Kanye West benefit show – 6/11/09

I won’t deny that I’m a lucky guy. Sometimes things just fall into my lap.

Thus it was that I was in Chicago last week for a work conference and discovered myself with VIP tickets to a Kanye West concert at the historic Chicago Theater (unofficial retail value: $500). 1) It’s Kanye. 2) It’s in his hometown. 3) It’s at this amazing venue. 4) It’s a benefit concert for his foundation. 5) I get to go for free with these VIP passes entitling me to free drinks. Oh yes. A lucky guy indeed.

The venue was insane. Every square inch of the place is lush and hyper-decorated in such a way that your eyes really can’t process the level of detail. It’s like Versailles or something. A very nice place.

The joint was slammed with well-dressed famous people (and, of course, the wanna-be famous and assorted hangers on). My only celeb sighting was Tyrus Thomas from the Chicago Bulls. Dude’s tall.

The tix got us boxed seats and gift bags stocked with random crap (did you know Kanye wrote a book?). I didn’t take a camera because I was sure it would be confiscated at the door and I didn’t want to deal with that. So no pics of the venue or the crazy stage set up. There was a live band, multiple high risers with stairs for him to wander around on, and, of course, video screens showing pretty colors.

The event was to raise money for his foundation, named after his mom, Donda West. She was an educator (head of the English Dept at Chicago State) and so the goal of the foundation is to help prevent dropping out of school. She passed away recently and so Kanye is really putting his heart and soul into doing civic work and socially redeeming stuff.

This was particularly cool when I ran into the CEO of the foundation at the show and told him that I have been doing serious work on high school dropouts in Alabama and had reviewed all of the scholarly literature about the causes of and solutions to dropping out, and had published a fact sheet about the situation. I mentioned that I had a ton of resources that could be useful and that perhaps my organization could be a useful conduit for his in doing on-the-ground anti-dropout work in Alabama. He seemed super into the idea, so maybe something good will come of it. I even managed to get through the night of free drinks without losing his card.

Kanye’s set was short but sweet. He drilled all the hits, of course. His catalog is so impressive. He can draw out old stuff like “Jesus Walks” or instruct the crowd to sing along with his newest material from 808 Heartbreak. It’s all catchy and he really struck me as sort of an Elvis type, standing up there with the spotlight on him. He held it down solo, without a giant group of people (other than the band, of course) on the stage. He’s commanding, yet comfortable, and balanced the delicate wordplay of the rapping with the sing-song choruses and hooks.

Among the memorable highlights were some of his newer tracks, and, of course, “Homecoming,” which was actually kind of emotional. He briefly outlined some of the goals of the foundation, including making school more attractive to young people by providing music software and other items to needy schools (“Pro Tools in every classroom!”).  The Tribune’s review is here.

The event will be televised on something called the Fuse Network on July 25.