Update: Coachella's not the only musical game in California this weekend. Yesterday, the concert pairing Beethoven and Kanye West went down. As you can see from the videos below, it was pretty damn glorious. Can we put in a request for Kanye-deus?
This story was originally published on April 1, 2016. “You wouldn’t intuitively think of Kanye West and Beethoven as being similar musicians...but if you listen a little closer, you’ll notice a lot of similarities.” That’s the organizing principle behind Yeethoven, a concert organized by Young Musicians Foundation of Los Angeles that will pair six Beethoven songs with six songs by Kanye West in a live performance on April 16. The event is free and open to the public, no ticket required, at Aratani Theatre at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center. This show is reminiscent of Late Orchestration, an album that West himself released featuring orchestral arrangements of Late Registration songs. The news comes a day after Kanye’s The Life of Pablo came to non-Tidal streaming services. Maybe Kanye really is for the people after all. While this move might raise some eyebrows, it certainly won’t raise Kanye’s. He’s never been shy about proclaiming his greatness. One wonders how the two composers will fare being compared to each other. Especially because Beethoven has never released a track insinuating that Taylor Swift still might sleep with him.