Harder, better, faster, stronger! Kanye West returned to the stage on Saturday, November 4, for his first performance since he was hospitalized nearly one year ago.
The 40-year-old rapper was a surprise guest during Kid Cudi‘s concert at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. West was all smiles as he performed “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” from his 2016 album, The Life of Pablo, and drew enthusiastic applause and cheers from the audience.
West canceled his Saint Pablo tour in late November 2016 after a series of lengthy onstage rants against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Facebook. A source close to West told Us Weekly at the time, “He’s just exhausted. … Obviously he’s a professional and wants to give his fans a great experience, and I think his gut was telling him not to extend the tour through the end of the year, but he decided to push through. He doesn’t want to give his fans anything less than the best.”
Days after canceling his tour, the “Gold Digger” rapper was hospitalized for extreme exhaustion for more than a week at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Since then, he has largely remained out of the spotlight aside from the occasional dinner date with his wife, Kim Kardashian. (The couple also attended Kardashian’s sister Kendall Jenner‘s 22nd birthday on Thursday, November 2.)
In May, a source confirmed to Us that West was quietly working on his next album at a mountaintop retreat in Wyoming. “He always records in different remote places,” the insider explained. “For years it was Jamaica.”
The 21-time Grammy winner and Kardashian, 37, also have a baby on the way. Us exclusively revealed in July that they are expecting their third child, a baby girl, via surrogate in December. They are already the parents of daughter North, 4, and son Saint, 23 months.
