The 2017 MTV Video Music Awards went down at The Forum in Los Angeles on Sunday night (August 27). Over the course of the program, 17 awards were handed out, including one for Best Editing. The honor went to Young Thug for the “Wyclef Jean” video, which marked his first VMA Award, but it turns out the Jeffery rapper was the last to know.
The following day, Thug took to Twitter to announce he had no idea he’d won.
“So no one was going to tell me that I won an award??,” he wrote.
Once it sunk in that he’d copped a coveted moonman, Thug went to Instagram where he wrote his own version of an acceptance speech.
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Directed by Ryan Staake, who admitted the shoot was a mess, the video for “Wyclef Jean” quickly went viral upon its January release. Staake said Thug showed up to the shoot 10 hours late and refused to leave his car, but Staake was still able to turn lemons into lemonade.
After salvaging leftover footage and creating additional edits, Staake handed over a finished product to Atlantic Records executives for their input.
“The first response from someone at Atlantic was incredibly positive,” Staake revealed in an interview with Pigeons and Planes. “They loved it. I was ready for them to never talk to us again, but they were very positive about it. They were like, ‘This is cinematic truth.'”
The video has racked up over 28 million views since its release.
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Check out the video for “Wyclef Jean” above.
