Wireless Festival, Finsbury Park - music review: 'Kanye West's rants had audience booing'

The weekend festival offered a double dose of Kanye West who, despite being the biggest rapper in the world, was far from feel-good
Wrong wavelength: Kanye West performing at Wireless Festival (Picture: Joseph Okpako/Redferns via Getty)
Andre Paine11 July 2014

There was a double dose of Kanye West at Wireless after fellow headliner Drake pulled out due to illness. But the weekend festival must have proved a test of endurance for anyone who braved both nights of this mercurial, maddening rap star.

The move to north London for the 10th year of Wireless was certainly a trial for 45,000 fans who faced serious overcrowding outside Finsbury Park tube on the way home. Hyde Park was always more suited to this city festival.

At least the sun shone on the opening day. Tinie Tempah got the party started and Pharrell Williams's Happy provided a feel-good festival moment.

Masked: rapper Kanye West delivered snarling rhyme at the Wireless festival in Finsbury Park (Picture: Steve Gillett / Livepix)

Despite being the biggest rapper in the world, Kanye West was far from feel-good. Wearing a beaded mask, he set the uncompromising tone with Black Skinhead's dirty beats and snarling rhymes.

Fans lapped up his vocoder effects and ego-driven performance during twisted ballad Runaway – until his mid-song rant had them booing after 20 tiresome minutes.

Claiming the fashion industry discriminates against him, West made the absurd allegation that brands treated him "like a terrorist" when negotiating to employ his services.

He also suggested the media "control you with lies", a brazen remark from someone who's admitted spending four days retouching the flowers in his wedding photo with Kim Kardashian (the most liked Instagram image ever).

There was another rant at his second show, during which he railed against the paparazzi.

If Wireless showed the worst of West, it also had the best: the lovelorn Heartless, hip-hop spiritual Jesus Walks and Touch the Sky, featuring the unmasked rapper bouncing to his beats.

The melding of synths and Nina Simone sample for the finale of Blood on the Leaves suggested he might even be the genius he claims to be.

But one night of Kanye West was more than enough.

Latest music reviews

1/168

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in