Kanye West Brings Rhymes to Twitter, Facebook Offices (VIDEO)

This past week, Kanye West, dressed in a sharp three-piece suit, performed a few tracks from his forthcoming album for small crowds of office workers at both Facebook and Twitter headquarters, bringing a little self-described poetry to white collar Palo Alto. Weird? Absolutely. But this is Kanye West we're talking about.

The performances were part of West's promotional tour of Silicon Valley. It's unclear what the tour was supposed to accomplish, except to further prove that no one ever tells West that something is a bad idea.

Performing at Facebook, West stands on top of a table in a strangely undecorated room. He describes his first rap as "more like a poem." Here's my best effort at a transcription:

You're my devil
You're my angel
You're my heaven
You're my hell
You're my now
You're my forever
You're my freedom
You're my jail
You're my lies
You're my truth
You're my war
You're my truce
You're my questions
You're my proof
You're my stress
And you're my masseuse
ma ma se, ma ma se, ma ma ku sa (!?)
Lost in this plastic life

Let's break out of this fake-ass party
turn this into a classic night
If we die in each other's arms
Still get laid in the afterlife
If we die in each other's arms
Still get laid, yeah

Kanye has a great sense of rhythm, of course. The poem is, at it's best, catchy and clever (I like the rhyme of "hell" and "jail") and at its worst it's ... well ... awkwardly borrowing from Michael Jackson. It's unclear from the video whether the Facebook employees in the audience ended up breaking out of their fake-ass party or if they returned to their desks to quietly continue programming.

West, for his part, looked a little nervous during the performance (it was the first time he'd performed new material in front of an audience in a long time). He was cheered on by a crowd that seemed generally charmed by him, or at least happy to be freed from staring into a computer screen to watch a rap icon spout gems like this one:

They try to tell me that aliens built the pyramids
I swear, life's a b*tch on her period

I'm pretty sure that's an HR violation.

The songs will reportedly be released on West's new album, "Good Ass Job." No word yet if he also plans to publish a book of "Good Ass Poems." But let's hope not.

WATCH Kanye West Perform at Facebook:

 

Comments

[Pierogi kid]

08:29 PM on 08/02/2010

Is this what it has come to? From the people that gave the world Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy , Miles, Aretha Franklin and Jimi Hendrix. The people that completely and irrevocably changed the way the entire world thinks about music in the 20th century. Now looks to "your my heaven, your my Hell"? Are you serious is this it?

[AccuracyInReading]

11:28 PM on 08/09/2010

According to the story itself, the words (admittedly a transcription of oral speech by the author of the article) were "You're my heaven...You're my hell..." Perhaps a trite cliche, but certainly not as disturbing as the idea that the "people who gave the world Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington" have also given us the idea that someone is going to get "laid in the afterlife..."

[Euterpe360]

09:33 AM on 08/02/2010

"Ima God damn lyrical wordsmith!!!

[LordoftheBrown]

05:13 PM on 08/01/2010

Having just taken a bunch of college-level poetry classes, and as much as I might not like to say it, Kanye is better than most poets I've come across. He isn't as good as he thinks he is, but that would be impossible lol...

[doctarr]

09:24 AM on 08/01/2010

Not one mention of what he did to Taylor Swift?

Sorry, I know some would like forgiveness for such things, but Kanye, like Mel Gibson screwed up and no amount of poetry will earn his redemption.

[vegetablelollipop]

02:43 PM on 08/01/2010

I'm sorry, but what Mel did was WAAAAAYYYY more problematic did what Kanye did.

[LordoftheBrown]

05:12 PM on 08/01/2010

LMAO I know, right? This poster is bonkers.

[Kay-B]

07:08 PM on 07/31/2010

Classic. loved the rap mixed with a bit of spoken word.