[Video] Kanye West: "Bound 2" on Jimmy Fallon
Right on the heels of his announcement of a Yeezus tour, Ye' unexpectedly stopped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to perform "Bound 2" live for the first time. In his now-signature kilt over leather pants, Kanye, as usual went big with Charlie Wilson singing the hook live and backing from a children's choir, and The Roots. Of course, where there's Kanye, there's usually controversy and the Fallon set was no exception as West changed the opening lines of the song to apparently poke fun at beau Kim Kardashian's ex, Ray-J, rhyming: "Brandy's little sister lame, man, he know it now/When a real brother hold you down you supposed to drown." Interesting. For his part, Fallon has made himself a pop-culture icon from his late night desk by connecting with viewers through music, without The Roots as his house band it's not totally certain he would have made it out of his first season, and this Kanye performance adds to the growing list of great acts to grace the late night stage with electrifying live sets. Video below.
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Kanye West announces Yeezus tour
All it took was one word, "TOUR," and just like that, the internet has erupted with excitement over Kanye West's first solo tour in five years following his co-venture with Jay Z on the Watch the Throne Tour that ended last summer. Supporting Kanye on the Yeezus Tour will be Kendrick Lamar, which should make for a very interesting pairing. Other guests are planned to join the duo throughout their dates, but they will be announced later on.
I was still working at the United Center when Kanye came back home during his Glow in the Dark Tour, and that show ended up being one of the best shows I've ever seen. What he lacked in crowd interaction, he made up for in production quality and showmanship. Say what you will about Kanye and his sometimes ridiculous antics - the man is a naturally-talented entertainer and knows how to get anybody hyped up. With both Yeezus and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ripe for solo show exploration, the Yeezus Tour might be one of his best tours yet.
The full flyer and list of tour dates are below. Tickets for the Yeezus Tour go on sale next Friday, September 13th.
Oct. 19: Seattle, WA KeyArena * #
Oct. 20: Vancouver, B.C. Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena * #
Oct. 22: San Jose, CA SAP Center * #
Oct. 23: Oakland, CA Oracle Arena * #
Oct. 25: Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena * ^
Oct. 26: Los Angeles, CA STAPLES Center * #
Nov. 1: Salt Lake City, UT EnergySolutions Arena * #
Nov. 3: Denver, CO Pepsi Center * #
Nov. 5: Minneapolis, MN Target Center * #
Nov. 7: Chicago, IL United Center * #
Nov. 10: Detroit, MI Palace of Auburn Hills * #
Nov. 12: Toronto, Ont. Air Canada Centre * #
Nov. 14: Montreal, Que. Bell Centre #
Nov. 16: Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center ^
Nov. 17: Boston, MA TD Garden * #
Nov. 19: Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center * ^
Nov. 21: Washington, DC Verizon Center #
Nov. 23: New York, NY Madison Square Garden * ^
Nov. 29: Miami, FL AmericanAirlines Arena * #
Nov. 30: Tampa, FL Tampa Bay Times Forum ^
Dec. 1: Atlanta, GA Philips Arena #
Dec. 6: Dallas, TX American Airlines Center #
Dec. 7: Houston, TX Toyota Center #
* Tickets on sale Friday, September 13
# With Kendrick Lamar
^ Special Guest To Be Announced
[Photography] HypeTrak's "Yeezus" Album Project
James Jean and Melody Yoko Reilly have teamed up for HYPETRAK to give us their exclusive version of the Yeezus album artwork. Hypetrak has taken one of Kanye's most memorable lines from the album, "Hurry up with my damn croissants," and have used it as inspiration for their upcoming project. The project has been pretty hush hush, but they have been dropping a sneak peeks of it over the last week or so via their Instagram account. All we know right now is that it includes croissants and a pretty model, so we'll have to wait and see what the final product will look like.
[Photos by Brandon Shigeta]
Kanye West's "Yeezus" Listening Session Recap
Another day, another Kanye West headline as we quickly approach June 18th and the release of the highly-buzzed LP Yeezus. Last night 'Ye hosted a listening session in New York City for friends and select media members, in which he played most of the album and gave a handful of details regarding its expectation, production and vision.
We already knew Chicago would play a heavy role in the project --which will only have 10 tracks--but yesterday it was acknowledged that both King Louie and Chief Keef would be featured on Yeezus. As a matter of fact, Keef will be in a song entitled "Can't Handle My Liquor," alongside Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, which makes for an odd pairing but certainly an intriguing listen. Other relevant names that were confirmed to have worked on the project are; Daft Punk, Rick Rubin, Mike Dean, Travis Scott and Hudson Mohawke.
Yeezy looked happy and excited to show the world his most recent work and delivered many quotes that will resonate throughout the blogosphere in the coming days. Here are a few highlights:
"West was my slave name and Yeezus is my god name."
“It’s about delivering some shit for ya’ll to go to work to, ride to, listen to when you’re working out and shit, whatever ya’ll doing to provide a soundtrack to this shit. We’re gonna keep on doing this shit over and over and over, making shit from my core, from my gut.”
“I gotta new strategy it’s called no strategy. And I gotta way to sell more music its called make better music.”
“This album is all about giving…no fucks at all!”
Plus, as an extra you can watch a video of Kanye speaking at last night's even below.
http://youtu.be/kBBPYTrs8xc
[Shouts to Miss Info, Vulture, Rap-Up & Fuse TV]
More Kanye West Videos Being Projected This Weekend
Yeezymania isn't slowing down anytime soon, not only are we quickly approaching June 18th but Kanye West is still going full-steam in his latest epic promotional run. Yesterday, the DONDA team announced more screenings of his "New Slaves" video across 12 different cities in the States throughout the Memorial Day weekend. San Diego, Tucson, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami, Savannah, Baltimore and Philadelphia have been set with locations and times, which you can check out here.
Yeezymania Is Back! New Video + SNL Performance + Album Artwork & Title
Kanye West set the internets ablaze once again this weekend with a handful of incredible promotional teasers such as a video worldwide premiere across six different cities, a polarizing performance in front of a mass national audience and a controversial album title.
First, Kanye took to Twitter on Friday to announce he would be projecting a brand new video for his single "Black Slaves" on 66 locations scattered around the globe, including six in Chicago. Check out some footage at Millenium Park shot by Maks G of GoWhereHipHop here.
Ye then went on Saturday Night Live the following day and performed "Black Slaves" & "Black Skinhead", both very powerful records infused with an undeniable energy which carried an unapologetic message. Million $ Mano also made a cameo behind the boards. You can stream both performances below.
Lastly, on Sunday it was officially announced that Kanye's forthcoming album would be entitled Yeezus and confirmed the project's artwork, which was leaked by Kim Kardashian and seen above.
After all the pandemonium there's nothing left to say but; Yeezus drops June 18th, be sure to cop it and be a part of history.
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