Of all the artists who won (and rightfully so) any award at the VMA's last night (August 27th), no triumph was more impressive than Young Thug's, who won an astronaut trophy for a video he wasn't even in.
The visual for "Wyclef Jean," a music video that was directed by Pomp&Clout, took home the honor for Best Editing at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, beating out some stiff competition to nab the award. The category featured names like Future's "Mask Off," Lorde's "Green Light," The Chainsmokers' "Closer" and The Weeknd's "Reminder" as Jeffrey's adversaries, making the accomplishment that much more unlikely. The video for "Wyclef Jean" got some traction online back in January of this year, mostly because of the backstory of the shoot itself. Supposedly, Thug skipped the video shoot, the directors had to get creative to fill the void and get the work done. Funny, odd and kind of sad all at the same time, it was an experiment in meta filmmaking that came up roses for all involved. The song is off his 2016 tape Jeffrey.
Elsewhere at the VMA's, drama was very visible in between all of the accolades and acceptance speeches. First, you have Fifth Harmony's stunt that involved a mystery fifth woman be pulled off the stage before the ladies in the group began singing the opening song of their medley, a move most are interpreting as a thinly-veiled shot at Camila Cabello, who had a famously thorny split from the rest of her groupmates late last year. In another corner of the proceedings, you had Remy Ma trying to reinvigorate her beef with Nicki Minaj again by calling her out during the telecast. When the latter took to the stage later on in the evening to perform her Katy Perry collaboration "Swish Swish," let's just say she let those disses roll off her tongue with some extra aplomb. Finally, we're back at Thugger, whose surprising win in the editing category made Monday morning a little less bright for his more heavily-favored peers in the same category. Even when he's not physically present, Young Thug has a hand in greatness.
Check out the entire music video below.