Kayne West made a surprise appearance in LA on Friday (July 8), joining The Game to perform their recent joint single ‘Eazy’.

READ MORE: On the scene at Kanye West’s ‘Donda 2’ event in Miami: “It felt like a cult convention”

As he’s known to do in recent times, West appeared onstage clad entirely in black, wearing a mask and gloves to conceal his face and hands. After performing ‘Eazy’ with him, The Game spent a minute gassing West up onstage. “This is the first time that I’ve been on my stage with my brother,” he told the crowd. “And I’m’a tell you something about him: he ain’t come to perform no songs, he was clear about that.

“He came for his brother. He told me how he was coming, he told me he was gon’ be three minutes late – he said he might show up in the middle of the verse ‘cause he got shit to do. I said, ‘N**** you can come at the end of the show just to give me a hug, n****, I love you. This n**** friendship, it don’t waver. No matter what I do to this n****, or what I say about this n****, he just love me. It’s like this n**** Yeezus or something. 

“Hey man, I’m’a tell you this in front of my home – ‘cause when you in LA, it’s just like the shot, and every other ghetto around the world, man, I love you for always being there for me, man. You my motherfuckin’ brother – he know it, I tell him in front of y’all…”

Have a look at fan-shot footage of the performance below:

pic.twitter.com/dFXMk9M4tm

— Donda’s Place (@dondas__place) July 9, 2022

According to XXL, the intimate show at The Novo came in celebration of The Game’s forthcoming 10th album, ‘Drillmatic – Mind Vs. Heart’. That was initially slated to land on June 17, but was pushed back to July 1 when The Game failed to get all of its samples cleared in time. The album is still yet to materialise, but earlier this week, the rapper claimed that he had just three more samples to clear before it would hit streaming platforms. 

‘Eazy’ was initially released back in January, and immediately drew controversy for its questionable lyrics. After a few bars spent embracing his ego as “Mr. Narcissist”, West’s verse takes aim at his ex-wife (Kim Kardashian) and her current partner (Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson), as he raps: “N****, we havin’ the best divorce ever / If we go to court, we’ll go to court together / Matter of fact, pick up your sis’, we’ll go to Kourt’s together.”

Later in his verse, West appears to hit out at Kardashian’s parenting (“I got love for the nannies / But real family is better / The cameras watch the kids / Y’all stop takin’ the credit”), and referenced his purchase of a house on the same street as Kardashian (“Non-custodial dad, I bought the house next door / What you think the point of really bein’ rich for?”).

Two videos for ‘Eazy’ were released over the following months. In both of them – one claymated, and the other animated with 3D models – West appears to violently attack Davidson. Many of Davidson’s colleagues spoke out in support of the actor after the videos came out, leading West to address the backlash by claiming that “art is not a proxy for any ill or harm”.

Meanwhile, The Game has been teasing ‘Drillmatic’ for the past few months, sharing tidbits about it on social media. He declared it to be “the best album of 2022” because the energy behind it “feels like I just signed my deal”. The album was executive produced by Hit-Boy, and will land as the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Born 2 Rap’, which The Game had previously claimed would be his final album. 

Speaking to NME at the time of the LP’s release, he said the only thing that might bring him out of retirement would be a collaboration with either Eminem or JAY-Z.