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Kanye to Be Joined by Kendrick Lamar
Kanye West will return to the road this fall for THE YEEZUS TOUR – a 23-city North American tour presented by AEG Live – in support of his gold album YEEZUS, the most critically acclaimed new album of 2013 and the 6th consecutive #1 album of his storied career. Kanye West is a musician, producer, artist, author and designer. He has sold over 30 million albums and over 78 million digital tracks worldwide. Over the course of his career, he has had six consecutive #1 albums and seven #1 singles, along with scores of radio hits and millions of concert tickets sold worldwide. West has garnered 52 Grammy nominations and has won 21 Grammy's, along with numerous other awards and accolades. He is among the most acclaimed artists of the past decade.
The seven week tour of the U.S. and Canada will open October 19th at the Key Arena in Seattle, include a November 21st show at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. and conclude on December 7th at the Toyota Center in Houston. Tickets and VIP experiences go on sale in select markets starting Friday, September 13, details at kanyewest.com. Joining Kanye in exclusive support on THE YEEZUS TOUR will be Top Dawg Entertainment’s own Kendrick Lamar, who has emerged as one of the brightest young talents in hip-hop today. Lamar’s debut album good kid, m.A.A.d city, released in October of last year, was recently certified platinum by the RIAA.
THE YEEZUS TOUR is Kanye West’s first major tour since his WATCH THE THRONE tour with JAY Z in 2011 – the highest grossing tour in hip-hop history – and his first solo tour since 2008’s critically acclaimed GLOW IN THE DARK tour. Recently, the Washington Post hailed West as “a visionary who’s managed to tweak the serial rhythms that dictate so much of our pop culture diet. He doesn’t do cliffhangers. He jumps off…We gasp, gawk and wonder, ‘Where will he land?’”
West’s recent effort, YEEZUS, has been hailed by critics as the album of the year; The New York Times raved “the album is one long, efficient, inventive kick in the head,” while the Daily News agreed that YEEZUS was “punk in attitude, genius in execution.” Rolling Stone argued the album was “a brilliant, obsessive-compulsive career auto-correct…This isn’t just a way to stay ahead of the competition; it’s a way to stay ahead of himself.” The New Yorker echoed the sentiment, proclaiming YEEZUS as “technically breathtaking…Twenty years from now, West’s previous records will remain important, but a new generation may first gravitate to the lean vibrancy of this one.” USA Today weighed in with “…a polarizing, multi-layered body of work that probably will be debated all summer. Who does that besides Kanye West?”Entertainment Weekly summed things up with “Kanye West has gone rogue again. Did you expect anything less? The job of an innovator, of course, is to keep innovating…he pushes the envelope aesthetically.”
Kanye again pushed the envelope at the 30th anniversary 2013 MTV VMAs with his visually stunning, silhouetted performance of “Blood on the Leaves,” from YEEZUS. The performance made VMA history, marking Kanye’s seventh showcase at the awards spectacular, tying him with Madonna as the two artists with the most number of VMA performances. Kanye West has delivered some of the most visually stunning and memorable – and controversial – performances in the annals of the MTV VMAs.
West now readies his powerful, innovative live performance for his first major solo tour in five years.
KANYE WEST’S THE YEEZUS TOUR:
Date/City/Venue
Oct. 19 Seattle, WA @Key Arena * #
20 Vancouver, B.C. @Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena * #
22 San Jose, CA @SAP Center * #
23 Oakland, CA @Oracle Arena * #
25 Las Vegas, NV @MGM Grand Garden Arena * ^
26 Los Angeles, CA @STAPLES Center * #
Nov. 1 Salt Lake City, UT @EnergySolutions Arena * #
3 Denver, CO @Pepsi Center * #
5 Minneapolis, MN @Target Center * #
7 Chicago, IL @United Center * #
10 Detroit, MI @The Palace of Auburn Hills * #
12 Toronto, Ont. @Air Canada Centre * #
14 Montreal, Que. @Bell Centre #
16 Philadelphia, PA @Wells Fargo Center ^
17 Boston, MA @TD Garden * #
19 Brooklyn, NY @Barclays Center * ^
21 Washington, DC @Verizon Center #
23 New York, NY @Madison Square Garden * ^
29 Miami, FL @AmericanAirlines Arena * #
30 Tampa, FL @Tampa Bay Times Forum ^
Dec. 1 Atlanta, GA @Philips Arena #
6 Dallas, TX @American Airlines Center #
7 Houston, TX @Toyota Center #
* Tickets on sale Friday, September 13
# With Kendrick Lamar
^ Special Guest To Be Announced
