Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, Chicago concerts start tonight at Solider Field
The stage is set and the air is humid as rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, prepares to hold the first of two Chicago concerts at Solider Field Thursday night.
CBS Skywatch flew over the stadium and got a look at crews getting ready for the show, which appears to feature a giant dome or half-moon in the center of the field that – if a black jumpsuited dummy is any indication – will be where the rapper performs.
The South Side native last played in the city in 2021, when he held a listening party for his album "Donda" at Soldier Field.
Once hugely popular in his hometown, Ye had his honorary degree from the Art Institute of Chicago stripped and a mural painted over in Fulton Market after a number of antisemitic remarks. In 2025 he released a song called "Heil Hitler," and advertised a swastika t-shirt on his online store. He also made headlines in 2022 for having dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and then-former-president Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Trump was not in office at the time of that dinner.
At the beginning of 2026, Ye apologized for those remarks in a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, saying the car accident he famously suffered before and then wrote about in his debut album "The College Dropout" had caused an injury to the right frontal lobe of his brain, leading to his bipolar disorder. He said he wasn't properly diagnosed until 2023.
"I lost touch with reality," Ye says in the ad. "Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst."
"It does not excuse what I did, though," the ad continued. "I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people."
In the ad, he also apologized to the Black community, writing, "I am so sorry to have let you down. I love us."
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization that was founded in 1913 to identify and combat antisemitism and has subsequently expanded its work to track and combat hate crimes, hate speech and hate groups targeting other races, religions and ethnicities, is also on-site at Soldier Field Thursday night, training staffers on how to deal with antisemitism and hate symbols should anything happen during the concert.
Ye's second show will be at Soldier Field Friday. Parking lots open at 4 p.m. for Thursday's show and gates open at 6 p.m.
After the Chicago stops, Ye travels to Russia for two shows in October, then a concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, before returning to the U.S. for late October and November shows in Houston, Dallas and Phoenix, Arizona.
