VIDEO – Kanye West performs “Power” on SNL, changes lyrics

Somehow he did it. Kanye turned his “asshole moment heard around the world” into inspiration for some effing good music. With just the right mix of self-mocking and simultaneous ego-boosting self-help talks Kanye West is on fire these days, with his white-hot SNL performance stoking the flames.

“Power” was already a solid anthem, but his delivery Saturday night was unflinching and inspired. At some point he almost ripped on the swaths of silk his ballerinas left on the floor, but didn’t miss a beat.

You are right Kanye, we are feelin’ this shit, maybe more-so now than ever. A little public ridicule can be good for creativity.

He did change up some pretty scathing lyrics directed at SNL. Here’s the original lyrics that didn’t make the performance:

“F**k SNL and the whole cast / Tell ‘em Yeezy said they can kiss my whole ass / More specifically, they can kiss my asshole / I’m an asshole? You n**gas jokes / You short-minded n**gas’ thoughts is Napoleon / My furs is Mongolian, my ice brought the goalies in / Now I embody every characteristic of the egotistic / He know, he so, f**kin’ gifted.”

What he sang instead:

“The brown hero, live from Ground Zero/Machine gun flow, made her get a Ross Perot /And this is disestablishmentarianism / With my night goggles on, got military vision And it’s still a very Christian way to think about livin’/ When you prayin’ for freedom ’cause your mind been in prison/’Cause they tryin’ to control every single big decision.”

Kanye also seems to have learned how to be gracious and grateful. After the hit SNL performance he tweeted a round of thanks and appreciate to everyone who helped the moment happen (via MTV):

After receiving rave reviews for his “SNL” performance, West was feeling the love, doling out props to his whole crew for making it a must-see night. “Saturday night live… The team effort! I couldn’t do these things without a team of people with the same goal. To make performance art,” he tweeted.

He offered up love to his publicist for “talking me into doing the performance in the first place,” his Prague-based choreographer — who helped him with his in-progress film and his VMA performance — as well as his styling team and the whole “SNL” cast.

Guess he’s REALLY trying to take back that “F**ck SNL and the whole cast” line.

Kanye’s new album drops November 22, but in the meantime you can trip on his Power.