I like Lorde, but I generally only pay attention to her when she’s doing or saying something controversial, which averages out to once a year. The rest of the 11 months, I find her “low-key” because I guess I’m not paying attention to her. Well, Lorde decided to open a can of worms recently, because she got a look at Kanye West’s new set design. Kanye has done some performances recently with Kid Cudi, and Lorde thinks their stage design – a floating, rectangular half-cage for dancers a good ten feet above the stage – looks very familiar. Yes, Lorde used a very similar floating, rectangular half-cage during her Melodrama tour. She posted an Instagram story in which she “called out” Kanye and Kid Cudi:
Lorde is calling out Kid Cudi and Kanye West for allegedly stealing her idea to perform in a floating glass box — something she did BEFORE Cudi and Ye. The “Green Light” singer posted photos on her Instagram story Monday, displaying her floating glass box stage design along with the one KC and KW used Sunday night during their Camp Flog Gnaw performance in L.A. The 2 are almost identical.
She captioned one of her pics with clear disapproval, saying … “I’m proud of the work 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 continues … “But don’t steal — not from women or anyone else — not in 2018 or ever.” Lorde put dancers in her floating box, and even hopped in there herself during her 2017 international “Melodrama” tour. She also used the stage prop during her 2017 Coachella performance.
You may recall … Kanye was the first big artist to use a floating platform stage during a concert, which was a highlight of the “Saint Pablo Tour” of 2016. It’s not the same as Lorde’s, but, one could argue, Kanye is the OG of suspended stages.
I’m including some screencaps from her IG Story at the end of the post – in just a side-by-side comparison, yes, it does look like Kanye and Kid Cudi copied Lorde. But as TMZ rightly pointed out, Kanye has been experimenting with suspended sh-t and tilted stages for years before Lorde. TMZ also added an update, pointing out that Kanye has worked with the same female set designer since 2005:
Lorde’s claim has now become a lot more questionable. Turns out, the set designer, Es Devlin has worked with Kanye since 2005. She’s helped him design sets for MASSIVE tours including Touch The Sky, Glow in the Dark, Watch the Throne, YEEZUS and Saint Pablo.
What’s more … it’s puzzling Lorde tried making the alleged “theft” a gender issue, Devlin is female. Devlin designed Kanye’s floating stage for Saint Pablo in 2016. Just one year later, Lorde hired her to design the suspended box look for her Coachella show and then Lorde copied the concept, making it float for her tour … ironic.
Our Kanye sources say he’s never seen a Lorde show and would never think to copy her. There are also striking similarities between other Kanye tour looks, and that Lorde recently did on tour.
I think if it was a case of “Twitter people pointing out the similarities between the set designs,” we would find both Kanye and Lorde rather blameless, because of course artists are influenced by other artists and of course artists steal sh-t from other artists and it’s not like Lorde OR Kanye were the first people to ever think of a minimalist suspension set design or whatever. The problem is that Lorde specifically called out Kanye for copying something that probably didn’t “belong” to her in any sense. And I personally find it shady that Lorde, a white lady, would accuse an African-American artist of stealing her ideas, especially when those ideas weren’t really HERS.
Lorde says Kanye and Kid Cudi copied her 'Melodrama' tour set 👀
"Don't steal—not from women or anyone else—not in 2018 or ever" https://t.co/FDi2nL2TtX pic.twitter.com/zqcuk3ryFW
— Complex (@Complex) November 12, 2018
Lorde making this a gender issue is the weirdest thing to me. But if we’re getting technical.
The Ye/Cudi CFG stage is essentially SP with better protection given the height and venue. Lorde hired Es Devlin, who created Kanye’s SP stage. Now she’s complaining he stole? Wtf pic.twitter.com/meAmcpfYVu
— The #1 Kanye podcast, Watching the Thr🦃ne (@KanyePodcast) November 12, 2018
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
A ton of people have done this. I remember Travis Barker had a floating drum set during a Blink 182 set.
However – I did find an article from October where KANYE was complaining about people stealing HIS idea for the floating cage, so it’s a little funny that it’s come back to him.
Yes. Kanye didn’t originate this idea many people have used a floating stage before . The problem isn’t the floating stage but the excution of the idea. Lordes set doesn’t resemble kanye Pablo set, but his 2018 set strongly resembles her melodrama fish tank. So she does have a point.
Also yes, he accused people in the past of stealing his idea including a South African rapper who did it years before kanye.
Never trust TMZ they are basically a propaganda site for the Kardashian’s at this point.
Also kanye blatantly steals other people designs all the time without crediting them so even if it was true I wouldn’t exactly feel bad for him.
Do they ever apologise when they get it wrong?
Will Lorde say,
oh actually I see I used the same set designer you had previously Kanye and it seems to be part of her design aesthetic to use floating stages and now boxes, sorry to accuse you of being a black man stealing from a white woman
Doubt it
Hahaha- That Kanye photo at the end is perfect.
This seems more like a case of Lorde wanting something original and authentic but not doing her homework when hiring a set designer and looking at her portfolio, and knowing what other artists are doing or have done in the past. Perhaps, maybe?
In a world going bat sh!t crazy this is not even a blimp on the radar.
Kinda sounds like the set designer is to blame here. It’s kinda lame to basically sell the same set design to two artists.
This!
But also: If Devlin is the set designer, is it really Lorde’s idea that was stolen? Isn’t it rather Devlin’s idea that she simply used for another artist?
Es is incredibly famous and accomplished, she’s won Oliviers (UK version of Oscars). She’s probably the most famous set designer working today and is considered a legend within the industry. There’s no way she would steal or would need to steal.
Besides Kanye did this a year before Lorde, so if anyone stole Lorde stole from Kanye.
Makes the designer seem like a one-trick pony.
Agree. And I’ll say it: I don’t…Like her…Tilted Stage.
What. What does race have to do with it?
What I find interesting about this is yet again, like clockwork…..TMZ runs to Kanye’s defense. Insert kardashians in place of Kanye when appropriate 😁
Yep. They are in the Kardashian’s pockets. Not credible.
Yap TMZ, People and the Dailyfail you can’t trust any information coming from those sources.
I have found Lorde beyond insufferable since she became a thing. She comes off as an entitled brat who thinks she’s so deep and intelligent, but actually possesses the approximate depth of a kiddie pool. Plenty of people used this design far before either you OR Kanye, genius.
Sit down, Lorde.
They both kind of remind me of Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock “cells”. Nothing new under the sun as they say!
Love Lorde. Both sets look similar but no surprise having the same set designer.
Way to take credit for set designers. There are so many performers and stages before these two, which they don’t seem to realize.
I mean…all performers take from each other. Beyonce, Madonna, Gaga, etc. I doubt if Kanye even knows who she is.
He definitely knows who she is – he remixed her song Yellow Flicker Beat for her Hunger Games soundtrack.