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Kanye West had his first professional gig of 2016 in Manila, and he delivered, as fans saw West perform The Life of Pablo at Paradise International Music Festival.

In true Kanye style, the rapper launched into a controversial tirade about the impact of that notorious VMA night on his career, as well as the importance of his tune ‘Famous’. “What I wanted you to know the whole time in the spirit of Nina Simone, in the spirit of real artists,” he says. “This is the song that broke the writer’s block for me because it’s something I wanted to say so bad that they told me I couldn’t say. That night [of the 2009 VMA’s] when I went onstage [to interrupt Taylor’s acceptance speech] was the beginning of the end of my life. Lady Gaga cancelled the tour the next day. You know what night I’m talking about. When I just said what everybody else was thinking.”

Kanye received a lot of scrutiny in recent times following the release of ‘Famous’, containing the infamous lyrics “for all my Southside n***as that know me best / I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b***h famous (God damn) / I made that b***h famous.”

“So if I get in trouble for saying the truth, what’s being said the rest of the time?” he continues at Paradise. “And I had to fight every day of my life, with a whole world turned against me, for saying out loud what everyone else felt. But that’s the job of an artist, of a true artist. Not to be controlled by their finances, not to be controlled by perception, but only to be controlled by their truth, what [they] see, what [they] feel. And say what you f***ing feel.” Drop the mic. The crowd erupted into Yeezy chants. “I fought to make that the first single off of Pablo.”

The Life of Pablo officially debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.

Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy. Watch the outburst in the gallery above.

  • Words: Louis Hanson

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