Kanye West Cancels U.S. Tour Dates Following Pair of Onstage Rants

KanyeWestSaintPablo
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Kanye West has reportedly cancelled all remaining dates on his current Saint Pablo tour following a series of bizarre, onstage rants and the last-minute cancellation of his concert in Los Angeles Sunday night.

A representative for the rapper confirmed to Pitchfork that the remaining dates on his U.S. tour — 21 concerts in total — have been cancelled. Full refunds can be obtained from the point of purchase.

The tour cancellation comes hours after West abruptly scrapped a concert Sunday night at the Forum in Los Angeles just hours before it was set to begin. The Sunday night event was itself a makeup date for an earlier concert.

At his show in San Jose on Thursday, the outspoken rapper paused mid-performance to deliver a near hour-long political speech in which he said that he had not voted in the recent presidential election, but would have voted for Republican Donald Trump if he had.

West also hinted at his plans to run for president in 2020, and rebuked African-Americans for what he said was their “focus” on racism.

“Specifically to black people, stop focusing on racism. This world is racist, ok? Let’s stop being distracted to focus on that as much,” he said. “It’s just a f*cking fact. We are in a racist country. Period. Not one or the other candidate was going to instantly be able to change that.”

At his next concert on Saturday night in Sacramento, West reportedly arrived 90 minutes late and played just three songs, including one with fellow rapper Kid Cudi, before launching into another monologue.

The rapper angrily criticized radio stations for repeatedly playing the same songs, compared himself to Donald Trump and called out Beyoncé, whom he said had refused to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards unless she won the Video of the Year award over him.

After the 17-minute speech, West left the stage and the rest of the concert was cancelled.

The Saint Pablo tour began in August and had been scheduled to end with a pair of concerts at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on New Year’s Eve.

 

Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

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