Though Kanye West managed to speak out on the faltering ethics of award shows, put Justin Timberlake on blast and announce his candidacy for United States President during a lengthy speech at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards Sunday (August 30), he forgot to do one thing: perform.

Yup, this year's recipient of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award was originally expected to perform a medley of hits, MTV exec Van Toffler told Billboard less than 48 hours after the show aired. And, Toffler noted production only got word that West planned to exclusively speak about 10 minutes before his award's presentation.

Still, the team had backing tracks ready to go—just in case Kanye changed his mind.

"It’s never happened that way before," Toffler admitted. "We decided to be open to whatever Kanye wanted because he’s given us so many moments—unexpected ones. So we weren’t sure whether he would break into song or not."

Toffler added Kanye didn't rehearse his speech, and that by the time he'd hit the carpet, he still hadn't revealed his plans to Toffler.

"I think part of the magic and the unpredictability of the VMAs is that probably no other producers in TV would go into a show not knowing what their biggest award winner was going to do," Toffler told the site. "We were all surprised. Even Taylor Swift."

Shocked to hear Kanye was slated to perform? Tell us if you'd have preferred to see it, or if his lengthy rant was more than enough entertainment.

See 10 facts you might not have known about the VMAs:

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