There was a ton of controversy surrounding Kanye West‘s gig at Glastonbury before he ever touched the stage, and the fact that someone crashed the stage during his performance wasn’t much of a surprise. After dealing with an online petition that aimed to get his axed from the Glastonbury lineup, West took the stage on Saturday night as if it was him against the world. Before the rapper got the chance to take his frustrations out during his performance of “Black Skinhead,” a man identified as Simon Brodkin rushed onstage wearing a t-shirt that read “Lee-zus.” The shirt was meant to make a mockery of West’s album entitled Yeezus.
Brodkin’s stint onstage didn’t last long because Glastonbury security swiftly removed him. “Some people were saying Kanye shouldn’t headline Glastonbury, so I thought I’d give them a hand,” Brodkins told NME. Despite the disruption, West’s song “Black Skinhead” restarted and the rapper continued on with his set. Even though Brodkin’s stage crashing was deemed disrespectful, West has also committed a couple of stage disruptions.
Six years ago, he jumped onstage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, after he felt Beyonce was more deserving of the Best Female Video honor at the MTV Video Music Awards. Earlier this year, he pretended to go onstage to dispute Beck’s Album of the Year award at the Grammys. While Beck was onstage accepting his award, West marched up the stairs towards Beck, but he turned around and went back to his seat. The rapper also felt like Beyoncé was more deserving of the Album of the Year award.
While West’s off-the-stage antics sometimes get more attention than his actual talent, some critics don’t feel the rapper delivered a “rock star” set atGlastonbury. During his set, West claimed to be the “greatest living rock star on the planet.” While some people may agree with the statement, others believe the rapper has yet to meet that kind of praise. For most of his set, West stood onstage alone and performed “Stronger” (which was obviously his response to all the negativity surrounding his appearance), “Afterlife,” “No Church in the Wild,” “Jesus Walks,” “Touch the Sky,” and “All the Lights.”