The rumors began Monday evening, when Teyana Taylor, guest vocalist on Kanye West's recently released new album, tweeted, "Just got to rehearsals for my performance with Mr Ye West tomorrow at the Bowery Ballroom tomorrow Dark Fantasy Baby!" By Tuesday morning, it was music's worst kept secret that West would be performing his new album, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,' at the 550-capacity Bowery Ballroom in New York's Lower East Side later that night.
At around 1AM last night, West finally hit the stage to perform the widely-acclaimed album for the first time from start to finish. As Diddy, Q-Tip, Spike Lee, Aziz Ansari, Ivanka Trump, The Roots drummer ?uestlove and fashion designer Tory Burch looked on, the rapper brought out numerous collaborators involved in 'Fantasy,' including rapper Rick Ross, Pusha T, Nicki Minaj, John Legend, producer Swizz Beats and singer-songwriter Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.
But after performing the album and a handful of extra tracks, including 'Good Life' and 'Can't Tell Me Nothin,'' West went on an impassioned rant concerning his 2005 comments about George W. Bush and Hurricane Katrina, as well as accusing Taylor Swift of "riding the waves" of his endlessly replayed interruption of the singer at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
A larger chunk of West's monologue:
Everybody needs a villain, don't we? We need to blame someone at all times. For me to be considered a racist for stating a blatant truth, an obvious truth, but the nuances of my words, because I am very particular with my words, and the emotion I felt at that time wasn't worded exactly right -- but everybody came and said 'Oh my God!"...
I was emotional, that was not exactly the way I wanted to word it, but I wrote it, I rode it, just as Taylor never came to my defense in any interview, and rode the waves and rode it and rode it, that's the way I rode the waves of the Bush comment. I rode it. It's not about popular opinion. It's about when you look in your heart, and know what's right and what's wrong. When you look in your heart, look at what the media did, look at how they exploited him, they said that he said it was his lowest moment and as a mass, as America, we took that as a fact.
For the countless people unable to refresh Ticketmaster quick enough to snag the $100 tickets, some lucky buyers were kind enough to offer you their extra for the cost of a small child. A quick Craigslist search revealed tickets going for $250 to $5,000, with one classy scalper "willing to listen to non-monetary offers." The Wall Street Journal reported the opening bid on one eBay auction went as high as $100,000.
Despite having sold out Madison Square Garden, West is still a fan of these small, exclusive affairs. In August, the rapper took the stage with John Legend at Lower East Side club The Box to a crowd of 200 people to debut new material. West is scheduled to perform the 'Fantasy' track 'Lost in the World' with Vernon at the upcoming Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York on Thursday.
'Dark Fantasy' (with Terena Taylor & Bon Iver)
'Gorgeous'
'Power'
'All of the Lights' (interlude)
'All of the Lights' (with Bon Iver)
'Monster' (with Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver)
'So Appalled' (with Pusha T, Prynce Cy Hi, Swizz Beatz)
'Devil in a New Dress' (with Rick Ross)
'Runaway' (with Pusha T)
'Hell of a Life' (with Bon Iver)
'Blame Game' (with John Legend)
'Lost in the World' (with Bon Iver)
'Who Will Survive in America'
Encore:
'Christian Dior Denim Flow'
'Can't Tell Me Nothing'
'Paranoid'
'The Good Life'
'Lost in the World' feat. Justin Vernon from Bon Iver
Swift isn't from Tenn. she's from Pa. Before you write something totally false you should check her out on the internet first. Just a heads up so next time you won't look so stupid.
Kanye SO need to stfu. Isn't he tired of the taste of his foot yet? It's always in his mouth now. Who is he to talk aboput someone else riding the wave of publicity when he hasn't stopped living that moment himself? Pleeze, just go now, already.
He does this crap on purpose if he didnt would we even be talking about him or even had know about his impromptu concert. As for tickets being sold for outragous amounts of money get real.I like he "riding his wave of controversy" claim about Taylor Swift, She is a huge star winning every award she is nominated for, what is KW doing.
As long as there are stupid idiots with too much money to burn, there will always be an audience for an idiot like Kanye. Yeah, he's ridin' the wave... of ignorance! What a douche.
i believe there are 52 cards in a deck. are there any race cards that prejudiced clown has not played yet? yes, i know he didn't name himself but just what kind of name is "kan-yay"?
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Do you know what slander is? or have you not gone that far in school?
Swift isn't from Tenn. she's from Pa. Before you write something totally false you should check her out on the internet first. Just a heads up so next time you won't look so stupid.
Yeah, JD - Slander is what the person who very well matches the color of defecation is doing to Taylor Swift.
Kanye SO need to stfu. Isn't he tired of the taste of his foot yet? It's always in his mouth now. Who is he to talk aboput someone else riding the wave of publicity when he hasn't stopped living that moment himself? Pleeze, just go now, already.
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Can this guy just get over it? He said things, he did things, things were said, things were done. THIS IS LIFE! Move on.
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Talented artist.
Silly human.
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KW is a thug...and his rant made absolutely no sense.
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He does this crap on purpose if he didnt would we even be talking about him or even had know about his impromptu concert. As for tickets being sold for outragous amounts of money get real.I like he "riding his wave of controversy" claim about Taylor Swift, She is a huge star winning every award she is nominated for, what is KW doing.
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Kanye West hates white people.
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just the racist, oh frak your right!!
I liked it better when his mouth was wired shut.
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Kanye West seems to have a terminal case of "Foot-In-Mouth" disease. He is a very angry, racist, jealous, talentless young man.
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Advice to Kanye West: Be sure brain is engaged before putting mouth in to gear!
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What you say is true, but Kanye can't engage his brain, because he needs to have one in order to engage it
He is one big piece of crap!
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GOOOOOOO Away west.Taylor will never get back that moment.Guess your mother didn't teach you manners. So bye....and take your rap crap with you.
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As long as there are stupid idiots with too much money to burn, there will always be an audience for an idiot like Kanye. Yeah, he's ridin' the wave... of ignorance! What a douche.
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just the racist, oh frak your right!!!
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i believe there are 52 cards in a deck. are there any race cards that prejudiced clown has not played yet? yes, i know he didn't name himself but just what kind of name is "kan-yay"?
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Yea, Palina 76 we know your a rcist.
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