Live Review: Kanye West, Pusha-T

Kanye West, the self-proclaimed God of modern hip hop landed in Perth earlier this week to kick off the highly anticipated Australian leg of the Yeezus world-tour. Perth was graced with the tour’s opening night with Ye delivering a solid 90 minute cacophony of tracks from his decade long discography, even gracing the Perthians with some gospel straight from the mouth of God.

After a solid opening performance from Pusha-T and a short interval, Kanye had the crowd brooding, blaring the Star Wars Imperial March before dimming the lights and rising out of the stage wearing his Maison Margiela diamond facemask in a cloud of misty red smoke. Launching straight into Black Skinhead, the hype for the gig was undeniable - Kanye effectively turned a sea of trendy teens into an ocean of moshing metalheads, I’ve never seen a hip hop gig as violently passionate.

Next up, was an unexpected cover of Chief Keef’s, I Don’t Like - regardless, everyone leaned into that shit. Later came a mix of classics plus tracks from Yeezus, such as Can’t Tell Me Nothing, New Slaves and Stronger, with Ye keeping momentum right up until he walked off-stage without saying a word. The lights dimmed and minutes later, an unmistakably simple piano intro begins as he once again rises up out of the floor and launches into arguably the best track of the night, Runaway, under a brilliant white spotlight with smoke rising once again.

Mid-way through Runaway, the sermon begins and Kanye slides into the role of mentor/PR agent - offering words of hope to 'inspire creativity and hope' alongside a handy plug for the Yeezy-3 sneakers which he quietly revealed are dropping in November. "There's only two times in history - before Yeezus and after." was undeniably a crowd favourite from the lecture.

More classics come and go, with the crowd still buzzing for the likes of Jesus Walks, Touch The Sky, All Of The Lights and Gold Digger. Finally, Bound2 was dedicated to his newlywed Kim, who attended the opening night, before another silent exit from the stage and a thundering reprise of Blood On The Leaves kicked in. 

Thanks to legendary producer Rick Rubin the show was the real deal - an all-in-all well choreographed, involving party that had 12,000 punters leaving pumped and ready for the drop of Kanye's new record this summer.

Yeezy taught us well.