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Live: Kanye's Bullshit Charity Concert

So the other day Kanye West threw some sort of BS charity concert in his native Chicago. I believe it had something to do with education, though Kanye himself famously dropped out of school and has spent the entirety of his career mocking those who have chosen otherwise. My Chi-town Bureau Chief AB was in the building and filed the following report.

So I didn't hear about this Kanye West Foundation show at the House of Blues in Chicago until Tuesday of this week and by this point it was already sold out. I really didn't care too much as I had cooled on Kanye over the last few years. I loved College Dropout, but I thought he became completely batshit once Late Registration came out and lost touch with reality.

But then I figured this concert is in his hometown of Chicago, three weeks before, arguably, the biggest CD of his career drops (plus the H.O.B. is a great place for a show). I figured this would be a show to see. I was right.

I made a few phone calls and luckily secured some tickets.

Next door, at the Sax Hotel, they were holding a silent auction where Kanye and his Mom were auctioning off Kanye memorabilia and other junk for people willing to spend thousands of dollars to combat the High School dropout rate.

Whatever.

We got into the venue and were treated to the sounds of DJ Mano and "Hollywood" Hov. I had actually seen these guys open up for the Cool Kids show earlier in the week. I must admit Mano is a great DJ and Hollywood Hov did a good job keeping the crowd hype. However, the natives began getting restless and booing ol' Hollywood. People were ready for Kanye. I guess I could write a story about the crowd, due to the fact that this wasn't a crowd you'd expect to see at a rap concert. The tickets were $125 and up, so you get the idea.

Bring on the weed carriers!!!

But not just ordinary weed carriers, these were the GOOD Music weed carriers.

We were first treated to spoken word courtesy of Malik Yusef. No thank you. Thank god it was only for about 10 minutes. He did bring up Curtis and asked who was going to purchase the album. The crowd began chanting "Fuck 50 Cent". I didn't participate because that's just retarded.

Then out came Really Doe. Now, I really liked his verse on "We Major" but not so much the song that was on Kanyeeze's "Can't Tell Ne Nothin" mixtape. He only played the latter. As he was about to play his last song, presumably "We Major" he was yanked off stage. It was actually very funny...but not for Mr. Really Doe.

Up next was one of Kanye's most loyal weed carriers, GLC. Oh boy! He played a handful of songs I've never heard, including one with Three Six Mafia that uses an interpretation of "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands". None of his songs had the "Good Music Sound" of Kanye or Common, it sounded more like the Crank Dat guy. Kick rocks.

Then out of nowhere appears David Allen Grier (yes, that David Allen Grier) and some chick from Access Hollywood to announce that Kanye was coming and thanking everyone for participating. All I keep thinking about was Clavelle from Funky Finger Productions (word to In Living Color).

Then out of nowhere Mos Def appears. Yo!! The crowd goes wild. I heard a chick behind me go "Who's that?"...."oh the guy from Italian Job". Sure. He asks if we're ready for Kanye and then he disappears backstage.