Kanye West - Glow in the Dark Tour

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Kanye West - Glow in the Dark Tour

Make no mistake, this is the biggest gig to hit Beijing in years. Kanye West is a true hip-hop superstar and a gloriously complicated individual. On the one hand, he鈥檚 a deeply arrogant striver lusting after the good life; yet he鈥檚 also an introspective middle class Christian who adored his late mother and feels guilty for buying giant diamonds. Whatever, he鈥檚 the most critically adored rapper of recent times, equally loved by both hardened hip-hop fans and white folk who think hoes are gardening tools.

More importantly, the music is brilliant. While some hip-hop meanders,there is an explosive element to West鈥檚 music, and the producer-turned-rapper is more ready to innovate than just about anyone else in the genre, whether sampling big names like Daft Punk and Shirley Bassey or bringing in elements like sped-up snippets from old R & B tunes. His three albums, College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation, have all been big hits, with the two most recent debuting at number one.

So it鈥檚 all set up for a fantastic gig. At the Glastonbury Festival in England this year, West鈥檚 mentor Jay-Z produced what many people said was one of the great Glastonbury performances, proving that good hip-hop can fill the biggest of stages.And talking of big stages, this gig will be a bigger welcome back to the newly re-opened Workers' Stadium than the Olympic footie could ever have been.

The promoters and venue owners will just be holding their breath in the hope that West doesn鈥檛 produce another Bjork moment, as he has history. During a telethon for Hurricane Katrina, he went off script and into a rant, saying: 鈥業 hate the way they portray us (black people) in the media.You see a black family, it says they鈥檙e looting. If you see a white family,it says they鈥檙e looking for food . . .George Bush doesn鈥檛 care about blackpeople.鈥?Ouch.

But then again, West may be more sensitive to cultural issues in China, as he spent a year living here with his mum when he was ten. We鈥檙e hoping that he is has something more interesting to say about the Middle Kingdom than Paris Hilton, who described he country as 鈥榖eautiful鈥?after brief tours of Beijing and Shanghai. We鈥檙e also hoping that this gig lives up to expectations, as ours are indecently high.

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