After receiving pretty good reception from Reddit on the story of how I met Kanye West, his wife and Pusha T, I thought I’d add it to my site in an easier to read format with photos.

I had pre-bought early entry ticket which allowed access to the arena before all other GA tickets, this was my first concert so I wanted to be front row and have the best experience possible. After waiting 6 hours since 9AM I ended up being the first one to receive the early entry wristband. FYI IF you want to stand front row at a Kanye concert (or anyone around his popularity) it’s probably ideal to get there in the morning if the doors open anywhere around 7:30PM concert. Bearing in my mind this was in Melbourne.

After receiving our bands our spots were saved and we had about 2 hours to kill. A small group of us took a taxi to the pop up store Kanye and his team opened only a couple of hours ago in Chapel St. After seeing the long line of 30-40 people we begun to doubt whether we were going to make it back in time. They only let in a a very small group of people in at a time, after waiting 15-20 min we finally enter around 4PM.

By the time we get I immediately notice the store is stark white from floor to ceiling, very minimalist and grunge at the same time. Very Yeezy – blended well with the aesthetic of the clothing line. A dirt bike sat in the middle of the floor for whatever crazy ass reason.

I notice Jerry Lorenzo and Virgil Abloh both in the room, unfortunately I was no where as knowledgeable on fashion and clothing as I am now, so I had no idea who was standing in front of me at the time! I remember asking Jerry about his shoes thinking they were visvim, I was wrong, I can’t remember what he said but I felt sufficiently foolish and out of my depth asking what his involvement with Kanye and the clothing was.

Jerry Lorenzo (Above in the middle wearing the white Yeezus tee)

After browsing some of the merchandise for 10 min one of the staff stops me and tells me….’turn around’,

Next thing I see is Kanye West and his wife walk in.

Standing across the other side of the room I look on in awe as I’m trying to comprehend how I managed to find myself in a private room with Kanye West. Being my favorite artist it’s hard to describe the the mix of emotions you would feel in the moment but I forced myself to remain calm on the outside, even if I was slightly losing it on the inside. The main motivater to keep my composure was from looking at the group of people I was with, they were visibly losing their shit as most would. I was trying not to. The great thing was, there was only 4-5 of us ‘fans’ in the room at the time. In the 10 min of browsing everyone else had left so it was just us and the half dozen people who worked there plus Virgil and Jerry. Understandably they didn’t let anyone else in either after Kanye and Kim walked in.

Kanye greets Jerry, Virgil and he’s cousin Tony Williams I walk up to Kanye, shake his hand and compliment the clothing line.

He greets me with a smile and I/we ask him for a photo thinking he’ll say yes because it’s just us in a room and no one else is coming in. But he said “no individual photos because then he’d have to take it for everyone” Pascal said the same thing in a much less nice Yeezy way.

Meeting him in this situation made me understand why people say he’s shy, because as the other people I was with were having their ‘fan girl’ moment telling him how much of an idol he was to them he seemed somewhat uncomfortable and quiet. Nevertheless he still smiled and seemed to appreciate what was being said.

I left Kanye alone and go greet Kim and introduce myself. I’ve never thought about what she’d be like in person so my only idea of her was the cliche stereotypes which were subsequently wrong. In my short interaction with her she seemed sweet and friendly to talk.

She was checking out the cloths, so I ask what her favorite piece was – she loved the long sleeve which was one of the pieces I ended up buying.

Kanye walks over to Kim as I’m talking to her probably thinking ‘whats this nigga doing talking to my woman’. Eventually Kim walks off and its just me and Kanye standing there in front of the rack as he was checking out the different tees. I was generally curious so I asked what inspired the skulls/devil/demonic dark style and if it was inspired by anything in his music or his life now. Now I’m expecting some succinct, but really deep answer but all he simply said was

“I really liked it, I just really liked”

Yeezy smile with half Yeezy chuckle

After about 15-20 min of being in the store with them we looked at the time and realised we might not make it back to the arena in time. I go shake Kanye’s hand one more time, say goodbye and thank him as we leave. Literally 5-10 seconds after we walk out Kanye and Kim follow behind (Kanye clearly following my lead) and there are hundreds of people outside swarming them as Pascal is pushing people at the way protecting them from the flashing lights of cameras and elated fans. They get in the car and drive off as were left standing there like we have got to be some the luckiest people. The timing was perfect. If we were 5 min later or 5 min earlier we probably wouldn’t have met them. If I didn’t wait all day for to get a chance for front row I probably wouldn’t have met him. So many variables but we were just lucky.

It’s important to note I really didn’t have the great appreciation for Kanye and his music as I do now. So if a similar situation were to present itself with Kanye or any artist or entertainer I admire I would do it differently. I would ask better questions, I would’ve asked about WTT2 and whether he thought he’d collab with Jay again, I’d ask him about his next album, I’d ask him what he’s afraid off and I’d ask whether GOOD Music is going to collab again for another album.

The Concert Experience

For my first concert I’ve ever been to it was an incredible experience. The atmosphere, the lighting, the visuals – everything was on point.

Pusha T was dope, he performed for about 30 min but it was obvious a lot of people didn’t know him or his lyrics but I loved it.

Once Kanye got on everyone lost there shit, being front row your getting pushed from all sides but you have the benefit of actually being able to breath in front of you, which made it very tolerable compared to if I was a couple of rows behind.

Kanye raised up from under the floor with fireworks going off. Its how GODS roll I guess. He opened with On Sight and did music from all his albums, nothing from his new album.

(Editing this a year later I can’t believe we actually thought we were expecting some new music. That’s how long it’s been. I was actually hoping to hear All Day live)

It seemed like touring outside of America he focused on sticking with hits compared to doing the majority of songs of Yeezus,which was disappointing and great in it’s on respects. But I really would love to have heard I’m In It live.

Pusha did his verse for Runaway with Kanye which was full of energy.

As Pusha was spitting his lyrics I was of course rapping along the whole time and I guess he noticed because he was looking right at me as he spit his last line

“im just young rich and tasteless…P!” and saluted me

I saluted him back as he disappeared into the fog.

(Maybe I was just too hype and he wasn’t really looking at me but I’m pretty certain he was looking at me because I was only meters away)

Regardless, unforgettable moment.

During the concert he stopped the music to talk about these two ‘publicist’ who were posting something about him on twitter. Saying he wouldn’t name names but ‘you know who you are’, talking as if they were in the crowd listening. I’m usually pretty informed on this stuff but I had no idea what he was talking about.

Blood On The Leaves went off! He dropped the beat again…and again..and again. He was on that make a circle, make a circle shit and I couldn’t see much behind me.

BUT HE FINISHED WITH NIGGAS IN PARIS TWICE!

Which was dope. But I read an article and watched an interview somewhere that Hov and Yeezy agreed that they would never do a song off Watch the Throne unless they were both there. Guess something changed.

Oh yeah and I met Pusha T at his hotel. Pusha if you reading this my bad I didn’t meant to catch you off guard I just wanted a photo. (Album below) I probably should’ve asked a question where I could’ve learnt something.

Tips For Future Yeezy Goers

You dont need to get there at 9AM like I did, there were only 2 people at normal GA waiting when I got there and if you’ve got one of the few couple hundred early entry tickets you’ll have your own cuing area and entrance and get on the floor 15 min before all of them. I left for 2 hours at 9AM when I get there, came back and I was still was the only one there at 11AM. An hour after that there were less than 5 people in early entry and about a dozen at normal GA. I honestly thought there were going to be more dedicated fans but I guess I was wrong as I saw some people arrive as we were about to go in.

If your not comfortable being pushed around and raped from all sides when that beat drop on Blood On The Leaves than sell your tickets now! Saw so many stupid bitches being carried out by security guards. E.G: THIS BITCH. One was already out before Kanye even started! She got killed by Pusha.

Full Album