Kanye “Ye” West’s return to live performance is off to a rocky start. The errant rapper, producer and mogul’s concert in Shanghai, China on Friday night was beset by technical problems, terrible weather and thousands of people chanting for a refund after he began the show over 40 minutes late.
Ye, who rarely plays live these days due to an ongoing struggle to find willing concert partners not turned off by his many swirling controversies, returned to China last week after conducting a lucrative and highly viral listening party at the Wuyuanhe Stadium in Haikou, Hainan Province in September 2024. His hotly anticipated gig at Shanghai Stadium, planned in support of his forthcoming album Bully, was sold out within minutes, according to local reports, suggesting that the rapper’s various racism and social media controversies have not dimmed the enthusiasm of his Chinese fans.
The Global Times, a state-backed Chinese news outlet known for its nationalistic stance, reports that Ye’s gig was promoted as “an immersive, multisensory experience, promising innovative stage design, upgraded setlists, and international production teams.” The paper added that “promotional materials highlighted the show as a ‘comprehensive, genre-defying journey through Ye’s musical career, combining sound, light, visuals, and installations.’”
From the outset, the mood was challenged in Shanghai Stadium Friday night by heavy rain, which poured down upon the stage and the crowd through the arena’s open roof. The crowd grew increasingly restless at some point past the gig’s scheduled 7:30pm start time, with thousands eventually chanting for refunds. Ye finally arrived at around 8:10pm, walking out onto the stadium’s vast gray stage solo, wearing black leather pants and a gray hoodie with “China” written across the back. Fog, projections and spotlights set an austere mood reminiscent of some of his Donda stage design, but with even fewer visual elements. Occasionally, an enormous projection of Ye was beamed across the stage, while overhead screens featured additional reworked footage.
According to the Global Times, tickets to the gig were pricey by Chinese standards, ranging from 980 yuan (about $135) to 2,680 yuan ($375).
Videos circulating online in China show moments of Ye seemingly giving the performance his all despite the tough circumstances, throwing his body around to the beat and waving his arms wildly as he raps along to his hits. At other moments, he looks utterly defeated, such as when his most recent single, Losing Your Mind, booms through the stadium’s sound system, and he stops signing altogether and slowly walks off the stage. Local reports suggest the sound quality throughout the show was inconsistent at best.
Even while the concert was still underway, Ye became a trending topic on Chinese social media, sparking intense debate among fans. Some defended the rapper and blamed the setbacks on the weather, while others argued it was all a lazy display — or even a cynical ploy to cash in on China at a time when the rapper’s brand remains diminished throughout the West.
In a career marked out by an uncanny ability to stay in the news, Ye has upped the ante in 2025, seemingly leaning into his pariah status in the entertainment industry, and pop culture generally, with a series of hugely controversial music releases and public stunts. In March, the rapper released a track that credited vocals to Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was about to begin a federal sex trafficking trial. On June 13, Ye, who has been an outspoken defender of Combs, would also appear briefly at Combs’ trial and later that month he released Never Stop, an EP by Combs’ son Christian “King” Combs.
On the music side, in March, Ye revealed he would release an album titled WW3, which was subsequently changed to Cuck and later A Perfect World. The first single off his upcoming 13th studio album, was the single “WW3” with a cover image featuring a Ku Klux Klan hood. The second single “Cousins” was also controversial as its music video feature KKK iconography and a swastika. And finally, the third single was titled “Heil Hitler.”