Kanye West Announces First Solo Tour In 5 Years, And He's Taking Kendrick Lamar Along For The Ride

Kanye West is hitting the road, and he's bringing hip-hop's brightest new thing Kendrick Lamar with him, later this year; the first time he's been out on tour to support his solo material since 2008. Yeezy will be heading out in support of Yeezus this fall, hitting his first stop of the tour on October 19 in Seattle, Washington before finishing off on 7 December in Houston, Texas.

Kanye West hasn't been on a solo tour for half a decade

This marks the first time that Kanye has been on a solo tour in five years, when he took his 'Glow in the Dark' tour on the road. Since then, he retreated from live shows following his Taylor Swift VMAs fiasco in 2009, although he did head out on the road in 2011 with Jay-Z in support of Watch the Throne. However his only solo performances have come in the shape of festival performances and one-off shows, like his controversial performance for Kazakhstan dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The news of his return to the touring circuit does come as a surprise for a number of reasons, perhaps most significantly being the birth of his first child with girlfriend Kim Kardashian, North West. What's more, Kanye didn't tour on the back of his widely-acclaimed 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, claiming at the time that he was deemed too volatile by corporate sponsors to be able to put on a full-tour.

Tickets will go on sale for the majority of the announced dates on Friday, 13 September. More information about the tour is available on Kanye’s official website.The full list of dates are below.

Kanye West 2013 Tour Dates:

19 October – Key Arena, Seattle, WA

20 Oct. – Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC

22 Oct. – SAP Center, San Jose, CA

23 Oct. – Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA

25 Oct. – MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV (not with Kendrick)

26 Oct. – Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA

01 November – EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, UT

03 Nov. – Pepsi Center, Denver, CO

05 Nov. – Target Center, Minneapolis, MN

07 Nov. – United Center, Chicago, IL

10 Nov. – The Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI

12 Nov. – Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON

14 Nov. – Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

16 Nov. – Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA (not with Kendrick)

17 Nov. – TD Garden, Boston, MA

19 Nov. – Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY (not with Kendrick)

21 Nov. – Verizon Center, Washington, DC

23 Nov. – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (not with Kendrick)

29 Nov. – American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL

30 Nov. – Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa, FL (not with Kendrick)

01 December – Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA

06 Dec. – American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX

07 Dec. – Toyota Center, Houston, TX

Kendrick Lamar will be performing with Kanye for the majority of the tour