It’s another big night for Kanye West.
Before unleashing his ninth studio album Yandhi—his third full-length release within the past four months—the Chicago rapper returned to the Saturday Night Live stage as the season opener’s musical guest. And just as we all expected, his gig was a star-studded event.
Kanye performed "I Love It," with Lil Pump, along with a new song with Teyana Taylor called "We Got Love" that was originally a track for Taylor's album but didn't make it because of a clearance issue involving Lauryn Hill. Check out the performances below via Mr. World Premiere.
Kanye also brought out Kid Cudi and 070 Shake to perform "Ghost Town."
Before the episode’s broadcast, it was reported that Kanye had tapped Spike Jonze to assist the performances’ creative direction.
If you missed the SNL season premiere, you can catch Kanye and friends do their thing in the videos above and below—something to hold you over while we wait for Yandhi to arrive.
The project, believed to be a sequel to 2013’s Yeezus, was announced two weeks ago on social media. Since then, Kanye has provided little tastes of what he would deliver, playing unfinished cuts, sharing snippets on social media, and confirming guest artists like 6ix9ine and the late XXXTentacion.
Shortly before his SNL appearance, Kanye announced he was changing his name simply to “Ye,” which was also the title of his eighth studio album.
The rapper spoke about the moniker during an interview with Big Boy earlier this year.
“I believe 'ye' is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible, it means 'you,'" West said about his decision to name his project after himself. “So I’m you, I’m us, it’s us. It went from Kanye, which means the only one, to just Ye—just being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, everything. The album is more of a reflection of who we are.”
