Results tagged “kanyewest”

What happens when Kanye teams up with music video genius/movie director Spike Jonze? One hot, intriguing mess, that's what. Our pals at Pitchfork point us to the short film We Were Once A Fairytale, a little slice of...something that features, "Kanye acting completely drunk and making an utter ass out of himself at a club before having sex with a ghost and then ripping the world's cutest goblin out of his stomach." Also, he bleeds and vomits confetti. Hell, this might be a documentary for all we know. Judge for yourself by watching it here. Where the wild things are, indeed.

Add another heartbreak to the list for Kanye. First his tour with Lady Gaga gets canceled and now? His clothing line follows suit. Photos of his fashion line, Pastelle, hit the interwebz yesterday, but already, it seems, it's defunct. Not to be deterred, Kanye plans to try again with another line under his own name.

It's official, Live Nation has just made an announcement confirming that the Kanye West and Lady GaGa Fame Kills tour has been canceled. Color us bummed, the thought of the spectacle those two would've made on stage together ... it might have actually been something arena worthy in music for once. All tickets will be refunded.

Last night, Kanye was scheduled to appear alongside Jay-Z and Rihanna on the premiere of Jay Leno's new show, but the host took the opportunity to bring Kanye out and talk to him about Sunday night's Taylor Swift Thunder Theft. Kanye's apology seemed as genuine as you can expect from him. And for the conspiracy theorists who still think it was staged, well...we can't blame you. We're suckers for conspiracy theories. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, but, as we pointed out yesterday, to pull off such a stunt would require a level of self-awareness on Kanye's part. So let's just blame Leno for slipping something into Kanye's drink on Sunday night.

By now, you've already seen and heard all about Kanye's antics during Taylor Swift's speech at last night's MTV Video Music Awards. A few thoughts:

UPDATE: Alright, we admit it, we were fooled. Seems this whole story is bunk. Apologies all around and now we can go back to loving Kanye unabashedly. Thanks to commenter John R who pointed this out to us.

     

As we mentioned on Wednesday, Kanye West performed for the kids last night. Besides the main concert to benefit the Kanye West Foundation - filmed for a later television airing on FUSE - Kanye also performed an exclusive sound check and held a a Q&A for a group of local students. Check out reports by the Tribune and Sun-Times.

A group of local high school students dedicated themselves to working harder to improve their grades and now it's paying off in the form of Kanye West. For Highland Park High sophomore David Abrams, it all started with Lil Wayne. As he told the Sun-Times:

Kanye West--humble producer, musician, designer, and fish stick lover--is now an author. Codifying West’s witticisms, life lessons, and aphorisms with the help of co-author J. Sakiya Sanifer (of the comma-defying Think Think Think and Think Again) behold West’s debut book Thank You And You’re Welcome.

• While no longer the state's top DUI locale as they were in 2006, Naperville was still No. 2 in 2008.
• A Wisconsin appeals court ruled last week that police in the state can attach GPS devices to cars for the purposes of tracking without a search warrant.
• Next up in furlough days: the Chicago Park Distrtict.

Oh Kanye, one day you're a sociopath, the next an egomaniac, but today you're neither. Today, you are a gay fish. Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've by now caught the hilarity of the rapper's South Park cameo as a mulleted, autotuned merman.

Kanye's put up the new video for his song "Welcome to Heartbreak on his blog, but don't expect to see it in heavy rotation anywhere but the internet. According to Kanye:

Bitching and moaning about how terrible the Grammys are is just as tired as the awards show itself, so we'll do our best to avoid it. This year's show had its share of highs (the Radiohead/USC Marching band collab, the chance of MIA giving birth on stage and forcing Lil Wayne to deliver the baby) and lows (Queen Latifah calling the group of Kanye, Jay-Z, TI, and Lil Wayne "The Rap Pack") but we still had a reason to watch as some Chicago-based artists were up for some awards.

We'll admit that we're in the tank for Kanye, but even we have no idea what is going on in this video, other than it seems Kanye is going to be selling Louis Vuitton shoes. But holy hell is this bizarre. One thing it's not, however, is bisexual adult films. [via Scandalist - no relation]

Yup, here it is, the inevitable "Best of 2008" music list (a later post centering on the top local offerings is forthcoming). In order to spare our readers the pain of reading through yet another list that tries too hard to impress with obscure releases or toe the party line on Stereogum / Pitchfork approved artists, we continue our personal decade-plus tradition of merely listing what we actually liked in 2008. That means that the albums below are the one we kept finding ourselves turning to when we wanted to kick back and enjoy some tunes. Sure, there was more artistically challenging stuff released this year than some of the selections below -- and we certainly do appreciate that sort of thing -- but our year end list reflects which music ultimately did for us what we think rock and/or roll is ultimately meant to do to any listener: it grabbed us by the heart and/or crotch and wouldn't let go.

Um, yeah.

With a new really good record out (that's right, haters), the next logical stop for Kanye West is Saturday Night Live. Kanye will make another appearance on the show on the December 13th edition, hosted by House star Hugh Laurie. Kanye's been on SNL before as isn't afraid to have some fun, as this clip shows.

In regards to Stephen Colbert's iTunes challenge, Kanye West had this to say:

Apparently former Evanstonian Stephen Colbert is a tad annoyed that Chicago musician Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak sits at the iTunes #1 spot while his own A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All languishes at #14.

We're getting on towards the end of the year and as we mark the things we're thankful for, one of them is Lollapalooza. Year after year it leaves us with some jaw-dropping performances that make it worth all the sweat and crowds and this year, there were several more that will enter the Lolla Hall of Fame, but we're going to focus on two for now.

We've been listening to new Kanye West album, 808s & Heartbreak all morning, and are loving the nuanced monochrome with brief bursts of string filled color. We'll have a full review next week, but until then check out this rather unique New jack remix crafted by Chicago's own TREW sent to us by Uberjam.

Mr. West has again done what he does best: take to his blog in an effort to discuss a scuffle with the media, ruminating on the England incident and the media at large. Note to Kanye: we still love you. Anyway, here's an excerpt on what West had to say on this latest incident.

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED...WHEN I LEFT THE CLUB, I WAS ENCOUNTERED BY A THIRSTY PAPARAZZI AS USUAL. HE FELT HE HAD MORE RIGHTS TO MY SPACE THAN ME, SO I PUT MY HAND UP TO PREVENT HIM FROM TAKING MY IMAGE. I DIDN'T ASSAULT HIM BUT MERELY PUTTING MY HAND UP TO COVER HIS LENS. MY SECURITY YELLED, "GET THE CAMERA OFF HIM." I GUESS IN ALL THE COMMOTION THE CAMERA SCRAPED HIS NOSE.

Continue reading "Kanye Blogs About Latest Scuffle"

Poor Kanye. Right now, all he wants to do is get ready for the release of his new LP 808s and Heartbreaks, which is released November 25th (going head-to-head with the long-awaited new G'n'R record). But things are not all rainbows and lollipops in the Kanyeverse. Via our pals at Pitchfork, West is being sued by former hip-hop mogul Suge Knight over the shooting that happened at a Kanye-hosted party in Miami 2005 prior to that year's MTV Awards. It seems someone got a gun past security, shot Suge in the leg, stole Suge's diamond earring, and forced Suge to take a private jet back to L.A. to seek medical attention for the wound. This from a guy who's now bankrupt and has been tied to more hip-hop violence then we can shake a stick at? Hmm. Neither Kanye nor his camp have issued a statement on the lawsuit and, judging from his blog, it seems Kanye's thoughts are on lighter subjects.

It seems Kanye's proposed show for HBO, produced by Larry Charles, may not make it to air. At least, anytime soon. Said Charles:

It was really good, but ... I think it was too hard-core for HBO. Also, HBO's management shifted. HBO doesn't have a good track record when it comes to black shows, and I felt like that may have had something to do with it also. I don't see a lot of shows about that experience at all. This was very entertaining and we showed it to a lot of people. People gave it a very good response, and it seems to be on the shelf right now. The management has shifted at HBO so we're waiting to see.

Say what you will about Kanye West, but dude knows how to keep himself on top of the news cycle in order to draw attention to a new album. In an effort to out-Radiohead Radiohead, he wants fans to remix his lead single "Love Lockdown" and -- unlike a certain British band who charges for their stems on iTunes -- is offering all of the essential elements of the song for free to do with as you please. We may just have to dig out our old CD of Acid 1.0 to have a go at this ourselves.

We here at Kanyeist are delighted to hear today's news from the man himself that his new record will be out sooner then we thought. Look for 808 & Heartbreak sometime in November.

I CHANGED MY ALBUM TO NOVEMBER SOMETHING CAUSE I FINISHED THE ALBUM AND I FELT LIKE IT.. I WANT YALL TO HEAR IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

It's been over a week since we last mentioned our favorite embattled Chicago MC, but luckily he's making more news for us: Kanye and fellow Chicago rapper Rhymefest are teaming up with Comedy Central to create a new puppet show, described as "hip-hop meets the Muppets." Tentatively titled Alligator Boots (we have no idea), the show is produced by the same guys that made Crank Yankers and has already filmed a pilot. It seems that video for "Champion" was a bit of a test-run for the show (no pun intended). The show, currently slated for a 2009 premiere, would follow a format similar to the Muppet Show in that each week it would be hosted by a celebrity guest (the pilot was hosted by Kanye, of course). Kanye has also been in talks with HBO about a series focusing on his life, with Curb Your Enthusiasm producer Larry Charles connected to it, but nothing has really advanced on that front, according to MTV.

We liked the song, but agree with Kanye's decision to re-record it since the new version is far superior. Especially when it "overloads." Nice touch. [Kanye's Blog]