{"id":564049,"date":"2026-04-04T12:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564049\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T12:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:09:08","slug":"ye-attempts-a-comeback-with-sold-out-la-area-concert-support-from-lauryn-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564049\/","title":{"rendered":"Ye attempts a comeback with sold-out LA-area concert, support from Lauryn Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The artist formerly and possibly again known as Kanye West<\/a> reveled in support from one of his musical idols, Lauryn Hill<\/a>, as he staged a sold-out Southern California concert meant to mark a comeback from years of controversy.<\/p>\n

Eleven months after releasing a song titled \u201cHeil Hitler\u201d<\/a> and just over two months after publishing an apology letter for his antisemitism, Ye let two decades of hits \u2014 and 70,000 screaming loyal fans \u2014 speak the loudest on Friday night at SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank y\u2019all for sticking by me all these years. Through the hard times, through the low times,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cI love you for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill joined Ye on a stage for the first time ever for an energetic rendition of his 2004 hit \u201cAll Falls Down,\u201d which originally sampled her voice. Ye left the stage as she performed \u201cLost Ones\u201d and \u201cDoo Wop (That Thing)\u201d before rejoining for his 2021 \u201cDoo Wop\u201d-sampling song \u201cBelieve What I Say.\u201d They hugged as she exited.<\/p>\n

Travis Scott, CeeLo Green and Ye\u2019s tween daughter North West also strapped on safety harnesses to join Ye high above the stadium floor atop a striking half-orb stage, which alternately depicted a moon, a rotating Earth and a smoking sphere throughout the two hours-plus livestreamed performance.<\/p>\n

A loud singalong of \u201cHeartless\u201d midway through the more than 40-song Good Friday show seemed to boost Ye\u2019s spirits: \u201cThat\u2019s what 80,000 people sound like, ladies and gentlemen. \u2026 They said I\u2019d never be back in the States. Two sold-out concerts, baby!\u201d<\/p>\n

The first SoFi show Wednesday, his first major U.S. performance in nearly five years, turned out to be more of a warm-up as Ye was tentative in his rapping and drew attention to technical mishaps.<\/p>\n

Fans at that show said they separated the 48-year-old performer\u2019s personal beliefs and public statements from his music \u2014 and were ready to forgive after his January apology letter. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou gotta back your family no matter what,\u201d said Vince Da Prince, a rapper from Downey, Calif. \u201cHe\u2019s a part of our fam since we were little kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added fan Yovani Contreras: \u201cI don\u2019t really bring into politics or the way someone\u2019s personal opinion are. I\u2019m into the music artistry \u2026 Like, I just, to me, Ye is always gonna be Ye. Kanye is always gonna be Kanye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luis Velasquez said he\u2019d been a longtime fan and had been put off by controversies in recent years, but felt the apology was sincere.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah he did apologize,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s taking the medication I think is what he mentioned. \u2026 For me as a fan that\u2019s, like, respect, right? Like I think that\u2019s cool enough to bridge that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ye released his latest album, \u201cBully,\u201d under both the names Ye and Kanye West, at the end of March. He dominated hip-hop and pop charts in the 2000s and early 2010s, winning 24 Grammy Awards despite public outbursts and a polarizing personality. He lost nearly all his major business partnerships and many fans after a string of controversies in the last several years including antisemitic remarks and social media posts.<\/p>\n

He closed Friday night\u2019s show with his \u201ctoast to the douchebags\u201d hit \u201cRunaway,\u201d and walked out of the stadium behind his wife Bianca Censori and two of his children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The artist formerly and possibly again known as Kanye West reveled in support from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1280,55529,249628,88,40286,4860,100330,3031,249627,216,3766,706,249626,163618],"class_list":{"0":"post-564049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-bianca-censori","10":"tag-cee-lo-green","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-grammy-awards","13":"tag-kanye-west","14":"tag-lauryn-hill","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-luis-velasquez","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","19":"tag-travis-scott","20":"tag-vince-da-prince","21":"tag-year-in-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}