A year makes all the difference. Kanye West was on his best behavior for the 2010 MTV VMAs, and the network gave him a lavish stage set to play with for this performance of “Runaway.” It’s a restrained performance from West, who seems happiest when he is toying with his sampler at the beginning.
The vocal mix is slightly too loud, and this performance has been censored in places (“assholes” is apparently okay, but “shit” is a bridge too far), but things pick up when West is joined by Pusha T, who follows him in the song’s central lyrical conceit, which goes: “Let's have a toast for the assholes/Let's have a toast for the douchebags/Let's have a toast for the scumbags/Every one of them that I know.” Nice.
