[ot-caption title=”The stage and lighting design of the Saint Pablo Tour gave an atmosphere to the show that was understated yet surreal. (via Anastasia Golovkine, senior)”]

Kanye West stopped by Miami’s America Airlines Arena for two nights on September 16 and 17 on his Saint Pablo Tour and drew in huge crowds, including many Pine Crest students. Anyone who witnessed the Saint Pablo Tour could see that it was a definite shift away from Kanye’s signature performance style, if not, a complete redefinition thereof.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Kanye West is a name that has transcended countless divides, carrying a reputation that precedes the artist himself. Indeed, West’s past tours have fit his theatrical and aguish-filled brand; the Glow in the Dark Tour circulated around a dramatic narrative of him lost in space and the Yeezus Tour featured West in a “diamond-encrusted Margiela mask… surrounded by priestesses in nude bodysuits” with “cameos from a red-eyed demon and Jesus Christ,” according to Complex.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Kanye West departed from the enormous mountain of his Yeezus Tour and the grounded spaceship of his Glow in the Dark Tour. He chose to use the hovering stage, previously used by artists such as Drake and Taylor Swift, while simultaneously taking it to the next level. With a large panel of ceiling lights and thick smoke permeating through the arena, Saint Pablo’s minimal aesthetic was indisputably Kanye-like: riskier, edgier, and larger-than-life. The hovering stage and his absence of a stream-of-conscious monologue, also signaled a shift of focus from the rapper to his fans. Usually deemed as narcissistic, West was concealed throughout the show by the smoke. Pine Crest senior Andre Radensky attended the Miami performance and shared his experience with the moving stage.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

“The stage was crazy- it moved all around,” Andre Radensky said. “It really spoke to the new style of performance that Kanye’s been using in the tour, really interacting with the audience and creating a sense of community.“[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

The usual anguish that characterized the rapper was absent in this performance. By omitting the slow and moody songs of the Life of Pablo album, Kanye West promoted a more uplifting essence in the crowd with upbeat, celebratory hits such as Touch the Sky and Stronger. This new atmosphere was different than his past tours, and Pine Crest senior Parsa Hoghoogi commented about the theme of the show.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

“Kanye interacted a lot with the audience throughout the whole thing,” Parsa Hoghoogi said. “His main message ‘all dreams matter’ was kind of the running theme, but he also had a lot of funnier quotes, like his water bottle tweet.”[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

The average Saint Pablo tour show lasts around 90 minutes, the shortest of West’s three tours. One can’t help but wonder: why the changes? Why the shift from egotism to community, from theatrics to minimalism, from the celebration of the self to the celebration of the music?[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

The man has always been known to be an enigma, but with the large success of his new album, his Yeezy clothing line, and his career in general, these changes seem to be the result of fulfillment. Having already proven himself as an iconic musical artist, an in-demand fashion designer, and a father to North and Saint West, perhaps Kanye has been relieved of the pressure to constantly be more intriguing, more original, more compelling than his competition.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Rather than continual self-exaltation, the Saint Pablo tour was, at its core, a celebration, a moment of triumph shared between the artists and his fans. There is no need to pull large theatrics and go off on twenty-minute rants to capture the attention of the public because he’s already accomplished that. Now, Kanye West is able to step away from the theatrics of his past and come forth as he truly is: unapologetically human.[spacer height=”20px”]

Sources: Complex, Setlist.fm, The Guardian