He already surprised us once this year with the sudden release of his wild-eyed album "Yeezus," and now Kanye West has done it again by announcing a fall tour without any warning – an outing that will include a Nov. 5 date at Target Center in Minneapolis. A younger rapper nipping at his heels, Kendrick Lamar, will open. Tickets go on sale next Friday, Sept. 13, for $39.50-$99.50 through AXS.com and the Target Center box office.
Meanwhile, word of a separate concert by his "Watch the Throne" partner Jay Z came just a little later. He'll commence the newly announced North American leg of his Magna Carter Tour at Xcel Energy Center Nov. 30. Tickets -- at $32.50 to $125 -- go on sale next Thursday, Sept. 12, but fans can get early access to presale seats here, starting at 10 a.m. today.
West only gave a one-word tweet as a warning of the announcement: "TOUR," it read, with an attached image that shows him floating Christ-like (in true Kanye fashion) toward the heavens. His website now lists all 23 dates on the North American outing, which is scheduled to kick off Oct. 19 at Seattle's Key Arena and wind down Dec. 7 at Houston's Toyota Center. A "surprise guest" is listed as part of the lineup for certain dates, but not the Minneapolis show.
Coming just a few months after the June birth of his baby North with whatever-she-can-be-famous-for celebrity Kim Kardashian, this will be West's first tour in five years. He performed at Target Center on that outing in 2008, the Glow in the Dark Tour, which included an orchestra and moonscape-like stage and yet proved to be an intimate, intense display of what West can do all on his own with just a microphone. Jon Bream and I both named it one of the two best concerts of the year that year.
Jay-Z, however, was far less compelling -- and just seemed outright disinterested -- at his last local concert at Target Center in 2004, co-headlining with R. Kelly. He and West were originally slated to perform together at the Minneapolis arena in 2011 on their "Watch the Throne" tour, but then numerous dates got moved around, and the pair never rescheduled.
