Yeezy brings Pablo to life.
During his headlining set at the Paradise International Music Festival in the Philippines on Saturday (Apr. 9), Kanye West gave fans a preview of his upcoming tour by performing a series of tracks off The Life of Pablo for the first time.
Among the songs ‘Ye live-debuted off his chart-topping album was “Famous.” While performing for the crowd at Paradise Grounds, he paused for the controversial Taylor Swift lyrics, allowing the Manila crowd to recite the line in unison. Afterwards, Yeezus thanked fans for receiving it so well.
“In the spirit of Nina Simone, in the spirit of real artists, this is the song that broke the writer’s block for me because it was something I wanted to say so bad that they told me I couldn’t say,” West explained. Later, he added: “You don’t know, it’s really overwhelming to me to perform that song for the first time and for y’all to react to it in that way.”
He was so touched, in fact, that he performed the song twice. But he also performed otherTLOP cuts, including “Waves” and “Father Stretch My Hands.”
Of course, Mr. West also delivered classics like “Gold Digger” and “All of the Lights.” While rocking out to “Runaway,” he took some time to debut a new freestyle, tentatively being called “I Don’t Want to Be Liked.”
“Being liked is nothing when you could be loved,” he sang as the crowd cheered in approval. “God is love.”
Speaking of new material, Kanyeezy also delivered the first live performance of “Pop Style,” his Drake collaboration off Views From the 6.
This marked Kanye’s first concert of 2016 and his first performance in the Philippines. Saturday’s Paradise International Music Festival also included appearances from Wiz Khalifa, Afrojack, and Austin Mahone.
