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Music

Witness the Truth: The Church of Kanye West Is the Closest Thing We Have to Beatlemania

What other rockstar can shut down an entire block in one of the world's most major cities?

Two things happened last night. Firstly, we learned conclusively that New York City can't handle outdoor music events for shit, as the final day of Governors Ball Music Festival—the night headlined by Kanye West—was canceled due to severe weather conditions, and Hot 97's Summer Jam was forced to close one of its stages, pulling with it performances from Chance the Rapper, Tory Lanez, Desiigner, and Curren$y. Secondly, we learned that Kanye West can shut down an entire block of a major city in minutes.

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Suddenly finding himself with no plans for the evening, Kanye hopped over to Hot 97 to perform a few songs (including "Champions") during the "GOOD MUSIC with Big Sean and Pusha T" set. Still not satisfied, his collaborator Virgil Abloh posted on Instagram that there would be another performance at 2am at an undisclosed location in New York City. This was swiftly followed by an announcement from 2Chainz confirming GOOD Music would be at Manhattan's Webster Hall – a venue that's largest room has a capacity of 1,500.

Show at 2am SOLD OUT

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) June 6, 2016

Fast forward 30 minutes and the East Village carnage, with Webster Hall roadblocked by a crowd of thousands.

No big deal just 4,000+ people surrounding Webster Hall for this 2 am GOOD Music show pic.twitter.com/6DIrNHrQee

— Nick Medina (@rapfavnick)

June 6, 2016

#breaking @kanyewest attempts to throw a surprise concert @WebsterHall and it causes a mob in the streets pic.twitter.com/QbmNVjd9nI

— Christina Lemus (@ChristinaLCBS2) June 6, 2016

If you can't tell from the scenes above, so many people showed up so fast that nobody could get anywhere. Not even ASAP Rocky and ASAP Nast.

ASAP Rocky and ASAP Nast trying to maneuver through the Webster Hall crowd. pic.twitter.com/eVVVhnzjp0

— UTOR (@utorlive)

June 6, 2016

On Twitter, there were alleged claims of pepper spray and gas being used to break up the crowd, however they remain unconfirmed. An NYPD representative told FADER that "no arrests" were made.

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@kanyewest @KimKardashian ended up @ the ER waitng 4 the Webster Hall Show.Hes fine but GOTDAMN! #websterhall #kanye pic.twitter.com/a5x9zxIcHH

— CHRIS VIRGIL (@chrisvirgilVA) June 6, 2016

Eventually the show was shut down completely, so Kanye decided to cruise the streets giving waves and high fives out of his sun roof like the Pope of rap.

KANYE GOT THE NYC STREETS ON LOCK pic.twitter.com/Ti6S6t109j

— PREMIUM® (@mylespremium) June 6, 2016

Kanye has arrived in a car with @trvisXX and is waving to fans. pic.twitter.com/VNy08nCA2k

— The FADER (@thefader) June 6, 2016

To recap: these final pictures confirm the scriptures that've been relayed time and time again. Look at them, and see that the Black Beatle is in full existence. See, the continued rise and rise of Kanye West is the closest our generation has come to Beatlemania. Hip-hop has won and rappers are the new rockstars. This is Greek mythology, turned into a man who is riding down the street in a car being chased by a large crowd. Please, ride out of this news story with "Power" or "See Me Now" blasting through your headphones and feel invigorated and confident in the knowledge that the truth has been told.

"We're the greatest in the world!"

"We're the greatest in the world!!!"