Many years ago at the United Center in Chicago, he stood high atop the audience on a fabricated mountain peak. West’s live appearances are often psychological theatre pieces portraying him a solitary saviour seeking both redemption and needy recognition. Last year, West bought the house and it is currently under renovation. Since her death in 2007 – of complications during a cosmetic surgery procedure – the house remained empty and was later headed to foreclosure court after it was purchased by a non-profit foundation associated with Rhymefest, one of West’s collaborators. She lived in the city’s South Shore neighbourhood until 2003, just a year before the release of her son’s debut album. ![]() The choreography was occasionally clumsy – mourners were unsure of their movements and circles didn’t connect - but the overall memorializing of West’s mother Donda, who died in 2007, was splashed on a large canvas and didn’t allow for misinterpretation.ĭonda West, a former English teacher at nearby Chicago State University, bought the modest 1600-square-foot frame house in 1981. By the end, three circles of mourners and vehicles apiece moved around the house slowly in opposite directions. While all these factors might handicap a traditional performance, the real stars of the evening were the continual entrances of mourners who formed circles around the mound, followed by black vehicles, followed by more mourners, followed by more vehicles, and so on. The poor sound at Soldier Field, an open-air stadium where the Chicago Bears American football team play, made it impossible to comprehend the lyrics of the new recordings. Even West took occasional breaks to read his phone. His entourage, particularly Manson, mostly moped on the front porch and stairs, looking bored and occasionally nodding their heads. For three-fourths of the audience, that made them invisible except for on video.īut while West occasionally ‘performed’ songs using arm gestures, a black mask stretched the full length of his face, allowing no glimpse of emotion. ![]() West and the sulking posse mostly hung out on the front porch. And then West arrived with an entourage that included Manson and DaBaby (the former facing sexual assault allegations and the latter cancelled appearances after making homophobic comments at Rolling Loud Festival in Miami). While those featured West alone inside a sports stadium listening to his own music surrounded by thousands of fans, in Chicago people arrived to the sight of a full-sized replica of the rapper’s childhood home, reproduced on a hill of dirt and topped with a neon cross.įog wafted around the house for nearly four hours, during which nearly 60,000 people were allowed through the doors. The Chicago event was far more complex than the first two ‘experiences’ he staged in Atlanta. ![]() Indeed, the third listening party for ‘Donda’, the much-delayed, forthcoming 10th album from West, was a manic grab bag of towering theatrical symbols and melodrama that overshadowed the new music by several miles. READ MORE: On the scene at Kanye West’s ‘DONDA’ playback in Atlanta: “It feels cathartic”įollowing that? Try a mock wedding featuring a potential Kim Kardashian lookalike, or maybe the real thing. ![]() He called it “The Donda Experience” but the experience Kanye West staged Thursday in Chicago was a pantomimed funeral procession complete with dozens of black vehicles, hundreds of marching mourners in black jumpsuits, and Marilyn Manson.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |