Kanye West canceled his show scheduled for The Forum in Los Angeles just hours before it was supposed to begin, according to Ticketmaster, one day after a concert that fans said started late and ended after half an hour.
In the concert Saturday night in Sacramento, Kanye West voiced his apparent support for President-elect Donald Trump, lecturing fans that “everybody in Middle America felt a way and they showed you how they felt.”
West, who is moving through California on his Saint Pablo tour, lashed out at a wide range of targets during the abbreviated show, many of them liberal darlings, including President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mark Zuckerberg, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and longtime collaborator Jay-Z.
He said that “feelings matter” and suggested that celebrities, politicians, the media, and the tech industry were out of touch with the way people feel. His comments appeared to touch on the common refrain that elites misinterpreted the mood of the country throughout the 2016 presidential election.
“A lot of people here tonight felt like they lost,” he said early in his speech to the crowd. “You want to know why? Because y’all been lied to. Google lied to you. Facebook lied to you. Radio lied to you.”
West created a firestorm on social media last week among his liberal fans by announcing during his San Jose show that he would have voted for Trump. He also said then that black people should stop “focusing on racism,” regarding the president’s appeal to white nationalists. The comment drew criticism from many in the black community and some civil rights advocates.
West angered fans again Saturday night by arriving late and leaving after performing only an abbreviated set that was dominated by a long and winding rant that delved deeper into politics.
“I’m on my Trump sh-t tonight,” West told the crowd, statement he repeated periodically, almost like a chorus.
West criticized Obama, saying that he “couldn’t make America great.” He suggested that Obama was limited by a need to “be perfect.”
He went on to criticize Beyoncé, Swift, and Jay-Z, saying they adopted political fronts in order to “win.”
“We be playing the politics too much just to win,” he said of his colleagues, although he also claimed that he was different from that group of performers. “This is the way of thinking to make a America great again.”
His words were greeted by a growing chorus of boos. West referred fans to a Richard Pryor interview in which the comedian talks about “people coming into power and not changing anything.”
“It’s a new world, Hillary Clinton. It’s a new world, Barack. It’s a new world, Jay-Z,” West declared.
He then compared the environment on radio to the sphere of politics, implying that the industry was behind the times.
West’s fans at the show were enraged by the performance, according to a report in the Sacramento Bee.
“I spent $250,” a West fan named Christian Krebs of Sacramento told the paper. “I might be a fan of his music, but I’m not a fan of his character.”
West is no stranger to politics. He has said that he wants to run for president in 2020.
The show ended when West declared the show to be over and dropped the mic.
Ticketmaster gave no explanation for why the show Sunday night at The Forum had been canceled.
West’s rep did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)