What happens when Yeezus decides he’s going to perform in a 1,500 cap venue in downtown Manhattan? NYC becomes total, utter chaos.
When you live across from Webster Hall and Kanye causes a riot 💀 pic.twitter.com/TIG1b7z2kC
— Andrew Goldstein (@AngeGold) June 6, 2016
On June 5th, Kanye West was supposed to headline Governor’s Ball and play tracks from his recent album, The Life Of Pablo, but the third day of the festival was cancelled because of rain. Instead, Yeezy headed down to MetLife Stadium and played a short set at Summer Jam.
That wasn’t enough for the superstar, who’s artistic director Virgil Abloh wrote (and then promptly deleted) an Instagram caption about their plans to host a secret set at two a.m. Just before the clock hit midnight, 2 Chainz uploaded a Snapchat story confirming that Kanye would be performing at Webster Hall.
Just after midnight, West confirmed that it was happening, and it was completely sold out (the actual time stamp of this tweet is 12:02 a.m., though the embed is showing it as an hour later).
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/739683751127568384
Queue intense chaos and a near-riot as 4,000 people crowded the streets.
https://twitter.com/HipHopMindset/status/739700992334143488
People climbed on cars, smashed windows and were generally pretty rowdy.
https://twitter.com/SkylerShmyler/status/739724149996851200
At 1:45 a.m., Webster Hall shut the whole thing down. Womp, womp.
There is no late show at Webster Hall tonight. Please get home safely.
— Webster Hall (@WebsterHall) June 6, 2016
According to The New York Daily News, after the show was a no-go, West tried to convince city officials to let him play outside (they didn’t). In a clip from Kim Kardashian’s Snapchat story, Ye can be heard saying “Call the mayor and shut down the block.” Sadly, that was not happening even though the block was already completely shut down by the mass of people smashing car windows, making out in mail trucks and passing out in the street.
Instead, Kanye met fans through the sunroof of his car.
https://twitter.com/matthew_david92/status/739701734440882176
People chased him down the street as he tried to move to the next potential show location.
https://twitter.com/hiEricLiang/status/739703316490407936
After Webster Hall’s popup was squashed, West moved to the Trump Soho, where he tried to have another show, which also didn’t really workout.
TRUMP SOHO
POP UP
NOW.— DONDA (@DondaCreate) June 6, 2016
At this time, it was basically a lost cause.
Thanks to everyone. We tried pop up shows at 3 places. All shut down.
— MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) June 6, 2016
At around 3:45 a.m. Kim Kardashian snapped that the couple had given up. Even though it’s the city that never sleeps, Kanye’s got to get some shut eye (at least a little).
At the time of writing, New York is still currently nursing their hangover, and some people whose cars were parked overnight on the block woke up to a really unfortunate surprise.
