Onstage, he likened the emotional impact of receiving bad news, in his song “Bad News,” with the violent act of being gunned down. In pure Kanye fashion, though, these raw moments were matched by the melodrama we’ve come to expect from a man who’s showing his line at New York Fashion Week one moment, posing for the paparazzi with his Kardashian bride the next (and all in the wake of his VMAs announcement of a presidential bid). The cast of men dispersed into the crowd, roaming the aisles as if human embodiments of West’s restlessness. The glowing white lights above turned red, reflecting his increasingly impassioned delivery. Got something to say? Start the conversation and be the first to comment.īy “Love Lockdown” and “Paranoid,” at least 60 shirtless men - all of color, all rubbed down in white powder - stood behind West on a stage-set of stairs. Young Jeezy and Kid Cudi joined him onstage at intervals (as they did on the album), bolstering West’s confidence as he embarked on songs that likely brought back times he’d rather forget. The performer gradually became more animated with each number, which corresponded with the album’s tonal shifts. At the Bowl, however, West’s reservations rendered him uncharacteristically endearing. The artist’s demeanor was somber in contrast to his recent frenetic set at the FYF Festival or his made-for-social-media ramble onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards. He moved carefully from number to number, pouring himself into songs such as “Welcome to Heartbreak” as women in white, ghostly shrouds orbited the stage in a slow march that resembled a sort of pilgrimage. Usually a man of many words, West said relatively few as he concentrated on performing the album in its entirety. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour > Much like the rapper himself, the production was a mix of attention-grabbing bombast and biting realism, filled with austere beauty and high school melodrama. The result is a record that captures the detachment - and ultimate numbness - that comes with feeling too much.Īt his Bowl opening Friday, the first of two nights, West did his best to recapture the nihilism, vulnerability and ultimate redemption that has since made “808s” one of the more influential albums in rap (without it, Drake, the Weeknd and Frank Ocean might not exist). Rather than rap against hard beats as he had on his previous three albums, West dropped the armor and sang on “808s.” He Auto-Tuned his shaky voice into one part melodic depressive and one part unfeeling cyborg, dropped in lyrics about deception, alienation and loneliness, then pitted it all against the stark buzz and clank of 1980s synthesizers (the number 808 refers to one such drum machine). “808s & Heartbreak,” released in 2008, chronicles the sudden tragic loss of West’s mother, a messy split with his longtime fiancee and the pressure of dealing with it, all in a spotlight that had followed him since those unscripted comments at a Hurricane Katrina benefit (“George Bush doesn’t care about black people”).
#KANYE WEST PINOCCHIO STORY HOLLYWOOD BOWL LYRICS FREE#
SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter > Kayne West, left, performs "Heartless" with Kid Cudi from his 2008 studio album "808s & Heartbreak" at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. The rapper, 38, was resurrecting the most personal, painful and ultimately influential record of his career, perhaps hoping to recast history. It’s not easy, after all, to choreograph one’s inner demons into an entertaining stage show.
The usually overconfident artist was nervous. It took nothing less than an orchestra, a vocal ensemble and 70-plus dancer-performers to bring Kanye West’s most stripped-down album to life at the Hollywood Bowl.ĭressed in an all-white tunic and desert-trek boots (gear that suggested he was prepared for a journey through rough terrain), West opened his performance of the album “808s & Heartbreak” with the haunting “Say You Will.” His voice slightly shaky and unsure, he focused on the orchestra and backing singers, only occasionally making eye contact with the crowd. Can we talk about Kanye West's uncharacteristically endearing '808s' show at the Hollywood Bowl?
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