It seemed like the biggest hindrance to Kanye West -- or "Conway" as Dubya calls him -- earning a wide-ranging pop music acceptance was his ego.
Turns out a persecution complex may have trumped the producer/rapper/auto-tune aficionado's legendary ego, though.
After his infamous interruption of America's sweetheart, Taylor Swift, he went into seclusion and, after he emerged, he seemed more humble and conscious of how his actions affect his image. He even seemed humbled enough to somewhat apologize for his comments about President Bush during the Hurricane Katrina telethon.
But, of course, he found a way to relate his comments on Bush to the public reaction to his interruption of Swift in a recent Today Show interview--an interview he now says he believes was set up for him to fail and look like a fool. In fact, West is still pissed about his interview last week -- so pissed, that he's canceled his Today Show performance scheduled for later this month.
The rapper's dazzling mixture of art and performance, which he displayed when he performed on Saturday Night Live recently, could've opened him up to a wider, mom jeans-wearing audience.
But his persecution complex is now hindering that -- which is sad, because his interests in art, fashion, film and music could make him one of the biggest performers on the planet.
Instead, he'd rather lay back and cry about how he's being picked on.
Kanye: You fail.