Barack Obama Dishes Out Advice For Wannabe President Kanye West

While some people haven't taken Kanye's announcement that he's running for president too seriously, support has come from an unexpected - and very useful - source: President Obama.

Speaking at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco this weekend, at which Kanye performed, the President offered some advice for the rapper.

And from his tips, it would seem he thinks Kanye has plenty of transferable experience for the job. 'First of all, you got to spend a lot of time dealing with some strange characters who behave like they’re on a reality TV show.

'Second important tip: Saying that you have a beautiful dark twisted fantasy? That’s what’s known as off-message in politics. You can’t say something like that. A lot of people have lost their congressional seats saying things like that.'

Finally, Barack, who hails from Chicago like Kanye, joked: 'Do you really think that this country is going to elect a black guy from the South Side of Chicago with a funny name to be president? That’s cray.'

He also quipped that Kanye should consider running for speaker of the house instead of President.

Earlier we wrote...

At the VMAs Kanye announced that he decided to run for president in 2020. Was he joking? Well it turns out he's totally serious.

In an interview with Vanity Fair he said he is 'definitely' running, although admits he has a lot of "growing up to do." He told the magazine: "I sit in clubs and I'm like: 'Wow, I've got five years before I go and run for office and I've got a lot of research to do.'"

He said of what the average voter would think of him as a candidate: 'We would really be into that, because actually if you think about it, he's extremely thoughtful. Every time he's ever gotten in trouble, he was really jumping in front of a bullet for someone else. He's probably the most honest celebrity that we have.'

Earlier we wrote...

Last night Kanye West accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs. It's no surprise that his acceptance speech went on a little, but he managed to out-shock Miley Cyrus when he announced that he was running for president in 2020.

At the end of his speech he said: “And yes, as you probably could’ve guessed in this moment, I’ve decided in 2020 to run for president."

Just before this announcement Kanye admitted he had smoked a joint before coming on stage: “‘Did you smoke something before coming out here? The answer is yes, I rolled up a little something to knock the edge off.”

The VMAs came full circle this year, as Taylor Swift presented Kanye with the award - a nod to the time he stormed on stage when she won an award. Taylor said: "I'm really happy for you and Imma let you finish but Kanye has had one of the greatest careers of all time."

During his speech Kanye spoke about the time he stormed Taylor Swift's moment: "If I had to do it all over again, what would I have done? Would I have worn a leather shirt? Would I have drank half a bottle of Hennessy and gave the rest of it to the audience...? If I had a daughter at that time would I have gone on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else's?" But, he didn't answer these questions in his speech.

The White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest responded to the news telling AP (from the Air Force One with Obama, naturally) he was “forward to seeing what slogan he chooses to embroider on his campaign hat.”