Kanye West's VMA Speech Called Out Justin Timberlake For Crying During The 2007 Grammys; 'Sexy Back' Singer Responds On Twitter

There was certainly a lot to talk about following the conclusion of the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards awards, but one of the best, and certainly longest, moments in the show was Kanye West’s Video Vanguard Award acceptance speech. Now, one of the people behind the many names he dropped is coming forward to respond to the speech.

The 13-minute speech covered a great many topics that were on the “Awesome” singer’s mind. According to E! Online, at one point during his diatribe about the futility of award shows, he mentioned that Justin Timberlake should have taken home a Grammy award for his “Future Sex” album, West also mentioned CeeLo Green and Gnarls Barkley as deserving of the award too. However, the shot at Justin came when he revealed to the crowd that he saw the “Sexy Back” singer crying after losing “Album of the Year” to the Dixie Chicks at the 2007 Grammy Awards.

“The contradiction is: I do fight for artists, but in that fight I somehow was disrespectful to artists. I didn't know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing," Kanye said in the video below (via TVLine). "I just...I sat at the Grammys and saw Justin Timberlake and Cee-Lo lose. Gnarls Barkley and the ‘Future Sex’ album...Justin, I ain't trying to put you on blast, but I saw that man in tears, bro. And I was thinking like, he deserves to win album of the year."

Timberlake, who Entertainment Tonight notes had beef in the past with West, quickly took to Twitter to laugh off the subtle dig during the speech.

The singer later sent another tweet urging people to take the entire moment in stride calling it all a joke.

However, after Timberlake finally saw the 13-minute speech in full, he posted another, slightly more in-depth, response to the VMAs tirade.

It looks like Timberlake is avoiding getting into any kind of feud with West following his very lengthy speech, the main takeaway of which had less to do with the former N’Sync singer than it did West’s announcement of a 2020 presidential candidacy. Interestingly enough, it’s unclear by his vague tweets whether or not Timberlake is actually upset with West for mentioning his name during the speech or if he actually did shed a tear at the 2007 Grammys.