YE LIVE AT SoFI STADIUM

Ye on the top of the World

Los Angeles, April 2026. No traditional stage, no catwalk, no overwrought scenography. At SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Kanye West, now known simply as Ye, returned to the American stage after five years away with a single, devastating idea: a half-sphere replicating planet Earth, planted at the center of the floor among 70,000 spectators, its summit the only place he stood for two straight hours.

The globe rotated slowly, projecting imagery of the Earth across its surface, gradually dissolving into increasingly abstract forms. As the night progressed, the hemisphere shifted identity altogether — from planet to moon, its surface transforming through lights, lasers, and stage fog, moving from oceans and continents to craters and lunar landscapes, then back again. A continuous mutation, never quite settling. Through every metamorphosis, Ye remained anchored at the apex. The metaphor was deliberately unsubtle: the world turns, changes shape, but he is the center.

The design emerged from a collaboration with Aus Taylor, Ye's visual partner throughout the Bully era, who described his own role with characteristic brevity: "Ye & Aus — I'm just a vessel." But anyone familiar with Kanye's creative history knows that behind the sphere lies a twenty-year obsession: Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo's manga. In 2018, Kanye stated publicly that the film is his "biggest creative inspiration" and that every stage show, every video, every product of his career carries its influence. The Stronger video (2007) was already a visual love letter to Otomo's work. During the Donda listening events (2021), his outfit and the sparse, desolate staging echoed the manga's post-apocalyptic atmosphere. At SoFi, the pulsing sphere expanding in the darkness of the stadium reads as a direct nod to Akira's iconic opening scene — the nuclear detonation that obliterates Tokyo, seen from above, swallowing everything in its path.

Don Toliver and Ye's daughter North West both joined him on the globe. The setlist spanned two decades of classics — from Runaway to Can't Tell Me Nothing, woven together with tracks from Bully, his new album that pulled 33 million streams on its first day. Ye said nothing to the crowd, offered no explanations. He simply stood there, on top of the world, and asked for the earth to spin a little slower. As for what comes next, another remarkable stage is already in the making: his European summer dates, including Reggio Emilia, Madrid, and a headline slot at London's Wireless Festival, suggest that Ye's era of concert-as-event has only just begun.

Credits:

Show designer: @ausssssssssssssssssss and @ye

Light Designer: @seeyoulater.la

Lasers: @laserlightcompany

Visula FX: @masterfxinc  @bpmsfx @imagesfx 

Photos: @itsgiorgiarose @cactus.kish @itsmattfisher