I Still Feel Robbed By Kanye and Drake’s Concert

2021 is in the wind, but the stink of December’s biggest hip-hop plot remains

Bonsu Thompson
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Photo: SHOTBYNYP / BACKGRID

The feeling arrived before the two rap giants appeared on stage. This was prior to waiting nearly two hours — most of it spent watching a dark screen projecting nowhere in particular inside a packed Los Angeles Coliseum. Although the concert was scheduled to begin on December 9, 2021 at 8 p.m. local time, Kanye and Drake emerged 90 minutes later—their first appearance together since the ballooning of their very public rap feud back in 2018. It was long overdue, especially for the many viewers betraying their bedtimes to live stream from around the world.

By then, the feeling was accompanied by a stench.

The event no longer felt like a benefit concert to raise awareness for prison reform and the unjust incarceration of former gang leader Larry Hoover. Instead, it smelt like a ruse — a multi-pronged marketing roll out that included an interview viewed by more than 9 million people and a free concert for the purpose of selling designer clothing to fund a multi-millionaire’s dream.

Before anyone visiting the Amazon Prime page could enter the free live stream, they were solicited. Under the access button read: Ye & Drake, Free Hoover Merch. Engineered by

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Bonsu Thompson
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Writer for

Bonsu Thompson is a writer, producer, Brooklynite and 2019 Sundance Screenwriters Lab fellow.