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Kanye West, Saint Pablo Tour and the anti-celebrity
The Saint Pablo tour is another stop in an ever-evolving journey for Kanye West. Neilson Barnard/MTV1617/Getty Images

Kanye West, Saint Pablo Tour and the anti-celebrity

On Saturday, with a lineup wrapped around the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York extending into an adjacent parking lot an hour before the doors to the arena opened, Kanye West made the second stop of his Saint Pablo tour. Many of those who wanted to be the first one in the building were motivated by the tour merchandise that would be available, especially after the 21 pop-up store locations he launched worldwide the week prior which spanned New York to Cape Town and places in between.

While it didn't stop many of the attendees from splurging upwards of $100 on a brand new hoodie, many were disappointed at the bare bones selection of the merchandise available, which didn't feature the Nemek Gothic font tees designed by Cali Thornhill DeWitt. Instead, fans had to choose between the previously released airbrushed tee with images of Donda West and Robert Kardashian and tees and hoodies with a new Saint Pablo tour logo. The popular Nemek Gothic font tees originally designed by Cali Thornhill DeWitt were not part of the merch table.

If there was any disappointment, it gave way to the anticipation of the start of another Kanye West show near 10 p.m., when the instrumental to "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1" blared through the speakers, and Kanye appeared on a glowing platform stage with a harness strapped to his back. After running his signature track from "The Life of Pablo" back twice and performing the Desiigner-inspired "Pt. 2", the soundtrack transitioned to "Famous," as the crowd went into a frenzy and shouted "I made that ***** famooooous," a controversial and celebratory moment for Kanye West fans in light of Kim Kardashian's recent expose of Taylor Swift.

***

On Friday evening before the concert, I found myself watching Kanye's 2009 apology on Jay Leno for grabbing Taylor's mic at the MTV Video Music Awards. A contrite Kanye took his seat on the couch next to Leno, and expressed his remorse for stepping on the feelings of another human being.

The Kanye-Taylor saga has only ever been fascinating from a single perspective: the juxtaposition of how both artists handled their celebrity status. While Taylor has micromanaged the image she would like to project to the public, Kanye has always rejected the idea of pandering to the rules of celebrity, even as he's gone from one of Jay-Z's producers on The Blueprint to one of the most accomplished musicians of our generation.  

Fundamentally, despite the manic tweetstorms before the release of album, the occasional interview soundbite that makes you shake your head in confusion, and the many missteps that feel unnecessary, the unpredictability of Kanye as the anti-celebrity without a particular blueprint of where he is going is a huge part of why his career remains an exhilarating adventure 12 years after the release of "The College Dropout", over a decade after he set forth his career narrative with the outro track "Last Call."

Even as his fame has exploded over the past decade, Kanye has always felt like the celebrity who wasn't supposed to make it this far, and watching someone without those pre-packaged ideas challenge themselves and embrace the larger platform and the opening of opportunities to explore with his music and in other platforms gives us a unique lens to view an artist's career through.

At the end of his apology segment with Leno, Kanye announced he was taking some time off (at the time, his mother Donda had just recently passed away and he would cancel a tour with Lady Gaga to retreat from the spotlight). "I need to analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life," Kanye said. "How I'm going to improve. Because I'm a celebrity and that's something I have to deal with."

***

If dealing with the idea of celebrity remains a continuous struggle by Kanye, the past half-decade has proven that the experimentation and elevation of his music remains a priority. After a significant departure from the blueprint he laid out with his first three albums with the release of "808s & Heartbreak," Kanye pivoted again in 2010 with "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," which remains the high point of his music career. A year later, he was able to coax a very inspired performance out of Jay-Z on the "Watch The Throne" collaboration album, then delivered a new sonic approach with "Yeezus" in 2013. 

"The Life of Pablo" seems to cull from familiar elements of the soulful sound of his earlier elements, while retaining the edginess of his later work. The album feels like a culmination of all his career work, transported into the modern hip-hop landscape, but Kanye's tendency to reboot himself with every project -- like a Marvel character who rewrites his origin story slightly differently on each album -- makes it difficult to call this or any particular moment in Kanye's career an endpoint of anything.

But if music tours represent an opportunity to press pause and look back at an artist's career, the Saint Pablo tour and its still-being-tinkered setlist showcases the ever expanding canvas that Kanye has laid with his discography. As the crowd struggled to recite the lyrics to "I Love Kanye," the set transitioned into "Can't Tell Me Nothing," a signature track in Kanye's career, and one he admitted to the Buffalo crowd was his favorite Kanye West song. The combination of "Flashing Lights" and "All of the Lights" delivered was another highlight of the evening, while "Blood on the Leaves" created a mosh pit on the floor stage.

***

Noticeably absent was the stream-of-consciousness rant that became a signature of the Yeezus tour. On Saturday, Kanye only briefly addressed the crowd directly to say "it's been a pretty good year to be a Kanye West fan." The next evening at the MTV VMAs, he echoed those sentiments in his speech to introduce his latest video for "Fade," saying "I am Kanye West, and that feels really great, especially to say this year." In Indianapolis two nights earlier on the first stop of the tour, Kanye even apologized to Nike CEO Mark Parker.

In further contrast to the Yeezus tour, the Saint Pablo tour is, at first glance, a much more stripped-down visual experience. Three years ago, Kanye performed entire concerts behind a bejeweled Martin Margiela mask, with an elaborate stage set inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain." The experience felt like another play on the idea of celebrity, and the Yeezus persona bred this God-like figure, which amplified the way we worship some of our stars. 

For Saint Pablo, Kanye spends the entirety of the show on a floating platform, which is mostly placed at the center of the arena, at times moving towards the end stage. The visual cues are minimal, but the layout creates an unique concert-going experience especially for those on the floor, In an interview last week, Kanye said the concept of the floating stage has been a decade in the making and is partially inspired by Ridley Scott.

***

In June, Kanye debuted a visual video for "Famous" that included a Vincent Desiderio inspired tableau of himself along with Kim, Taylor, George W. Bush Jr., Donald Trump, Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Ray J, Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner and Bill Cosby lying naked in bed. While Kanye's artistic interpretation has not always been on point, he explained this as an illustration of those who've influenced him on his journey to fame.

In 2016, coming off the release of his seventh solo studio album, the idea of celebrity is still central to Kanye's thought process. As the anti-celebrity, he is not constrained by boundaries, and while the freedom to expand and experiment doesn't always work for artists, the additional space allows Kanye to continue to grow and expand with his music at a point when most artists would have already plateaued. 

Towards the end of the evening in Buffalo, the lights dim once more as Kanye performs "Ultralight Beam" to close the show. The Saint Pablo tour signifies a moment of comfort and a feeling of accomplishment for Kanye, but in a career full of fleeting moments, it's likely more of a temporary state. Where Kanye's music and career direction goes next is unclear, and in that unpredictability is the very reason why what's next is such a stimulating question.

Can you name the athletes featured in these rap lyrics?
SCORE:
0/23
TIME:
6:00
Corner store like Mr. Spare-a-Quarter Before Air Jordans, __s
Nas “No Introduction”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kick a snitch head through a goal like __
Nicki Minaj "Five-O"
David Beckham
My team something like the retro Celtics Which means consecutive championships Which means I’m __’s equivalent To the way I do a verse he handle the ball
Kendrick Lamar “Blood Sport Freestyle”
Larry Bird
You worthless fella You ain’t no athlete, you __
Jay Z "Pump It Up (Remix)"
Shawn Bradley
Cool as __, I’m blowin' a few Gs
J. Cole “Cost Me A Lot”
Drew Brees
And I’ve got mad hits like I was __
BeastieBoys "Sure Shot"
Rod Carew
I been __ with the shot Been cookin' with the sauce, chef, __ with the pot, boy
Drake "0 to 100"
Steph Curry
Trying to get my hands on some __s like __
Diddy "All About the Benjamins"
Horace Grant
They tried to put two 9’s on me, just like __
Fabolous "Ghetto"
Wayne Gretzky
Here comes __! The throw to the plate’s not in time! My, oh my, the Mariners win it!
Macklemore &RyanLewis "My Oh My"
Ken Griffey, Jr.
W’s on my mind, peep what I’m getting at. Attire proper, __ though slightly darker
Wale "Change Up"
Bryce Harper
And that’s realer than Real-Deal __
Snoop Dogg “Nuthin' But a G Thang”
Evander Holyfield
A-yo __ knows this (what?) and __ knows that (what?) But __ don’t know jack, cause __ can’t rap
A Tribe Called Quest "Scenario"
Bo Jackson
Told you before how I bring the dra-ma Slam __ and his Grandma-ma
Notorious BIG "Whatchu Want (The Commission)"
Larry Johnson
I gotta a friend with a pole in the basement (what?) I’m just __ing like __ (oh) Unless you gon' do it
Nelly "Hot in Herre"
Jason Kidd
Glitter, glisten, gloss, floss I catch a beat runnin' like __
Outkast "The Whole World"
Randy Moss
Pusha pitch it like he __ Striking them switch hitters Dodging popo
Pusha T "The Feature Heavy Song"
Hideo Nomo
RAP PLEASE US! Deliver scriptures similar to Jesus That you couldn’t catch if you was __
Pharoahe Monch "Official"
Ivan Rodriguez
7-7-3, Oh, since Kanye was a three-old Down the street from __, was practicing his free-throws
Chance The Rapper "Hey Ma"
Derrick Rose
Then hit stage and break a leg like __
Ludacris "World of Mouf (Freestyle)"
Lawrence Taylor
Cause to each its own and the lights is bright And I’m feeling like __ at a __ fight
Lil Wayne "Oh No"
Mike Tyson
Who are going through a struggle feels it and Relates, that’s great, it’s payback, __ Falling way back in the draft, turn nothing into something, still can Make that
Eminem "The Monster"
Russell Wilson
I’m as __ as __, not that good with names But I do remember your face from someplace
Common "Orange Pineapple Juice"
James Worthy

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