A$AP Rocky apologizes for VMA weirdness with Jason Collins

With all the twerking and *NSYNC reuniting going on at the MTV Video Music Awards, it was easy to overlook one of the stranger moments of the night.

During the introduction of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ performance of “Same Love,” A$AP Rocky took the stage with openly gay NBA player Jason Collins. Before throwing to Macklemore, Collins talked about his decision to come out, how it matched up with his grandmother’s work with the civil rights movement, and how stars like Macklemore were standing up for gay rights.

Once he was done, Rocky spoke up, and his delivery was… awkward. After plugging cohort A$AP Ferg’s new album Trap Lord, he stumbled through his introduction of Macklemore. “This next artist is a good friend of mine,” Rocky said. “He stands up for everything he believe in as far as everybody being equal—color, homosexuality.” After that, Rocky’s gestures and the look on his face seemed to say that he didn’t realize he was even in the shot, and the whole thing generally felt uncomfortable.

“I’m mad that my facial expressions was like that because I’m not homophobic at all, and that whole thing just came off real homophobic,” Rocky told The Stashed. “I didn’t really notice it until I got home and saw it. I apologize to Jason for that, because people was laughing and s—, and you know… I really don’t think that’s funny. I saw they were making all the memes and pictures and making fun of him. There’s people out there that think I was doing that to be funny, and truthfully I got gay people in my family.”

He also noted that he was unsure what MTV was going for with the pairing. “I don’t give a f— if you gay or you not, I just found it odd that MTV wanted to stand me next to this n—- when they are talking about gay people, that’s all. You know what I’m saying?” Presumably they wanted Macklemore’s biggest TV performance yet to get the endorsement of a New York-based chart-topping rapper, so Rocky should feel good about being the gatekeeper for hip-hop cred.

What did you think of A$AP Rocky’s moment with Jason Collins at the VMAs? Did it seem odd to you, or were you too traumatized by foam fingers to notice?