![Hip hop does belong at Glastonbury: Despite a historic precedence for white, male guitar bands dominating the UK festival scene, Glastonbury has never attempted to tie itself to one specific genre. Some of the most controversial, but ultimately successful, performers have been hip hop artists - Jay-Z and Beyonce, for example, and, lower down the bill, Wu-Tang Clan and Cypress Hill... If you really, truly believe hip hop has no place at Worthy Farm, then feel free to go and enjoy one of the 6,426,351 other acts they'll have performing.]()
Hip hop does belong at Glastonbury: Despite a historic precedence for white, male guitar bands dominating the UK festival scene, Glastonbury has never attempted to tie itself to one specific genre. Some of the most controversial, but ultimately successful, performers have been hip hop artists - Jay-Z and Beyonce, for example, and, lower down the bill, Wu-Tang Clan and Cypress Hill... If you really, truly believe hip hop has no place at Worthy Farm, then feel free to go and enjoy one of the 6,426,351 other acts they'll have performing.
![He's headlined festivals before: West is not some young upstart who's come along with one album and usurped our sacred veterans of rock. He's worked his way up with seven hugely successful albums and has proved himself more than capable, if you can excuse the odd rant or two, of headlining massive festivals.]()
He's headlined festivals before: West is not some young upstart who's come along with one album and usurped our sacred veterans of rock. He's worked his way up with seven hugely successful albums and has proved himself more than capable, if you can excuse the odd rant or two, of headlining massive festivals.
![...But he's never done Glastonbury before: As great as it would be to all get our lighters out and sway along to a fourth Glastonbury headline set from Coldplay, it's nice to have a fresh face. In general, Glastonbury does a pretty good job of avoiding booking stale headline acts, but there are still a few predictably safe bands who seem to be wheeled around the festival circuit on autopilot. Kanye is not one of them.]()
...But he's never done Glastonbury before: As great as it would be to all get our lighters out and sway along to a fourth Glastonbury headline set from Coldplay, it's nice to have a fresh face. In general, Glastonbury does a pretty good job of avoiding booking stale headline acts, but there are still a few predictably safe bands who seem to be wheeled around the festival circuit on autopilot. Kanye is not one of them.
![He'll probably bring guests: During his recent Koko gig (Koko to Glastonbury in one year! He's really risen from nowhere) West brought out a plethora of UK grime artists, but there's every chance he'll step that up a gear for Glastonbury. 2Chainz? Raekwon? If he brings out Rihanna, whose album he's executive-producing, it'll be game over. In the very best way. Hell, why not throw Paul McCartney in there too.]()
He'll probably bring guests: During his recent Koko gig (Koko to Glastonbury in one year! He's really risen from nowhere) West brought out a plethora of UK grime artists, but there's every chance he'll step that up a gear for Glastonbury. 2Chainz? Raekwon? If he brings out Rihanna, whose album he's executive-producing, it'll be game over. In the very best way. Hell, why not throw Paul McCartney in there too.
![He has more hits than you could possibly imagine: OK, maybe if you've got a really great imagination, you could imagine all his hits. But just in case you don't - 'Gold Digger', 'POWER', 'Black Skinhead', 'Stronger', 'N**as In Paris', 'FourFiveSeconds', 'All Of The Lights', 'All Day', 'Heartless', 'Love Lockdown'...and so on, forever.]()
He has more hits than you could possibly imagine: OK, maybe if you've got a really great imagination, you could imagine all his hits. But just in case you don't - 'Gold Digger', 'POWER', 'Black Skinhead', 'Stronger', 'N**as In Paris', 'FourFiveSeconds', 'All Of The Lights', 'All Day', 'Heartless', 'Love Lockdown'...and so on, forever.
![The visuals are going to be incredible: If you're worried a solo artist won't be able to create the visual spectacle that a band can, then you've clearly not seen photos from West's BRIT performance, or his Louis Vuitton show, or any of his world tours. Visual spectacle is his middle name* and so even if you're right at the back and he looks like an ant to you, it'll be a really spectacular ant. *actually it's Omari]()
The visuals are going to be incredible: If you're worried a solo artist won't be able to create the visual spectacle that a band can, then you've clearly not seen photos from West's BRIT performance, or his Louis Vuitton show, or any of his world tours. Visual spectacle is his middle name* and so even if you're right at the back and he looks like an ant to you, it'll be a really spectacular ant. *actually it's Omari
![Blowtorches are probably safer at Glastonbury than the O2: When Kanye performed at the BRITs, one of his many visual spectacles was two massive blowtorches, which cast his entire onstage entourage in a mesmeric orange glow. Unfortunately, only one of them seemed to be working. Let's sort that out for June, yeah?]()
Blowtorches are probably safer at Glastonbury than the O2: When Kanye performed at the BRITs, one of his many visual spectacles was two massive blowtorches, which cast his entire onstage entourage in a mesmeric orange glow. Unfortunately, only one of them seemed to be working. Let's sort that out for June, yeah?
![He probably will rant - let's embrace it: Kanye and rants, at this point, go very much hand in hand. At Wireless, he told the crowd,]()
He probably will rant - let's embrace it: Kanye and rants, at this point, go very much hand in hand. At Wireless, he told the crowd, "Fuck whatever anyone thinks. It's about Kanye's dreams. The media are trying to control all of you." He told the Bonnaroo crowd, "I know y'all seen movies and shit, but y'all living a movie right motherfucking now. Because I AM THE NUMBER ONE MOTHERFUCKING ROCK STAR ON THE PLANET." Let's just enjoy it. He doesn't usually say anything particularly offensive, it's entertaining, and it's part of the act. We just wish he'd have some confidence in his own abilities.
![Going in as an underdog is actually an advantage: Thanks to the passionate activism of one vehemently angry Kanye detractor, a petition was created asking Emily Eavis to cancel his headline slot]()
Going in as an underdog is actually an advantage: Thanks to the passionate activism of one vehemently angry Kanye detractor, a petition was created asking Emily Eavis to cancel his headline slot "and get a rock band." Nearly 8,000 people are equally as disheartened by the disgraceful underrepresentation of rock bands at festivals, and therefore Kanye will be going into this as even more of an underdog than Metallica. And they came out pretty well.
![He has a penchant for theatricality: On his 2013 tour, Kanye climbed a makeshift mountain, was bowed down to by white-clad, masked women and then brought a Jesus]()
He has a penchant for theatricality: On his 2013 tour, Kanye climbed a makeshift mountain, was bowed down to by white-clad, masked women and then brought a Jesus "impersonator" onstage. We say impersonator, but we have no actual proof it wasn't Jesus. It's hard to top a guest like Jesus, but perhaps he could bring God out at Glastonbury. Too much to ask?
![He will be anything but boring: You might have seen the painfully accurate Portlandia sketch of what it's often like to attend a gig (drudging songs, endless encores, toilet queues, jostling - and the blissful joy of going home.) Kanye's Glastonbury set will not be the kind of plainly mediocre gig that 's so unremarkable you wish you'd just stayed home with Netflix. It'll be eclectic, raucous, eccentric, rant-filled perhaps, but never boring.]()
He will be anything but boring: You might have seen the painfully accurate Portlandia sketch of what it's often like to attend a gig (drudging songs, endless encores, toilet queues, jostling - and the blissful joy of going home.) Kanye's Glastonbury set will not be the kind of plainly mediocre gig that 's so unremarkable you wish you'd just stayed home with Netflix. It'll be eclectic, raucous, eccentric, rant-filled perhaps, but never boring.
![This man knows what he is doing:]()
This man knows what he is doing: "Oh, do you remember that year that Michael and Eavis made Glastonbury rubbish"- said no one, ever.