­­

When Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West hit the stage on Saturday night, they turned Los Angeles into a M.A.A.D City with nothing but that G.O.O.D. Music.

The 26-year-old Compton born rapper Lamar and his band –yes a band with drums and guitar—stepped on stage in front of his home crowd at the Staples Center as if he was wearing a purple and gold uniform.

With complete confidence and swagger, Lamar opened up with the song “Money Trees,” getting the crowd on their feet rapping along with him to his nine-song set.

Then the rapper paid tribute to Los Angeles with the song “Compton,” thanking everyone in the building for the love and support while also thanking those die-hard fans who had supported him throughout his journey. Lamar followed with the songs “Backseat Freestyle” and “Fvckin’ Problem” causing everyone in the building to bounce off the walls.

But when he performed “M.A.A.D City” –my personal favorite—he had everyone in the stadium jumping and screaming “YAWK! YAWK! YAWK! YAWK!” barbarically setting the vibe for what was going to be an insane concert.

The sold-out Staples Center was filled with a plethora of fans that showed up to see the self-proclaimed “creative genius” known as: Ye, The Louis Vuitton Don, Yeezy, Konman, KANE, and Mr.West. But on Oct. 26, the “creative genius” wanted to be called “Yeezus.”

When one arrived to the Staples Center it was very easy to be confused by what type of event one might be attending.

It was easy to think you were either at a fashion competition or a funeral due to the fact that the majority of the people there were wearing all black dark clothing reflecting the “YEEZUS” album and the Kanye inspired black leather joggers. Then there were even those “hype beast” wearing the ridiculously over priced Nike “Yeezy”, street wear brands, and other expensive sneakers.

The lines inside the building were unbelievably long and not for food or drinks, rather for the tour merchandise. People waited anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour to buy a $35 TDE or YEEZUS T-shirt.

At exactly 9:50 p.m. the lights went off and everyone scattered from the hallways, concession stand lines, and bathrooms, as Yeezus was about to step on stage.

Like his album, Yeezus opened up with “On Sight,” “ New Slaves,” and “Send it Up,” sending a powerful yet mysterious message to the crowd with his masked face and his 12 female dancers that the majority of the time were basically naked wearing see-through, skin colored body suits.

He stepped back stage got dressed and changed the concert up with an all black mask. Moving away from the “Yeezus” album, he performed features like “Mercy,” “Theraflu,” and a crowd favorite “Don’t Like,” which made everyone look uncivilized when they were jumping up and down chanting along with him.

The screen behind the stage was elevated to a parallel direction with the floor that displayed a dark sky, as he stepped up on the white, snowy looking mountain.

Yeezus quickly turned into Yeezy when he took it back to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, performing “power.”

The audience responded by clapping along to the beat of the song and the flickering of the lights.

From Yeezus to Yeezy to Ye. Kanye took it even further back to the 808s & Heartbreak performing the greatest songs of the album “Heartless,” “Street Lights,” and “Love Lockdown.”
One of the greatest moments of the show was when Ye performed a song off 808s called “Coldest Winter,” which he wrote about his mother when she passed away.

He explained that this song was meaningful to him because like the song says he felt he “may never love again.” He sat down on the front end of the stage that was lifted high to resemble a cliff on a mountain.

As foam floated down from the top of the stadium he sang the lyrics. It appeared as if this fall concert had quickly turned into a winter concert in the matter of seconds.

The beautiful song which he performed sitting and lying let him reflect on time and gave everyone a chance to relax on what had up to this point been a non-stop, mad house.

Continuing into his concert the cliff dropped and the mountain split in half as the noise of thunder went off and fog filled the stage.

Yeezus took it way back to when he was The Louis Vuitton Don.

He brought out a man dressed as Jesus for the intro of the next song which is probably one of greatest songs, “Jesus Walks.” Every concert that Yeezus does it is a must that he performs “Though the Wire” and this time was no different. Everybody in the Staples Center had to be singing along to the lyrics of the song.

Towards the end of the show this “creative genius” stepped on stage with what was to be the last wardrobe change.

Stepping back on stage with the new Nike “Red Octobers” and a new mirror filled mask he performed “Stronger.”

Standing under a light that shot down a colorful yet powerful light, it reflected off his mask which went off around the entire building.

His final song was “Bound 2” which he performed with no mask allowing his audience to see his face, which he had hidden, basically the entire concert. He added that the crowd should dedicate the next song to a loved one.

Yeezus of course dedicated the song to his fiancé who was in the building.

After seeing Kanye West several times I would say that this is one of those must see concerts.

And if you unfortunately missed the two previous concerts you are in luck. The man rescheduled his Nov. 1 concert to Dec. 13.