Halfway through his set at the Marquee in Cork, Kanye West paid tribute to Michael Jackson. While he was at it, he had a pop at the media for putting the erstwhile king of pop ‘on trial’ over the latter part of his career.
A couple of years ago, Kanye himself seemed well-positioned to wrench the pop crown from Jacko, such was the buzz about the guy. On tonight’s evidence, he still has a shot at the title.
Before his own slot, early birds were treated to the sight of Kanye in his civvies, rapping with the impressive support act, Kid Cudi. He then arrived back looking pretty damn cool, silhouetted against space-age visuals and flanked by prostrated ladies who, from where I was standing, appeared to be naked and painted gold.
The set was a decent mix of old and new. ‘Stronger’, ‘Good Life’, ‘American Boy’ and ‘Love Lockdown’ had the enraptured audience enthusiastically waving their arms in the air. I’d heard dark mutterings that he was somewhat half-assed last time he played Cork, but he gave it socks tonight, to the point of waving a tri-colour and proclaiming Cork the ‘best city in the world’.
Kanye’s rapping remains a bit watery for my liking – tonight there was so much Autotune I half expected Cher to arrive out for a duet. But he definitely has the tunes, and if he’s playing like this every night on tour, he is going to convert a lot of naysayers.