The Design Evolution of Kanye West's Live Performances

Kanye West wants you to take him seriously as an artist and rightfully so. Since the release of his first album in 2004, Kanye has proven himself to be far more than a producer or a rapper, supported by his love for visual art and his ability to find and combine the best creatives—albeit architects, stage designers, art directors, or fashion designers—to accomplish something truly next-level.

Whether he's installing dancers choreographed by artist Vanessa Beecroft, working with first-class stage designer Es Devlin on five tours and multiple one-off shows, or patenting a seven-screen experience, he's serious about how he appears during live performances. What most people don't realize is that he's been working on the design of his live show for a while, often expanding on ideas he was executing back during The College Dropout and Touch the Sky tours, like performing on mountains and pyramids, having key guest performers like Chaka Khan, Jamie Foxx, and Daft Punk, and using naturalistic visuals with highly detailed attention to coloring and sequence.

Tomorrow, Kanye's Yeezus tour resumes in Philadelphia, so we went deep into the Internet to gather The Design Evolution of Kanye West's Live Performances, which includes his tours, awards show performances, SNL performances, VH1 Storytellers, and yeah, Dave Chappelle's block party. It's a wild journey that will teach you more about Kanye than you ever knew before, and you'll probably appreciate what he's done for music and culture more, too.

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The Design Evolution of Kanye West's Live Performances

**Editors note: Performances like the August 2005 NFL Opening Kickoff, 808s and Heartbreak Listening Party, the October 2013 Jimmy Fallon performance, the 2013 Met Gala performance Bonnaroo 2007, the MTV Youth Inaugural Ball, the Hurricane Sandy Benefit Concert in 2012, the Vertigo Tour, the October 2007 MOCA Los Angeles show, and various other festival shows were purposely excluded in order to give the best representation of Kanye's live performance evolution. Certain performances like the 808s and Heartbreak Listening Party, the October 2007 MOCA Los Angeles show, and the 2013 Met Gala were not well documented or have been similarly interpreted in other live shows.

Date: March 16, 2004 - May 5, 2004
Music performed: Get Well Soon... mixtape,The College Dropout

The College Dropout Tour followed the February 10, 2004 release of The College Dropout, Kanye's first album, which debuted at #2 and sold 500,000 copies in the first week. For his first solo tour, which started at Virginia Tech University and ended with three dates at the House of Blues in Chicago, Kanye made sure to go as big as possible (and we're not just talking about the private jet shown in A-Trak's documentary below).

From early on, Kanye demonstrated his perfectionism. The album had been delayed since August 2003, and the tour experienced similar hiccups in planning. With Kanye, though, most have learned that the wait is always worth it. He went on tour, brought the collegiate theme with him (Dropout bear included), and performed in front of a multi-part LED screen (from the images, it looks like seven screens, perhaps a precursor to the seven-screen experience he patented earlier this year). Dilated Peoples opened for him, GLC and John Legend joined the tour, and the rest is both history and a solid foundation for bigger stage design once Kanye got more fans and resources to execute his dreams.

Date: August 29, 2004
Music performed: "Jesus Walks," "All Falls Down," and "Through The Wire"

Date: September 18, 2004
Music performed: “Jesus Walks”

In 2004, Dave Chappelle booked Kanye to perform at his legendary Block Party in Brooklyn. Kanye had released his debut album The College Dropout the February before, and for his performance in Brooklyn, Kanye rapped “Jesus Walks” along with a marching band, The Roots, and John Legend. Other performances that day included Common, Erykah Badu, and the reunion of the Fugees, but as Rolling Stone wrote earlier this year, it was Kanye “who managed to steal the show" with a stage design that went off the stage and into the streets, continuing to follow the collegiate themes of his first LP.

Date: August 28, 2005
Music performed: “Gold Digger”

Kanye began his 2005 VMA performance with Jamie Foxx on a rotating, circular stage, as the two wore suits and sunglasses (we're not sure when Foxx decided to unbutton his shirt, but by the end, it happened). The technicolor performance contained vibrant background screens and ceiling pieces, making it seem like a flashy Miami party (complete with dollar bills flying from the sky). Lady dancers get on stage towards the end, and the classy "Gold Digger" debauchery is complete.

The stage, and their stage presence, showed the fun side of Kanye, even in the context of more serious songs and interviews. The suit also contrasted his previous on-stage look of a college student in a polo and a backpack, signalling the new chapter and a new album, Late Registration.

Date: October 12, 2005 - December 11, 2005
Stage designer: Es Devlin
Music performed: The College Dropout, Late Registration

Kanye announced his Touch the Sky tour with the following statement, "Performing live is the reason why we make this music, spend so much time and thought and craft on it...It's never been about the critics or the album sales. It's about the fans, and I love having the opportunity to bring this music—that I've poured my heart and soul into—to them. I think about how audiences are going to respond to hooks and intros and certain lines when I'm in the studio recording. Bringing these songs to the stage is the ultimate fulfillment of the creative process."

Kanye continued to show his focus on visuals, whether it be his flashy, unpredictable clothing choices or the type treatments on his packaging and stages. After kicking off the Touch the Sky tour in Miami, fans learned that he had revamped the stage design only two weeks before (reportedly, because he didn't like the lighting). An MTV reporter overheard him yell the following to his initial designer over the phone, "The visual...I'm not excited about going on tour. All y'all have is moving lights!" A colleague Richard Brown suggested that he work with Es Devlin, and the problem was solved. Devlin has been his stage designer ever since, notably designing the Glow in the Dark tour, Kanye's 2010 BET Awards performance, the Watch the Throne tour, and the current Yeezus tour.

Kanye had Fantasia, Keyshia Cole, and Common open for him, although Common dropped off the tour at various points. At one point, Common said, "Me and Kanye's mothers are in the crowd. My stepfather is in the crowd throwing up the diamond. It's a beautiful moment in history."

For only his second tour, Kanye was sure to make it memorable and technically sound. He showed fans that he isn't just a rapper—he's a visionary with a greater aesthetic plan. He told the same MTV reporter, 

I want people [seeing the Touch the Sky show] to feel inspired. I want them to go to work the next day and feel like they can take whatever they're doing to another level. It's not just about sitting there being in awe. Making the world better—that's one of our missions with music and with visuals. So my pain is everybody else's pleasure—how I stress, how I was up all last night, how I'm about to kill myself because it's not perfect. Well, maybe people can feel that when they're in the audience, like, 'Yoooooo! This really took a lot of time. He really put a lot of work in this.' Anyone that's ever been backstage or seen a lot of shows is gonna give this show credit for being so different.

When asked about what shows he grew up liking or watching, he said, "Visually, there was nothing that captured me. I have a really high bar and low tolerance. How small my gauge is for what's good is what makes me the artist I am today. Basically, I think 99 percent of the shit is wack. I don't want to be in that 99 percent."

Hong Kong on November 28, 2006:

Date: February 15, 2006
Set designer: Vanessa Beecroft
Music performed: "Diamonds From Sierra Leone," "Gold Digger," "Touch the Sky"

Seventy-seven backup dancers, spray-painted gold from head to toe, sashayed confidently onto the stage, joining Kanye as he rapped, "If you ain't no punk, holla we want prenup!" from "Gold Digger." The backup dancers, whose performance and appearance were conceptualized by artist Vanessa Beecroft, walked and posed confidently on their makeshift runway, parading their glitzy, barely-clad bodies. Meanwhile, Kanye continued to deliver an equally energetic and tireless show, one which most consider to be indicative of his future direction in stage design.

Date: September 9, 2007
Music performed: “Good Life”

While Kanye's 2007 VMAs performance of "Good Life" with T-Pain at the Palms Suite looks like a big, fun party, Yeezy expressed anger and disappointment after the fact that he didn't get the main stage, and that he was "robbed" in the Best New Artist category. He said, "I wasn't mad that I just didn't win any awards. For me, [MTV] made it seem like performing on the main stage was a bad thing, and the suites were just so great. It was my dream when I made 'Stronger' to open up the VMAs with a real power performance."

Kanye has been vocal about this kind of frustration for years, and it hasn't necessarily stopped (He also said, "Justin [Timberlake]'s my boy, but even he gets to perform in both a suite and on the main stage? Something's wrong here."). While he nailed a festive, upbeat performance in an untraditional hotel room setting, at the time he said he would "never return to MTV." The flipside to a performance many people probably liked and found cool is the undeniable fact that it wasn't enough for Kanye, and such dissatisfaction propelled his future sets into further, more untouchable territories, as a result.

Date: September 29, 2007
Music performed: “Champion,” “Everything I Am”

Kanye West began his 2007 performance on SNL with the song “Champion” from the release of his third album Graduation only 18 days before. There are rectangular flashing lights and a blue background before Kanye emerges in a red sweater, gold chain, and scarf. At what feels like the climatic point of the song, the lights shift to red and the song changes to “Everything I Am.” 

Rolling Stone noted after this performance that, “For a time, West stood as the sole current pop star to tour with a string section.” This string section defined the song, but when he got to the part where the lines that are supposed to say, “I never rock a mink coat in the winter like Killa Cam, or rock some mink boots in the summer time like Will.I.Am,” Kanye mixed up the two seasons and follows by breaking out in a freestyle. His freestyle lyrics even addressed the mess-up by saying, “I just messed up on my rap, live TV like damn,” and “Yo, I meant to freestyle, I meant to mess up.” 

Kanye proved himself a master of improvisation and next-level stage design, even on SNL where the sets are typically forced to be simplistic and uninteresting.

Date: February 10, 2008
Music performed: “Stronger,” “Hey Mama”

For the 50th annual Grammy Awards, Kanye did two of his strongest and most iconic performances yet—one for "Stronger" with Daft Punk and another alone for "Hey Mama," which was dedicated to his late mother, Donda West, who had died only four months before. Both were emotional performances in their own ways, and the stage designs were huge factors in their individual successes.

For "Stronger," Kanye ushered in the "Glow in the Dark" era, one where neons, saturated colors, bursts of fire, shutter shades, and glowing instruments and clothing were his preferred aesthetic. Daft Punk performed in a pyramid behind him with violinists in the background. The connection between Kanye's brand of futuristic music and landscapes and Daft Punk's own futurism was absolutely perfect. If you didn't like "Stronger" initially, this performance would have changed your mind.

For "Hey Mama," Kanye appeared alone on a dark stage, void of the color from his first performance, with a fading image of an angelic woman behind him on a large screen. The pared down stage revealed his vulnerability and sadness, which was all the more meaningful in contrast to his previously grand, decorated setups. 

This Grammy performance emphasized Kanye's duality, one that has set him apart from all rappers and musicians for a long time. His stage design continued to be integral to his reception, and his attention to visuals and a range of musical representation has launched him further into the realm of an icon than anyone could have imagined.

"Stronger":

"Hey Mama":

Date: April 16, 2008 - December 7, 2008
Production designers: Kanye West, Es Devlin, Martin Phillips, John McGuire
Lighting designers: Martin Phillips, John McGuire
Music performed: The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, 808s and Heartbreak

Few knew that Kanye's mind-blowing Glow in the Dark tour would be his last solo one for a very long time. Those who were lucky enough to see it witnessed a total artistic experience—one where the stage design and set list intertwined to create the narrative of Kanye coming to Earth on a spaceship. Kanye led the production design himself, also enlisting the help of veterans and frequent collaborators Es Devlin, Martin Phillips, and John McGuire to create original visuals, stages (one resembling a giant moon), props (including a giant monster and a robot for "Gold Digger"), and light sequences.

It was a huge success, so much that the tour got its own book, Glow in the Dark, photographed by Nabil Elderkin with behind-the-scenes planning and sketching for both Kanye and opening acts N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco, and Rihanna. 

Entrance:

"Spaceship":

"Gold Digger":

Date: September 7, 2008 (MTV Video Music Awards) November 6, 2008 (MTV European Music Awards 2008)
Music performed: “Love Lockdown,” "American Boy"

For both the 2008 MTV VMAs and EMAs, Kanye performed "Love Lockdown" off of 808s and Heartbreak. The VMA performance was the first time the world heard both the song and this new minimal pop direction, where Kanye famously dove into autotune (and as it appears on his subsequent albums through Yeezus, has not stopped). Kanye wore his grey glen plaid suit and broken heart-shaped pin, which became the uniform for this album. Red lights soaked the stage, and live drummers in masks formed the background. It was hard to deny that Kanye's experimentation had all the elements of making him a first-rate popstar.

During the EMAs two months later in Liverpool, Kanye took the stage to another level entirely. Wearing an all-white suit on an all-white stage, with a gleaming spotlight behind him giving off violet hues, Kanye brought the emotional destruction of the song even harder than before. Eventually the dark purple lights come in, projections of nearly formless dancers wrap the circular stage, and it goes stark white again. The audience feels the emotional journey throughout.

After "Love Lockdown" at the EMAs, Kanye and Estelle performed "American Boy," and at the end, a picture of then-U.S. President-elect, Barack Obama, was put on the screens. Kanye did what he had done at the Grammys earlier that year—shown the many sides of his musical and visual selves and that he wouldn't stop innovating anytime soon.

"Love Lockdown" at the VMAs:

"Love Lockdown" at the EMAs:

"American Boy" featuring Estelle at the EMAs:

Date: November 23, 2008
Music performed: “Heartless”

Kanye’s 2008 American Music Awards performance was in many ways a live version of the “Heartless” video. The recreated scene has a Harajuku, Tokyo-like vibe, showing bright neon signs on dark spaces. The background signs shine bright with lyrics and the tracklist from 808s and Heartbreak.

Scattered around the stage, three doll-like background dancers in red made minimal movements. West and his label had been hyping up the possible release of a Kanye clothing line for years, and he debuted an outfit from the line, Pastelle, at the performance (the line never actually came to fruition).

Date: December 14, 2008
Music performed: “Love Lockdown,” “Heartless / Pinocchio Story”

For his third appearance on SNL, Kanye performed songs from 808s and Heartbreak including "Love Lockdown" and "Heartless" mixed into "Pinocchio Story." During "Love Lockdown," Kanye began with a dark red light on himself and a starry night sky visual in the background. During "Heartless," the Hype Williams-directed video, which uses rotoscope animation, played in the background. "Pinocchio Story" blended scenes from the "Heartless" video with twilight skies, signalling Kanye's move into more naturistic visuals following the Glow in the Dark tour.

"Love Lockdown":

“Heartless / Pinocchio Story”:

Date: February 2009
Stage designers: Es Devlin
Lighting designers: Martin Phillips, John McGuire
Music performed: “Nightmare,” “Robocop,” “Flashing Lights,” “Amazing,” “Say You Will,” “Stronger,” “Good Life,” “Heartless,” “Touch the Sky”

Following in the footsteps of the 2008 Glow in The Dark Tour, Kanye created a more simplified set design that reflected the empty, emotion-filled atmosphere of 808s & Heartbreak for VH1 Storytellers, which was filmed in February but aired on March 1, 2009. During most of the performance, screens projected visuals in the background, and a bigger floating square above the stage illuminated the main performance stage with occasional red beams dashing around Kanye. It could be argued that the square light box above the main stage influenced the 60-foot circular LCD screen of the current Yeezus Tour. 

Date: September 12, 2010
Music performed: "Runaway" featuring Pusha T

When Kanye performed "Runaway" with Pusha T at the VMAs, it was his official comeback moment and the introduction of new music from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. It was the first time the world saw the ballerinas he'd employ in many shows to come, including on Saturday Night Live (October 2, 2010), at Coachella, at Revel in July 2012, and beyond. His MPC stood on a Greek column podium, and he was positioned on the black floor as if on a sundial. At the end of the performance, sparks came down in the background, which also happened at his Coachella performance. Bringing ballerinas together with hip-hop was an artistic meeting of worlds that will never be forgotten.

Date: November 25, 2010
Music performed: “Lost in the World”

With five acclaimed albums under his belt by November 2010, it was only a matter of time before Kanye West got to perform on his very own float. For the 84th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Kanye cruised through the streets of Manhattan on New York Daily News' Big Apple float. The float, which has been a part of Macy's holiday procession for over 25 years, is composed of a 30-foot big apple, miniature versions of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Macy's, and the signature yellow taxi cabs. A perfect depiction of New York City's energy, the float served as an ideal platform for Kanye's lively performance of "Lost in the World."

Date: October 2, 2010 (Saturday Night Live), April 17, 2011 (Coachella), May 20, 2011 (Mawazine World Rhythms Music Festival), August 7, 2011 (Big Chill), September 16, 2011 (Austin City Limits), January 22, 26, and 29, 2012 (Big Day Out Festival)
Stage designer: Es Devlin
Music performed: The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, 808s and Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Coachella and Kanye's subsequent festival shows post-My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy were important for many reasons, especially because they were in place of a tour for the album, which was his first LP post-VMAs/Taylor Swift incident.

Es Devlin helped design a tremendously extravagant yet very modern stage. A giant image of a relief panel featuring Athena and Nike fighting Alkyoneus as Gaia rises set the stage for a classically influenced performance containing bustling ballerinas (reminiscent of the "Runaway" performances" and 30-minute film) and slithering synths. The story of Alkyoneus is that he was immortal only as long as he touched the ground, where the power of his mother could flow within him, likely honoring Kanye's late mother, Donda West.

Kanye continued to show his interest in bridging past and the present visual art with his old and new music, as well. The result was powerful, especially during the shows where he began on a lifted crane in the back of the crowd, symbolizing his epic return.

Date: October 29, 2011 - June 22, 2012
Stage designers: Es Devlin, Kanye West, DONDA, Bruce Rodgers
Lighting designers: Nick Whitehouse, John McGuire
Video designer: Geodezik
Music performed: Watch the Throne, various songs from Kanye and Jay Z's solo albums

Kanye and Jay Z's Watch the Throne tour was well documented, thanks to the short-lived VOYR series of videos released by Kanye through subscription towards the end of the tour. Jay Z and Kanye rapped on LED-lit cubes suspended hundreds of feet in the air, displayed the American flag during "Otis," had shark, rottweiler, crow, tiger, and other animal visuals, and launched stunning laser and fire sequences.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Es Devlin said that her directive from Kanye was, “Attenborough BBC wildlife content and lasers.” She gave him just that, and the overall effect was grandiose, further proving that the partnership between Kanye and Es Devlin is a groundbreaking one. It doesn't hurt that the tour grossed $47 million either.

Date: November 30, 2011
Music performed: “Stronger”

In 2011, Kanye West took on the runway of the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, voicing a tribute to his mother before performing “Stronger” while VS Angels walked down the catwalk. Jay Z then joined Kanye on the runway to rap “N**gas in Paris.” For the show, Kanye wore a bomber jacket from the Versace for H&M Men’s Collection, leather pants, and his then-unreleased Air Yeezy 2 sneakers. Jay rocked all-over Givenchy, but of course, the models stole the spotlight.

Date: July 1, 2012
Music performed: “Mercy, "Cold,” "New God Flow"

Date: December 28, 29, and 30, 2012
Stage designers: Es Devlin, Kanye West, DONDA
Photography: Nabil / DONDA
Music performed: The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, 808s and Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Date: May 15, 2013
Music performed: "Good Life," "Jesus Walks," "Can't Tell Me Nothing," "All Of The Lights," "Mercy," Cold," "I Am a God," "Awesome"

The pyramid set at Kanye's Adult Swim Upfront 90-minute performance was a brilliant combination and enhancement of stage designs he's used before. He used a pyramid during his Grammy performance with Daft Punk in 2008, and he used projections and visuals of crows, rottweilers, clouds, and lightning during his Met Gala performance only a few days before, his Revel shows in Atlantic City in December 2012, and the Watch the Throne tour. Add the pyramid and projections together with strobes, fog, and intermittent larger-than-life visuals of Kanye, and you have the design captured on many an Instagram and Vine. What better structure for a god to perform in than a pyramid? Cleary this is something Kanye's gotten right from the start, and it's continued to the mountain he performs on during the current Yeezus tour.

Entrance:

"Can't Tell Me Nothing":

Saturday Night Live

Date: May 18, 2013
Music performed: "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves"

Kanye performed on the Saturday Night Live season finale for the fifth time in his career and brought his new visuals with him. With the exception of private performances for Adult Swim's Upfront and the Met Gala, this is the first time the world got to see him perform new material in its entirety from the new album, Yeezus.

The backdrop for both songs featured flashing images of vintage price-tags (saying "Not For Sale," "1/2 Price," "New Taste," and more), rottweilers (reminiscent of the Watch the Throne visuals), the same KKK-looking hats from his "Runaway" video (this time in black), and a previously recorded visual of his eyes that took over the screen. It was a simpler approach than the one he took in 2010, but it was just as effective in signaling his return, and, you know, #YeezySeason.

"Black Skinhead":

"New Slaves":

Date: June 9, 2013
Music performed: The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, 808s and Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezus

As the much-anticipated final act of Governors Ball 2013, Kanye West opened his performance at Randall's Island with the familiar tune of "Black Skinhead" and its thundering drums blaring in the audience's ears. Before the audience, a flashing orange orb with the words "Not For Sale" flickered furiously on the back screen, before abruptly cutting to black. Immediately afterwards, the backdrop flared into a projection of a three-headed dog, which viewers saw at Kanye's controversial SNL performance just weeks before, and the music resounded, finally bringing Kanye out.

As Kanye rapped the words to songs from his latest masterpiece Yeezus and more recent albums, as well as classic hits from Late Registration and The College Dropout, the backdrop behind him exploded into projections of figures clad in black Ku Klux Klan Hoods and other symbolic images. Though much of Kanye's set design from Governors Ball conveyed the darker language from Yeezus, the visuals also fade into graphic, lively, almost Warhol-esque projections, featuring the palette from his earlier albums like Graduation. At one point during the night, the backdrop even transformed into an airplane runway. The striking visuals, together with the debut of three new songs from Yeezus, made his Governors Ball 2013 show an unforgettable one.

"Black Skinhead":

"Good Life" / "Send It Up" / "All Falls Down" / "Stronger"

Date: August 25, 2013
Stage designers: Steve McQueen
Music performed: “Blood on the Leaves”

Many people were expecting a laser-filled, high-energy performance for Kanye's performance of "Black Skinhead" at the VMAs (instead, they got Miley twerking and Kanye doing "Blood on the Leaves"). Kanye delivered energy, but no one expected such a stripped down stage design for a live MTV performance, especially on the heels of Yeezus' big, projection-filled rollout and release.

Director Steve McQueen's Lynching Tree photograph filled TV screens around America while a backlight Kanye West performed the controversial song sampling Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit." Kanye wanted people to focus on the meaning behind the image, because just before the performance started, he tweeted a link to his website with the explanation and source of the photograph. He expanded on these manifold meanings of slavery, both past and present, in his recent interview with Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1.

Just when you think you know Kanye's next move, on stage or off, he does something powerful and unforgettably minimal like "Blood on the Leaves" at this year's VMAs.

Date: Sept. 17, 2013 (Later…with Jools Holland) and Sept. 23, 2013 (Le Grand Journal)
Music performed: "Bound 2," "New Slaves," and “Blood on the Leaves” (Later…with Jools Holland) / “Black Skinhead” (Le Grand Journal)

Kanye lucked out by taking a minimalist approach to his stage designs for the Later...with Jools Holland and Le Grand Journal performances. All that was required to make the perfect atmosphere for a music-focused album were a few spotlights and screens showing closeups of Kanye performing. Though on two different shows, the execution of a minimalist stage design, focused on camera angles and black and white imaging, resonates as timeless more than reiterative. 

"New Slaves" on Later…with Jools Holland:

"Black Skinhead" on Le Grand Journal:

Date: October 19, 2013 - December 23, 2013
Stage designers: Es Devlin and DONDA
Music performed: The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, 808s and Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezus

When Kanye dropped the much-anticipated album Yeezus this summer, rumors about the rapper’s solo tour began to swirl, and fans went wild when Kanye finally announced on Twitter that he would be touring the country. Long time design collaborator, Es Devlin, was called on to do the stage design for the tour, and she created something impressive enough to match Kanye’s explosive performance.

Yeezus kicked off on Oct. 19 in Seattle where Kanye opened with “On Sight” in a custom-made mask that obscured his whole face. During different points in the performance, Kanye stands illuminated by beams of light that give him an expectedly godly glow. In fact, while Kanye sings “Jesus Walks,” an actor appears as the reincarnation of Jesus on stage.

For the tour, Devlin constructed a mountain on stage, which was wreathed in digital flames for “Blood on Leaves.” During “Guilt Trip,” creepy women in long white dresses walked up the mountain's ramps. The women are reminiscent of Vanessa Beecroft’s work, an artist who has worked with Kanye in the past for the 30-minute Runaway film and also during his listening party for 808s and Heartbreak. We wouldn't be surprised if Beecroft had a hand in arranging the dancers, who, in full nude bodysuits, appear in many of Kanye’s sets.

Just 11 days on the road, Kanye’s tour momentum screeched to a halt when a truck carrying custom-made screens and equipment crashed on the road to Vancouver on Oct. 30. Yeezus will begin again tomorrow, Nov. 16 in Philadelphia.

"I Am a God" in Oakland, Calif.

"Blood on the Leaves" in Oakland, Calif.

"Jesus Walks" in Seattle

"Send it Up" in Oakland, Calif.