After turning in a head-scratching early performance of “I Love It” with Lil Pump earlier tonight, Kanye West hit the Saturday Night Live stage twice more, this time ceding his second performance to GOOD Music signee Teyana Taylor for her new song, on which he raps a verse over the bridge. The song featured a sample of The Younghearts’ “We’ve Got Love (You Better Believe It).” His third performance, below, was an exuberant performance of “Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)” from his and Kid Cudi’s joint album from earlier this year, Kids See Ghosts.
With Kanye’s new album, Yandhi, arriving tonight, he faced plenty of pressure to impress — especially as he had also spent the better part of the week trolling fans with effusive praise for a collaborator accused of sexual assault and the return of his “Make America Great Again” hat. The fact that he paired the Donald Trump campaign piece with a sweatshirt praising the target of one of Trump’s many online bullying campaigns, ousted NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, confused many of Kanye’s fans, some of whom voiced the opinion that rapper was playing with fire by trying to play both sides.
Kanye teased the upcoming album with a cryptic post on Twitter, as well as another possible project with Chance The Rapper at Chance’s latest monthly Open Mike. The rapper and designer has been as busy as ever, but was still able to clear time to stop through SNL for tonight’s performance after the original performer, Ariana Grande, canceled due to “emotional reasons.”
