Rapper Kanye West premiered his space opera-themed Glow In The Dark tour last night in Seattle, and he may have single-handedly reinvented hip hop performance for a science fictional era. Rapping alone, in front of screens that showed whirling backgrounds of space porn, he navigated through the story of an "astronaut on a mission to bring creativity back to Earth," says the L.A. Times.

io9 reader Garrison Dean was there, and here's how he summarizes Kanye's science fiction epic:

Basically his set of the night, by far the biggest part, was the story of him in his spaceship, crashlanding on a strange planet and trying to get off and get home. His only companion was his ship's onboard female computer Jayne, which sounded delightfully like the voice in Portal. She comforts him, tells him it will be ok and at one point offers her "services" to him during "Gold Digger" [becoming] two sexy golden painted ladies on his view screen. The set was nothing more than him on a minimal landscape with a moving video platform. Behind him was a massive screen that showed theme-centric videos of space, alien landscapes and fancy jeffries tube type thingies, and a smaller screen that had a computer interface that looked very much like the old Tron game cabinet (awesome). He never broke the central concept of the show, there were never any guests, he never showed clips from his videos (to my dismay, I was hoping he would show the Murakami Good Morning video) it was just him and his stage. The only mistep of the night seemed to be an naked anime female robot that flew down from the ceiling. It looked way cool yet hung there lifeless, it wasn't until later that I realized it was probably supposed to move when she talked as I had remembered that Henson Studios had built something for the show. Oh well, first night jitters I guess.
All in all, a very cool show and don't worry Kanye makes it back to earth after he is reminded by Jayne that he can guide his self through the darkness because he is the brightest star in the universe and he Glows in The Dark.

Here are Kanye's tour dates for the spring. Images by Garrison Dean.

4:00 PM on Thu Apr 17 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,688 views
38 comments

Comments

EBone at 04:11 PM on 04/17/08
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George W. Bush here -

Any chance he'll stay lost?
92BuickLeSabre at 04:16 PM on 04/17/08
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So jealous. So so jealous.
smokyburnout at 04:29 PM on 04/17/08
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"His only companion was his ship's onboard female computer Jayne..."
wow, that's his own name, just with the first letter moved back one in the alphabet. that's creativity all right...
smokyburnout at 04:33 PM on 04/17/08
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@smokyburnout: although, River Tam was right... Jayne IS a girl's name.
92BuickLeSabre at 04:35 PM on 04/17/08
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@smokyburnout: -angry mocking comment struck-

If you're going to sip the haterade and ignore the interesting parts, at least make sure the criticism is correct.

/clearly in a really grumpy mood today
Garrison Dean, King... at 04:42 PM on 04/17/08
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@smokyburnout: To be fair, thats how I figured it should be spelled because Jane wasn't sci-fiy enough (sorry CJA), and to be even more fair his name is Kanye not Kayne.
girraffesack at 04:57 PM on 04/17/08
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@smokyburnout:
that would be Janye
girraffesack at 04:58 PM on 04/17/08
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@Garrison Dean, King Awesome: @92BuickLeSabre:

It took me a little longer...
smokyburnout at 05:02 PM on 04/17/08
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this must be why i was never any good in English class.
but still, changing one letter and swapping two around...
Garrison Dean, King... at 05:07 PM on 04/17/08
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@smokyburnout: You've got a good point. I took my screen name from the street I grew up on Garrison Lane, oh, wait... no I didn't because they are totally different.
Plague at 05:11 PM on 04/17/08
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@Garrison Dean, King Awesome:
(points to his PFUNK ticket from 1979)

BEEN THERE.
DID IT FIRST.
ShadowBottle at 05:20 PM on 04/17/08
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Del (tha funky homosapien) and Dan the Automators production of Deltron 3030 beats the pants off Kanye west in terms of sci-fi hip-hop. Hands down, without a doubt. AND they did it without the trillion dollar budget on weak stage effects.
Deltron 3030 ftw!
girraffesack at 05:31 PM on 04/17/08
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@ShadowBottle:

Oh Yeah! Newcleus even had a song about a rap battle with Superman and hooking up with Lois Lane.
Garrison Dean, King... at 05:42 PM on 04/17/08
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@Plague: You wouldn't have liked it anyway, he didn't go on til around 10 which is way after you pass out during Matlock.

@ShadowBottle: Yeah Del would never be caught up in a high concept mainstream hip hop venture with costly production values and stage effects. He's totally above that.

+ Watch video

for the record I love Deltron. It was almost a decade ago though.
Plague at 05:59 PM on 04/17/08
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@Garrison Dean, King Awesome:
It was JEKYLL last night.
And I'll have you know I stayed up all the way to 11:30!

(gets on his Rascal and scoots off)
Seth L at 06:08 PM on 04/17/08
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Captain EO?
AmericanHector at 06:10 PM on 04/17/08
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"Ground control to the Kanye West. Take your plagiarism pills and put your helmet on"

[uk]

+ Watch video
phoenix at 06:23 PM on 04/17/08
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Sounds like a party! :D
AmericanHector at 06:29 PM on 04/17/08
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Where did my snarky plagiarism comment and video go? Bowie did this at shows close to 30 years ago.
AmericanHector at 06:29 PM on 04/17/08
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doh...foul up on my browers part.
jp182 at 07:11 PM on 04/17/08
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@AmericanHector: yes but most of Kanye's fans AND/OR most hip-hop fans are not into David Bowie. so they get exposed to something new.

Would you rather he have like 40 some odd people talking to close to the mic with by sound for 2 or 3 hours?
jp182 at 07:41 PM on 04/17/08
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@Garrison Dean, King Awesome: you know i just realized that you were the one that went to the concert. I'll have to email you to hear more about the concert.
Garrison Dean, King... at 07:43 PM on 04/17/08
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@Seth L: Actually that was what my brother and I were thinking when it started. It made us happy.

@AmericanHector: @ShadowBottle: @Plague: Yeah you guys are right it has been done before, I guess it makes that part where Kanye came on stage and said "Hi I'm Kanye West and I'm the first person to do anything like this" seem pretty ridiculous.

Let me just get one thing straight. Bowie, P-Funk, Deltron and hell, why not throw Sun-Ra, Peter Schilling and Man or Astroman in the mix, all did space inspired shows or music, but they were all innovators and Kanye is the unoriginal one... how?

Just curious but had the internet existed when "Raiders of the Lost Ark" came out would you have gone online and said, whatever, serials of the 20's and 30's... been there, done that, don't want to see it updated and done in a different style with better effects and different music.
extracrispy at 09:47 PM on 04/17/08
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@Garrison Dean, King Awesome: Damn you for making me say this... but this looks sorta cool.

I wish I could stomach his weak-ass "Klondike-Blonde Dyke" raps so I could enjoy this.
Garrison Dean, King... at 11:05 PM on 04/17/08
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@extracrispy: Little by little I'm chipping away at you. I know you want to come over to the Glow in the Dark side.

It was very cool.
ElijahDProphet at 05:42 AM on 04/18/08
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@Garrison Dean, King Awesome: You gotta admit, that IS a weak ass rhyme.

He will be at Lollapalooza in Chicago this summer, and I am wondering how much of the space show will make it to the festival type shows.

Love the music though, and that he got Daft Punk on TV live for the first time ever.
Ma1agate at 06:30 AM on 04/18/08
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Le Yawn.
zenpoet at 06:49 AM on 04/18/08
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Now, if only there he were a hull breach and he was painfully sucked into the vacuum of space through a hole the size of a quarter.

Knowing Kanye, he would do it in such a manor that has been done a hundred times before, and claim that he improved it, and he is the greatest of all time at getting sucked into space through little holes.
mar3nez at 07:00 AM on 04/18/08
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Why can't you guys just cut to the chase? Save yourself some time and just cut and paste this into your comments:

"He's popular, so he sucks! Look at me, I'm cool for posting that!"
workingonyourinvoice at 07:51 AM on 04/18/08
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@ShadowBottle: Thank you! I was hoping I wouldn't be the first to say that. So true.
Project Thanatos at 08:15 AM on 04/18/08
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I saw Kanye's last tour. I was never a big fan but his live performances are top notch productions. I'm sure his new album and the digital sci fi design of it are going to make this tour even more incredible.
Red AuerБЯд╒╒ at 08:59 AM on 04/18/08
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Even if you don't agree with his principals or like him as a the person he puts himself out there to be... his CDs have yet to disappoint.
Red AuerБЯд╒╒ at 09:00 AM on 04/18/08
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Kanye, as an artist, is able to pull this type of show off... But can you think of the worst artist to try something like this?

I would have to go with Bon Jovi... I may enjoy his songs, but the thought of him as a Space Cowboy is too ridiculous...
indemnitypop at 09:23 AM on 04/18/08
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Man I want to go. Is it really $101 dollars worth of awesome though?
Garrison Dean, King... at 09:41 AM on 04/18/08
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@indemnitypop: It was pricey, though not that much for me, but I'll tell you this much you do get a brisk, long show for your money. Lupe was great, Rihanna (soooo hot) was great, NERD not so much, but they pack the night full of stuff and when Kanye's set was revealed we knew the money had been well spent.

That said, it is a financial commitment.
Garrison Dean, King... at 09:44 AM on 04/18/08
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@Garrison Dean, King Awesome: Just to clarify, when I said not that much for me I meant it wasn't that much money, not that I am so rich that I consider 101 boners peanuts.
DocGratis at 10:03 AM on 04/18/08
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Speaking of it has been done...

has anyone else watched the Anime Movie that does with the Daft Punk Album "Discovery"

The movie was called "
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem"
Garrison Dean, King... at 10:21 AM on 04/18/08
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@DocGratis: So glad they are releasing Electroma on Blu-ray too.