Kanye West Brings Out Kid Cudi, Young Jeezy for 808s & Heartbreak Show
Photo from Kim Kardashian’s Instagram
Kanye West gave the first of two special 808s & Heartbreak shows last night at the Hollywood Bowl. As well as selling new merch themed around the album, Kanye brought out Kid Cudi, Young Jeezy, and Mr Hudson, who all featured on the record. Watch fan footage below.
According to an Entertainment Weekly report, Kanye was joined throughout the show by the best part of a symphony orchestra and a variety of dancers and performance artists. Technical difficulties disrupted the second half, with TMZ reporting that tracks were out of sync, apparently due to Kanye’s late arrival to a soundcheck on Thursday.
At the show’s conclusion, EW’s report continues, Kanye “returned cloaked head to toe in a theatrical costume: a burlap bodysuit replete with a bulging codpiece and rough-hewn mask that covered every inch of his body and face.” (See the photo above.)
It goes on:
With just piano as accompaniment and his singing voice cloaked by pitch-correcting computer effects, the artist delivered a kind of tortured Auto-Tune soliloquy. “I just want to be a real boy,” West sang. “This must be what it feels like to live a real life — to be real!”
Lurching around the stage with the herky-jerky movement of a marionette, he continued singing: “I’ll tell the truth…and keep running. There is no Gucci I could buy. There is no Louis Vuitton that I could put on… There is no YSL that they could sell/To take my heart out of this jail…There are no clothes I could buy that could turn back the time…There is no vacation spot I could fly that could bring back a piece of real life… I ask you tonight, what does it feel like? To live a real life?”
Correction (9/26, 6:12 p.m. EST): The lyrics cited in EW’s report indicate that the final soliloquy was “Pinocchio Story”, a freestyle originally delivered live in Singapore that West included as the last track on 808s & Heartbreak.
Read “The Coldest Story Ever Told”, Jayson Greene’s recent article on 808s & Heartbreak.
“Love Lockdown”:
“Welcome to Heartbreak” [ft. Kid Cudi]:
“Say You Will”:
“Heartless” (with Kid Cudi):
“Robocop”:
“Street Lights”:
“See You in My Nightmares”:
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