Just four days after canceling his headlining performance at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami on July 22, Kanye West still showed up and performed with Lil Durk.
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Wearing a pair of shades covering his eyes and black paint on his face, West surprised the audience when he stepped on stage to perform “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” from his 2016 Life of Pablo album with Durk.
Coincidentally, Kid Cudi, who stepped into West’s slot at Rolling Loud after his cancellation, was also performing the same day that West surprised festival-goers. Cudi ended up storming off the stage 30 minutes into his set after audience members started throwing bottles and other items at him. At around the time Cudi ended his set, West was going on with Lil Durk.
Though the two were once friends and collaborators, they recently had a major falling out. Cudi said that he refuses to work with Ye again and added, “I am not cool with that man.” There is some speculation that West chose to perform “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” to poke at Cudi, who is featured on the album version of the song.
On July 18, West pulled out of his headlining appearance at the Rolling Loud, days before he was scheduled to perform. “We were looking forward to Ye headlining Rolling Loud Miami 2022,” said Rolling Loud co-founders Tariq Cherif and Matt Zingle in a statement, also mentioning Kid Cudi as his replacement. “We spent months working with him and his team on the performance. Unfortunately, Ye has decided that he will no longer be performing. This is the first time a headliner has ever pulled off our show and though we don’t take it lightly, we wish him the best.”
Earlier this year, West also pulled out of his Coachella headlining slot for personal reasons.
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