I recently had the privilege of attending the Kanye West SHOW concert for Chicago Public Schools at Farragutt Career Academy on the low end the bridge, between the South side and the West side.My father is one of the resident history teachers at Farragutt, so I had the pleasure of spending the day and somewhat seeing the experience through the eyes of the students. The concert was a reward for improved attendance, grades, and behavior. Farragutt earned the right to host the event that was scheduled to feature the three most popular rap artists in the city of Chicago: Common, Lupe Fiasco, and Kanye West.The gymnasium was packed full of students anticipating the arrival of Kanye West. First Lupe set the stage on fire with “Superstar,” getting the crowd fired up. Then Common, the star of Just Wright came on stage with his Neptunes produced track “Announcement.”As the crowd got hyped in anticipation of Ye’s arrival, Common and Lupe announced that Kanye wouldn’t be able to come. You could tell that the crowd was somewhat disappointed. Lupe told the crowd that they would do their best to perform on one of his beats and “Run This Town” started to play.As Lupe began to give the crowd a Kobe Bryant like up fake for all you finals fans, Kanye came rushing on the stage. Kanye and his Chicago rap mates performed “Good Life,” his new single “Power,” and in closing he performed “Touch the Sky” featuring Lupe.All in all the show went on without a hitch. Kanye and the others were in arms distance of the students and he seemed to have a lot of fun on his birthday.From my inside view I saw a lot of deserving student who enjoyed the performance and some kids who had complaints about how short the concert was. But Kanye, Lupe and Common are men who make hundreds of thousands a show and millions a year to do a concert. I applaud them for doing one for free in their home town.
