Kanye West Stops Concert to Yell at Kid in Wheelchair, ‘Stand Up!’
At a concert on Friday in Sydney, the acclaimed rapper called out a pair of fans for not standing up at the show. One had a prosthetic limb, and the other was in a wheelchair.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Oh, Kanye. The acclaimed rapper/self-described Steve Jobs/newly minted Kardashian, who once rapped, “They tryna put me on the schoolbus with the space for the wheelchair,” halted a concert on Friday night after discovering that several audience members weren’t standing up to honor their Lord and Savior.
The setting was the Qantas Credit Union Arena in Sydney, Australia, and West reportedly announced, “I can’t do this song. I can’t do this show until everybody stand up… Unless you got a handicap pass and you get special parking and shit. ‘Imma see you if you ain’t standing up, believe me, I’m very good at that.” Then came the foot-in-mouth moment. Most of the fans got up and boogied, but soon West spotted a pair of concertgoers who’d remained in their seats, and refused to continue the show until they stood up and danced like the rest. One of those two singled-out fans raised a prosthetic limb, thereby proving that she did in fact “get special parking and shit,” to which West replied, “Okay, you fine.”
West then homed in on Fan No. 2, who was still seated. He stopped performing the tune “The Good Life” and declared, “This is the longest I’ve had to wait to do a song, it’s unbelievable.” The crowd was reportedly trying to clue Kanye in to his epic blunder, with the entire section making wheelchair signals with their arms. But to no avail. West sent his bulky bodyguard Pascal Duvier into the crowd to confirm that the seated fan was, in fact, in a wheelchair. When it was confirmed, West said, “He is in a wheelchair? It’s fine!”
Many fans tweeted their disapproval:
i know Kanye west likes to think he's Jesus, but telling a wheelchair bound kid to stand up and dance won't help him
— kimmie24 (@kimmie244) September 13, 2014
"WE JUST WAITING ON THEM TWO PEOPLE TO STAND UP, Oh.... they ARE in a wheelchair?? PLAY THE SONG" Lol #YEEZUS
— Mitch Baker (@Bitch_Maker) September 13, 2014
You can watch video of the wacky incident below:
Now in the interest of fairness, West has treated some handicapped fans well in the past. At the below concert, he generously gave his microphone to an audience member in a wheelchair. You can watch video of the far more agreeable incident below:
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