storytime with kanye

The meeting didn’t last long. Maybe two minutes? The record label told us that Kanye was only coming out for a brief hello and would take one group picture. 

It was the Touch the Sky Tour, December 2005. The meet and greet consisted of me and my wife, our friend Kristina with a K (who did middays at Jammin) and her date, and two other dudes that must have known somebody to get them hooked up. I remember the big homies Roland West and Martha Reynolds, who both worked for Defjam, set everything up for us.

It all went down at the Memorial Coliseum. We went backstage before the show started and waited in an empty room. After about 15 minutes or so, Ye comes in and says hello to everyone. “Thanks for coming out…. I hope you enjoy the show…I appreciate the radio support…..” Clearly his label told him that he was meeting a few radio folks. He engages in a little small talk with the group, and was very soft and kind.

I told him that I loved both Late Registration and College Dropout. He smiled and said thanks. He thanked my wife for coming out and then said hello to Kristina with a K. He said, “let’s take this picture”. 

So we did. And that’s the pic.

Then he said I hope you all enjoy the show and left.

And that was the brief moment that i shared with Kanye.