The Kanye West song behind his feud with Taylor Swift just got a major nod
Nominations for the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards were announced Tuesday afternoon, and it was revealed that West's "Famous" video is up for the top award, video of the year.
When "Famous," the first single from West's "Life of Pablo," was released in April, it instantly sparked controversy over lyrics targeted at Taylor Swift: "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why?/I made that b---- famous."
Of course, that turned into the infamous dispute over whether or not Swift approved the lyrics, which eventually led to his wife, Kim Kardashian, posting videos on Snapchat of a conversation between West and Swift about the song.
So it's no surprise that the music video for his song, released in June, was also a hotbed of controversy.
The video depicts a number of naked celebrities sleeping in a bed, including Kardashian, Donald Trump, and of course, Swift. Though West and Kardashian appeared together in the video, West wouldn't clarify which of the other celebrities in the video were fake.
The video itself was inspired by artist Vincent Desiderio's 2008 painting titled "Sleep," and the artist revealed that he was a big fan of the video from the first moment he saw it.
In an essay for W Magazine, Desiderio wrote that West had reached out to him after filming the video, and that the artist was surprised to find that he was the source of inspiration. Desiderio even said he had felt like he was "presented with the most extraordinary gift."
Desiderio further added: "Kanye West's video demonstrates how art speaks the language of art, how visual codes people the artistic imagination, enlivening the matrix of possibilities that are always and everywhere about us, but barely perceptible to those who focus only on the surface."
In his own words, West told Vanity Fair that the video was merely "a comment on fame."
"Famous" was also nominated for best male video, and is stacked up against Adele's "Hello," Drake's "Hotline Bling," Justin Bieber's "Sorry," and Beyoncé's "Formation" for video of the year.
Watch West's NSFW video below: