It's a well-documented fact that Kanye West's ego is over-the-top, but the Grammy-winning rapper earned his hype by enthralling more than 10,000 fans when he closed out the first day of the LG Action Sports Championships event at Reunion Arena on Friday night.
The Chicago native performed a bit later than expected, but that certainly didn't dampen the enthusiasm throughout his hourlong set. Mr. West can no longer be considered a "producer turned rapper" – he kept his flow and the band's interpretations razor-close to the recorded renditions and has definitely stepped up his rhyming prowess.
In khakis, a blue denim jacket over his black T and his ginormous "Jesus Piece," Mr. West stalked, trotted and whirled across the stage, barely pausing for breath as he ripped through "Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Through the Wire" and "Everything I Am." What also added to the performance was the band's instrumental interpolating with scratching flourishes and tracks with smooth, nearly imperceptible seamlessness.
It was revealed that Mr. West is in rehearsals for an upcoming tour to promote his latest smash CD, Graduation, so he has time to work out the few kinks that plagued his set. Half of the show had passed before he personally addressed the crowd with "Are you having a good time this evening?" and he never removed his pitch-black shades.
The first half of the performance also felt top-heavy, since it was overloaded with tracks from the latest CD – ones that many of the fans still didn't know well – and he displayed an odd reluctance to use his more popular earlier material. The energy waned considerably, but he picked it right back up when he dropped faves including "All Falls Down," "Touch the Sky" and "Gold Digger," his most enthusiastic rendering, which earned a roar of satisfaction from the arena.
He even spoke about why he was "so crazy" when he failed to win awards: "I am so serious about this rap game, it's not about the superstar [expletive] for me!" He also questioned why folks doubted his worthiness: "If my [expletive] ain't killing everybody else's out there, then why did I come in at No. 1?"
Not that the crowd disbelieved him – the deafening chants and waving fists during "Good Life," "Jesus Walks" and "Stronger" couldn't have done anything less than cement his confidence in his reign as King Kanye.
Source: DallasNews.com - Lorrie Irby Jackson
The Chicago native performed a bit later than expected, but that certainly didn't dampen the enthusiasm throughout his hourlong set. Mr. West can no longer be considered a "producer turned rapper" – he kept his flow and the band's interpretations razor-close to the recorded renditions and has definitely stepped up his rhyming prowess.
In khakis, a blue denim jacket over his black T and his ginormous "Jesus Piece," Mr. West stalked, trotted and whirled across the stage, barely pausing for breath as he ripped through "Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Through the Wire" and "Everything I Am." What also added to the performance was the band's instrumental interpolating with scratching flourishes and tracks with smooth, nearly imperceptible seamlessness.
It was revealed that Mr. West is in rehearsals for an upcoming tour to promote his latest smash CD, Graduation, so he has time to work out the few kinks that plagued his set. Half of the show had passed before he personally addressed the crowd with "Are you having a good time this evening?" and he never removed his pitch-black shades.
The first half of the performance also felt top-heavy, since it was overloaded with tracks from the latest CD – ones that many of the fans still didn't know well – and he displayed an odd reluctance to use his more popular earlier material. The energy waned considerably, but he picked it right back up when he dropped faves including "All Falls Down," "Touch the Sky" and "Gold Digger," his most enthusiastic rendering, which earned a roar of satisfaction from the arena.
He even spoke about why he was "so crazy" when he failed to win awards: "I am so serious about this rap game, it's not about the superstar [expletive] for me!" He also questioned why folks doubted his worthiness: "If my [expletive] ain't killing everybody else's out there, then why did I come in at No. 1?"
Not that the crowd disbelieved him – the deafening chants and waving fists during "Good Life," "Jesus Walks" and "Stronger" couldn't have done anything less than cement his confidence in his reign as King Kanye.
Source: DallasNews.com - Lorrie Irby Jackson
