Sunday night, Kanye West and Kid Cudi made their live debut as Kids See Ghosts, performing at Tyler the Creator’s festival Camp Flog Gnaw in California. Kanye botched some lyrics from their collaborative album and did some, uh, interpretive dancing, all of which happened inside a giant rectangular glass box not unlike the one Lorde performed inside of for her last tour. Lorde noticed the copycat cubes and isn’t happy in the slightest. She has shared photos comparing the similarities on her Instagram Stories, pointing out that she first debuted hers at Coachella 2017, and accused both Kanye and Kid Cudi of theft. “I’m proud of the work that I do and it’s flattering when other artists feel inspired by it, to the extent that they choose to try it on themselves,†she wrote. “But don’t steal — not from women or anyone else — not in 2018 or ever.â€
Lorde’s stage, conceptualized by TAIT, was designed specifically for Lorde’s Coachella performance then replicated for her Melodrama Tour. Like hers, Kanye and Cudi’s stage not only levitated but shifted angles and moved. Kanye has previously performed from the air, rapping exclusively from his groundbreaking floating stage for his Saint Pablo tour, the last time he toured before being hospitalized in 2016, cutting that run short. Meanwhile, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, ahem, lifted said floating stage for their On the Run II Tour this year, and Drake did his own, more stationary version. All of which is to say, somebody’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.