pleaded not guilty.

The incident occurred in the parking lot of a Compton burger stand following an argument. Knight was in the area for the filming of a promotion video of the movie “Straight Outta Compton” about the rap group N.W.A. Authorities say Knight intentionally ran over the men while his attorneys say he was trying to get away from a vicious attack.

Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes said the upcoming hearing might include evidence of a “very large stack of uncharged crimes.” Knight’s attorney, David Kenner, says once these alleged crimes are revealed in court he’ll “make sure what we’re getting is the truth.”

Kenner also noted Monday that he doesn’t think Knight should have been discharged from the hospital last Wednesday after complaining of chest pains the day before. He plans on filing details about Knight’s health under seal. A judge had denied a request for Knight’s personal physician to treat him rather than the doctors with the county jail system.