KanYAY at Louis Vuitton Foundation

I’ve seen Kanye a lot. I’d say I’m a fan but not a mega devoted one and like most people I much prefer his old stuff to the the new angry, aggressive, vain Kanye. But he’s a good performer so I wasn’t going to turn down the chance to see him in Paris. A group of us had our eyes peeled for an announcement of a surprise gig because of his last minute performance at KoKo in London so we got tickets; Matita and Rachel went on Sunday and Amrita and I on Tuesday night.

The Louis Vuitton Foundation is an amazing, grand venue so we already high hopes. I was running super late because my host mum was late coming home from work, the train line I needed was closed and I had to wait ages for the RER (I watched the fat rats run around the platform while I waited). From Les Sablons I sprinted to the foundation, it’s surrounded by woods so I went between the trees in the dark like I was in a freakin action movie. Amrita had already gone inside and the queue was so crazily long so I managed to blag my way very near the front with a group of excited americans.

 

I found Amrita sat on the floor of a separate room where they were previewing the new ‘All Day’ video. It was cool to see an exclusive but the video was nothing special, just a camera following Kanye looking tired, rapping to an empty room. We got pushed into the auditorium and waited about an hour for Kanye to bless us with his presence… While we waited we watched everyone get excited by anyone who went to sit in the VIP section, Kris Jenner, Kendall, Cara Delevingne, Lily Donaldson, Gigi Hadid and Joan Smalls all showed up and spent their whole time taking selfies. No surprise there.

When Kanye finally showed up (didn’t actually wait that long. He usually leaves audiences waiting for at least 2 hours) he had nothing on stage, no musicians on stage and no gimmicks. He played his most popular songs from his last album; Blood on the Leaves went down well with all the frenchies screaming ‘blood on zee leeeeeeves!’. It was so squished at the front so we moved to the mosh pit while Kendall and Kris filmed clips and uploaded them to their instagrams. Probably judging us for being so sweaty and disgusting. We both agreed that the second half was much better than the first, all day, all of the lights, good life, can’t tell me nothing, touch the sky etc!

Even though the stage was bare, some songs were accompanied by surround graphics of trees and waterfalls. It was all very arty but didn’t fit that well with the music (in my opinion). The crowd annoyed us a bit with constant selfie taking, not really knowing the old songs and generally filming the whole gig. Like watching it all through their iphone screens. Not Ok frenchies. My favourite part of the night was when Amrita and I were the only ones to ‘get low’ during All Day. Literally us just jamming on the floor while everyone looked on in confusion. 

Kanye was awesome, the venue was amazing and we loved how intimate it was but I think that was the last time I’d see Mr West. Especially as half of the audience were more interested in what the Jenner/Kardashian Klan were up to.

 

Mary x