Source: Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
The audience at Travis Scott’s concert in Rome, Italy was treated to a surprise on-stage appearance by Ye aka Kanye West.
On Monday night (August 7th), Scott was in the midst of performing songs from his new album UTOPIA before the packed arena for his Circus Maximus tour. He stopped the music and said, “Only one human being on this motherf**king planet that has ever walked side by side with me through anything and every motherf**king thing.” At that moment he brought West out onto the stage.
“There is no Utopia without Kanye West. There is no Travis Scott without Kanye West. There is no Rome without Kanye West. Make some noise for Ye,” Scott said as the two performed “Praise God,” a song from West’s 2021 DONDA album that Scott is featured on. They also performed “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”, from West’s 2007 Graduation album to a rapturous crowd.
It’s the first live performance by West since receiving a considerable amount of backlash and condemnation over his slew of antisemitic comments beginning last October when he wrote on social media that it would be “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” That led to the rapper’s Instagram account being restricted and the offending post being deleted. West’s Twitter account would also see those tweets removed due to violating its policies. It was also shortly after he debuted “White Lives Matter” t-shirts during a runway show at Paris Fashion Week earlier that month.
The backlash led to Adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga severing ties with West. But he would prove to be more defiant, summarized in a post directed at Ari Emmanuel, the CEO of Endeavor who publicly called on companies to forego doing business with the
artist. “Ari Emanuel. I lost 2 billion dollars in one day. And I’m still alive. This is love speech. I still love you. God still loves you. The money is not who I am. The people is who I am,” West wrote on Instagram afterward. The furor would even cause a greater rift between Ye and his now ex-wife, Kim Kardashian (her sister, Kylie Jenner, has two children with Travis Scott) as Kardashian publicly condemned his stance on social media shortly after the remarks were made.
