Kanye West Performs ‘The Life of Pablo’ Tracks Live for the First Time Ahead of Tour Announcement
Recently, radio stations in Portland and Atlanta let slip a couple of forthcoming Kanye West shows that may indicate a tour announcement from the rapper is just around the corner. And yesterday (April 9), West performed a handful of tracks from his latest, The Life of Pablo, live for the very first time.
While headlining Paradise International Music Festival in Manila, West played “Famous,” “Waves” and “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2” from TLOP. Likewise, he used the gospel choir in “Ultralight Beam” as a prelude to Graduation’s “Stronger.” If you're into hearing a lot of people simultaneously and incorrectly claim they made Taylor Swift famous, you can watch fan-shot clips from West's Paradise set at the bottom of the page.
In tweets that were later deleted, Portland’s JAM’N 107.5 and Atlanta’s V103 revealed West will play the MODA Center on July 8 and the Phillips Arena on Aug. 5, respectively. Later, West tweeted, “I’m so happy that you guys like the music… I’m working on the tour designs now.” It’s probably pretty safe to assume, then, a full-blown tour announcement is imminent.
West first debuted The Life of Pablo during his massive Madison Square Garden live-stream event in February. He then dropped the album on Tidal after his Saturday Night Live performance later that week. The rapper continued to tweak the album up until recently updating the "final" mixes on Tidal and releasing it via other channels (Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora and digital download) at the beginning of April. Nothing about this album is final, though. Def Jam told the New York Times it's a "continuous process."
“In the months to come, Kanye will release new updates, new versions and new iterations of the album,” a label rep said.