When you manage to get the fans who paid to come see you to start booing you, then you have really accomplished something. Kanye West walked into a hall full of fans who had come to see Drake, but ended up seeing Kanye filling in. Still, the crowd at the Wireless Festival in London was all hyped to see the rapper.
But instead of treating his London fans to all his best right off the bat, West went into a 20-minute-long rant about fame, consumerism, and discrimination in the fashion industry.
You know, people be looking at me like I got a problem or something. Like I’m uncontrollable or something. Like I don’t do what I’m supposed to do. You know it’s like they want to have everybody so brainwashed. They want to control everybody, you know, rumors, lies, media, marketing. It’s like they want to steal you from you, and sell you back to you after they stole it. They want to make you feel like you less than who you really are…
Now believing in yourself is so, so, so wrong that the other side is so, so, so, so strong, they’re trying to beat down and demonize and dishumanize — I don’t know if that’s a word or not, but it’s now a word, cuz I said it’s a fucking word — and try to dishumanize people who believe in themselves…
And I’m telling you right now as I stand on this stage, all this shit that you heard me talking about, I’m gonna come and back all that shit up. You don’t know how hard it was to get the Nikes, that wasn’t my fault. They try to control y’all and try to control me. And when I was in my negotiations, they told me, “We don’t negotiate with celebrities.” That’s like a terrorist. They talk to you like it’s fucking terrorist.
You can watch the whole thing here, beginning at the 11:00 mark.
One person who attended the event said, “Kanye was laying into the ‘machine’ and ranting about the public’s perception of him. Hundreds of people left the park early because they were so bored of his long rant.”
One fan wrote to his friends: wrote: “If anyone is going to wireless tomorrow GET A REFUND! Kanye sings for 20 minutes then literally does a speech for 35 minutes!!”
I didn't realise that when I bought my wireless tickets I also signed up to be Kanye's councillor
— Shabba Ranks (@AbigailFullerr) July 6, 2014
On the other hand, some loved his performance.
just got back from seeing kanye at wireless festival and it was probably one of my favourite live performances i've ever seen
— Dan Howell (@danisnotonfire) July 4, 2014
Image via YouTube