Kanye West Is The Best Live MC

Let me preface the following post with this tidbit: so far this year I’ve attended a Jay-Z concert and a Nas concert. They both need to step their concert game up. Kanye West, hate him or love him, puts on a great show. I went to his Glow in the Dark tour last night at Madison Square Garden and dude blew, pause, me away. The joint started out with a good set by fellow G.O.O.D. Music MC, Consequence which was followed by Lupe Fiasco.

Sporting an all black ensemble he went through his bangers “Kick, Push,” “Hip-Hop Saved My Life,” and “Go Go Gadget Flow.” Lu is mad animated jumping up and down while his guitarist does his best Eddie Van Halen impersonation and plays his instrument with his teeth. As he brings out Mathew Santos to perform “Streets On Fire,” I notice Farnsworth Bentley next to us with a plain Jane melanin deprived mujer. (Take note: If you want to go from a G to a Gent follow Bent’s example). While Lupe concludes his set with “Superstar” I notice one thing—over half the crowd looks like the Swedish Olympic team. The other half were full of “artists” from Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Next up: N.E.R.D. I’ve never been a huge fan but after their performance I’m intrigued to check their new joint out. With a psychedelic background Pharrell goes through his rock-inspired joints off of Seeing Sounds, along with old songs like “Rock Star,” and “Lapdance.” In one instance Lupe comes back on stage and starts dancing during their set. Towards the end Pha starts grinding with the models on stage. Set done…waiting for Ye.

The Chi MC opens his set with a space theme. His spaceship “Jane” crashes and Ye goes into “Good Morning.” Duke is wearing a cross between Mad Max garb and a medieval knight armor along with his beard, which is thicker, pause, than usual. After performing “Heard’em Say,” Jane says, “Remember this is not your first crash.” Ye blasts into “Through The Wire,” does an incredible chopped and screwed version of “Get’Em High,” “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” while the crowd throws up the Roc. Playing along with his theme, a dinosaur comes out and swallows, pause, Ye. He comes out in a few and goes into “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” “Flashing Lights,” “Spaceship,” and “All Falls Down.” He turns his attention to Jane and tells her, “I need some p***y.” Which Jane responds, “I can help you out with that.” A cyber image of a King Mag model appears and he performs “Gold Digger.” He wraps up the night with “Jesus Walks” (along with “Jesus Walks” dance), “Hey Mama,” plays a Journey song to play up to his “diverse” crowd, “Stronger and during his encore “Homecoming.” All in all Ye puts on a phenomenal show. He’s taken a page from KRS and dare I say it Hammer to make his stage show one of the best in music period. Jay and Nas got nothing on Ye’s live steez. Nothing.

Uno,

Jesus