Kanye West brought one of his Sunday Services to Howard University this weekend.

Chris Pizzello / AP

After Twitter rumors buzzed around D.C. last week, Kanye West indeed made a stop at Howard University Homecoming on Saturday, kicking off a weekend of performances and appearances in the District.

The rapper brought to Howard a version of “Sunday Service,” the gospel-rap events he has been hosting throughout the year. They’re concerts headlined by West, usually outdoors, always in the style of a sort of modern choir singing to the congregation. The most high-profile of these shows took place at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Easter Sunday. Later this month, West will release an IMAX documentary, Jesus Is King, set at one of the Sunday Service shows that took place this summer.

West and his band and choir set up at the center of the Howard University Yard and began performing around 8 a.m., just two hours after students received emails announcing the show, according to WUSA 9 reported Sarah Konsmo. The crowd size was reported to be in the hundreds as West ran through his set, which included his early hit “Jesus Walks” and some new tracks from his forthcoming album, also to be called Jesus Is King. According to NBC 4, R&B singer and longtime West collaborator Tony Williams “presided” over the show as bandleader.

Momolu Stewart and Halim Flowers, two former inmates of the D.C. Jail who were released this year under the D.C. Council’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, made speeches at the show, per NBC. Both men met earlier this year with Kim Kardashian West, Kanye West’s wife, who visited the jail for a documentary she’s filming. Kardashian West wrote a letter to the judge in Stewart’s case to support his early release. The reality star and two of the couple’s four young children, 6-year-old North and 3-year-old Saint, were also in attendance.

https://twitter.com/SeriouslyJr/status/1183026781223313408

Super-secret concerts are common for Howard Homecoming. The headliners for the event’s annual Yardfest concert on Friday typically remains a secret until the night before the show. This year, the performers—who ended up including DaBaby, Terrence J, and Mack Wilds—were hidden right up until showtime. West himself performed at Yardfest in 2003, where he was booed off the stage. Four months later, he released his debut album The College Dropout.

A few Homecoming attendees noted on Twitter that the crowd for Yardfest far surpassed the crowd at West’s show. News of his appearance was met with some skepticism, following the rapper’s controversial comments over the past few years. In May 2018, West declared at the offices of TMZ that the enslavement of black people was “a choice.” He has also defended his support of President Donald Trump, prominently wearing a Make America Great Again hat and meeting Trump in the Oval Office last year. West has tweeted that he wanted to abolish the 13th amendment, which outlawed slavery. The subject of that amendment apparently came up during his Howard show: According to a tweet, the rapper led a chant of “13th amendment, gonna end it.”

Ahead of his show, a few Howard professors expressed their disapproval of Kanye’s appearance on campus. The chair of the university’s department of African American studies entreated West to visit the library after his set.

According to tweets from some attendees, West addressed the controversy around him, telling the crowd, “I was cancelled, but now I”m in the middle of the Howard University Yard! Does that look like I’ve been cancelled?” At another point, according to the Washington Post, he declared, “You don’t always have to agree with me, but if they throw the slave nets again, how about we don’t all stand in the exact same place?” He also remarked on the high incarceration rate of African Americans in the United States, asking, “Why lock people up? They need people to make more slaves. … I got family locked up!” per the Post.

After performing at Howard, West headed to George Washington University for another surprise show at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The university announced the performance at midnight Friday night on Twitter, and tickets were claimed by 8 a.m., per NBC.

Attendees were asked to refrain from photographing the show, where West previewed a few new songs from the Jesus Is King album. The rapper and Kardashian West have dropped small hints about the gospel-inspired record over the past few weeks, including a tracklist and release dates that have since passed without an album drop. According to the GW Hatchet, he revealed that new songs for the album will drop Oct. 25, the same day as the release of his documentary. He also recited a few of his favorite gospel verses and freestyled to the crowd’s chants.

“I’m not here for your entertainment this afternoon,” West told the audience, according to the Hatchet. “We’re here to spread the Gospel.”

Filed Under: george washington university, howard university, kanye west,