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Backstage at the Grammys, winners are rushed from room to room, posing for photos and making the press rounds.

Kanye West has become a favourite of reporters for his outlandish behaviour, and this year was no different as the rapper sashayed onto the Q&A stage shouting "What's up?"

During his five-minute stop in one room, he managed to accuse the Grammys of refusing to give a rapper album of the year and pester a few reporters.

"Excuse me sir. Could you please get off the cellphone?" he told one member of the media who wasn't paying attention. "I'm here."

He later mocked another who came from Mexico City, asking him to "speak English."

West blamed his cockiness on "the drink."

"Bono had this wine backstage. 'This is the best wine Kanye,"' West said in an Irish accent.

West, who made it no secret that he felt he deserved the bulk of awards, said he wasn't disappointed with his haul of three Grammys. He lost the one he coveted most - album of the year - to U2.

"It's all good," he said. "U2, those are my boys. I didn't think it was going to happen because of vote splitting.

"I didn't win it by a technicality, not because I didn't deserve it. Even Bono was like 'Come on.' Everybody knows it."

Late Registration, said West, was an important album for him because it "broke a lot of boundaries.

"A lot of things that weren't done in hip-hop before. The images and the messages, it sounded like a score that needed a film to it."

But he promised he'd be back on the Grammy stage soon enough.

"The first thing I thought of was 'All right, let's just go back to the studio. Give me something else to do.'

"Now it gives me another goal to go and work on Graduation (his next album) and show them 'Yo, I really deserve this album of the year.' I'm gonna keep on delivering albums of the year that are so undeniable to the point where you finally let a rapper come up and accept this award."

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Michael Jackson's father Joe Jackson made a surprise stop backstage at the Grammys. The reason became obvious the moment he walked in wearing a black ball cap reading: "Hip hop boot camp" in silver glitter.

He announced that he's starting a TV reality show in September looking for "world's best hip-hop artist."

His son, meanwhile, remains overseas.

"I think he'll be there just as long as he's being treated like he wants to be. He'll come back," Jackson said.

"He's not in exile. He's just there getting away from some of the people he doesn't want to be around right now."

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Perhaps the most talked about performance at the Grammys was the pairing of Paul McCartney with hard rock outfit Linkin Park and rapper Jay-Z on the classic Yesterday.

The members of Linkin Park were on Cloud 9 afterwards.

"It was the most surreal, awesome, experience of my life," Chester Bennington said backstage.

"Just the fact that he was into the idea was the best day of my life."

The performance started with a duet of Jay-Z and Linkin Park's Numb/Encore, which won a Grammy for best rap-song collaboration. They later started singing Yesterday when McCartney walked on stage.

The band really wanted McCartney so they could tip their hats to DJ Danger Mouse who started the mash-up concept with his Grey album. It seamlessly blended together the Beatle's famous White album with Jay-Z's Black album.

"We wanted to nod to that and do something that incorporated a Beatles sound," said Rob Bourdon.

The band pitched the idea and, to their surprise, all players agreed.

"We could not believe it when he said he would actually do it," said Bourdon.

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