The way Kanye West performed caused fans to riot at Rolling Loud -HO
Kanye West onstage Thursday night at the Rolling Loud California festival in Inglewood.
Whatever Kanye West was paid to headline the first night of this weekend’s Rolling Loud California festival, it was easy money.
Onstage for about an hour Thursday evening with Ty Dolla Sign — his partner on the chart-topping “Vultures 1” album released last month under the artist name ¥$ — Kanye roamed around in a black jacket and a face mask as their songs played over the festival’s sound system on a huge circular stage planted in the parking lot of Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium.
If he was rapping, you couldn’t hear it; if he was holding a microphone, you couldn’t see it.
This kind of presentation isn’t new for the controversial rapper now known as Ye, who’s introduced his last several albums with high-profile listening events held in arenas and stadiums around the country. But Kanye’s booking to mark 10 years of Rolling Loud — hip-hop’s festival of record, with wildly popular editions in cities including Miami, New York and Los Angeles — was billed (or at least was widely perceived to have been billed) as something different: his first full-scale festival performance since the apparent meltdown of his career after he made a series of antisemitic remarks in late 2022.
Kanye West onstage Thursday.
His assertions regarding the influence of Jewish individuals over Black representation lingered in memory; his declaration on Twitter to escalate tensions, going as far as to proclaim “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” proved detrimental. This rhetoric severed ties with his record label and booking agent, resulting in the termination of his lucrative partnerships with Adidas, Balenciaga, the Gap, and numerous other prominent corporations. At that juncture, Kanye appeared to be facing serious repercussions.
