Glastonbury have finally announced their Saturday headliner, and it doesn’t get much bigger than the biggest rapper in the world. Kanye West has joined Foo Fighters in topping the bill at the worlds biggest festival and while Dave Grohl and co are a safe and popular booking, you are looking at the complete opposite with Kanye West. There’s no doubt that Glastonbury have taken a gamble on having Yeezus headline but it’s certainly a gamble that will pay off.
Kanye West’s booking already has lot’s of people talking and it definitely seems to be the musical marmite of the moment; people are either loving the idea of him headlining or completely disgusted by the whole thing. There doesn’t seem to be an in-between, but one thing that is certain is that Kanye will not give 2 shits what we think, and that is the beauty of the man. How many bands/artists at the moment can you say truly do not give a shit? You would struggle to find one; Kanye West is a rarity in today’s pop culture. He doesn’t make music to be liked, he does it to see how far he can take it… how far he can take his crazy ideas before they become to much for people.
Yeezus does not do boring, his infamous rants about creative freedom at Wireless Festival last year, to him bringing out Jesus at one of his shows, he pushes all sorts of boundaries. Yes his ego is absolutely massive and the whole self confessed genius thing can be a bit cringey at times, but this adds to what is already a massively fascinating figure. Whether you like West or not, when you see something written about him you just have to take a look at what he’s done because you just don’t know what he’s capable of. It’s not just music where he’s pushing things forward, but his comments regarding the fashion industry being racist raised many an eyebrow and yet he’s got a very good point (even if that’s something for another day). He’s someone who wants to push everything. Just look at his Brits performance, he was brought in at the last minute to replace Rihanna and instead of just putting a run of the mill performance on to please people, he brought out half of the UK’s grime scene. Not only that but he performed a brand new song with expletives every other word, ITV’s bleeper got a good run out that night, but the point is, he’s not afraid to do exactly what he wants to.
Like it or not, Kanye West is going to bring his unorthodox and unpredictable show to the biggest stage in the world. You simply don’t know what he’s going to do. Are we going to see another appearance from Jesus? Is Jay Z going to come out and perform a few Watch The Throne songs? Could we see an appearance from Paul McCartney? We just don’t know, and that’s the beauty of it.
Time and time again Glastonbury have played it safe with the nostalgia card, having the same bands top the bill – the likes of Muse, Arctics and Coldplay – but this isn’t safe. This is as big a risk as Glastonbury could have taken for this years headliners and its refreshing to see. I for one cannot wait to be in that field as Kanye rips through (hopefully) ‘Black Skinhead’, ‘Power’ and ‘Stronger’ but you just don’t know what he’s going to bring with him and that’s the exciting thing. With most of the bands that have played in the past you can guess half the setlist before they’ve even thought about what they are putting in there, but with Yeezus the only thing you can do is expect the unexpected.
Kanye West isn’t just going to be performing, you can guarantee he’s bringing a whole spectacle with him. Prepare for the event of the year. Yeezus is coming to Worthy Farm, and its going to be spectacular.
Words by Callum McCormack
@mccormackcallum