One of the year’s most hotly anticipated albums finally got its first airing last night, as Kanye West unveiled The Life of Pablo last night in an intriguing, rather ramshackle event at Madison Square Garden, in which he also launched his Yeezy Season 3 fashion project.

The event, easily the most high profile at New York Fashion Week, saw a guest appearance from Naomi Campbell and his assorted models giving black power salutes.

As the crowd filed in, they were greeted to the sight of a huge sheet covering two large structures in the middle of the basketball court (MSG is normally the home of the New York Knicks). The sheet was removed to show Kanye’s models, wearing distinctly autumnal colours and standing absolutely still, after which Kanye played the album over a laptop.

All the while, Kanye was seen moving between his position off stage and going to give instructions to the floor managers as they directed the models. Not everything went smoothly: at one point, his laptop was heard to receive an e-mail, and many people watching the live stream on Tidal complained about interruptions to the sound and visual quality.

More: Kanye West reveals what ‘T.L.O.P.’ stands for, reveals final tracklisting

However, the most furious fallout on social media centred on Kanye’s references to having sex with Taylor Swift on ‘Famous’. She has moved to deny the initial report by TMZ which claimed she had given her blessing to use her name in the track, and said Kanye had not contacted her about his at all.

“Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account,” a spokesperson for the 26 year old singer said to MailOnline. “She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that b*tch famous’.”

The lyric shocked many in the audience, which included Taylor’s close friend Gigi Hadid. She moved to clarify on Twitter that her presence there didn’t necessarily mean she approved of Kanye’s every action, while Swift’s brother Austin and her friend Jaime King also acted on social media in support of her.

More: Wiz Khalifa says he accepts Kanye West’s apology – “everything’s cool”