Kanye West was the headliner at this year’s Paradise Music Festival, which took place this past weekend in Manila, Philippines. During his set, Kanye took the opportunity to run through some of his The Life Of Pablo cuts live for the first time, like “Famous,” “Ultralight Beam,” and “Waves.”
But that wasn’t all (I mean, this is a Kanye West set after all). During his performance, Ye also delivered a passionate speech about the importance of speaking the truth, regardless of how that will be perceived. “I had to fight every day of my life when the whole world turned against me for saying out loud what everyone else felt,” he said. “But that’s the job of an artist, of a true artist: not to be controlled by any finances, not to be controlled by perception, but only to be controlled by their truth.” Preach Yeezy.
“What I wanted you to know the whole time — you know, in the spirit of Nina Simone, in the spirit of real artists — 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 when I went onstage 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. So if I get in trouble for saying the truth, what’s being said the rest of the time?
And I had to fight every day of my life when the 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 any finances, not to be controlled by perception, but only to be controlled by their truth — what you see, what you feel, and say what you fucking feel.
You don’t know, it’s really overwhelming for me to perform this song for the first time and for you all to react to it in that way. That I fought to make that the first single off of Pablo. If you don’t mind I’d like to do this song one more time, can I do it one more time?”
He also delivered a “I Don’t Want To Be Liked” freestyle, where he reiterated his ideas of anti-conformity.
Watch his speech above (via Hypetrack), and fan footage clips of his performance, as well as the freestyle, below.
