Through a series of Instagram stories, Lorde has accused Kanye West and Kid Cudi of stealing her stage design. The New Zealand artist compared her 2017 fishtank-style enclosure to the suspended box in which Kanye and Kid Cudi performed at Camp Flog Gnaw over the weekend, during their first live appearance as Kids See Ghost.
“I’m proud of the work I do and it’s flattering when other artists feel inspired by it,” Lorde wrote over an image of Ye and Cudi’s stage, “But don’t steal – not from women or anyone else – not in 2018 or ever.” Lorde’s rectangular box sat atop two oversized jacks during Coachella last year. She also used a similar concept during her Melodrama Tour.
Kanye first performed on a floating stage in 2016, during his Saint Pablo tour. It took Ye’s designers eight months to bring the idea to life, suspending the rapper 15 feet above the crowd with a network of trusses and high-speed motors propelling the platform around the arena.
It was this Saint Pablo stage design that Taylor Swift fired shots at on her 2017 track ‘Look What You Made Me Do’, singing “I don’t like your little games/Don’t like your tilted stage.” Lorde and Swift have been friends for years. In a 2014 Billboard interview, the Kiwi singer called Kanye her “idol.” See the screenshots of Lorde’s IG story below:
New Instagram story of Lorde acknowledging Kanye’s fishtank stage design! pic.twitter.com/lhGFQBvlEc
— Lorde Daily (@LordeDaily) November 12, 2018