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Just over a year ago, Kanye West said that his then-unreleased twelfth studio album “Bully” felt to him personally like Lauryn Hill’s groundbreaking 1998 album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”
“Yeah, because you’re leaning on a bar that’s bringing someone down – that’s always been rap,” Yeezy told Justin Laboy on The Download podcast in February 2025. “This is more like how I remember Lauryn Hill’s album, how I remember ‘Miseducation.’ I feel like it’s my ‘Miseducation.’
West’s words came full circle on Friday, April 3, at the second Comeback concert at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, to a circle. In the middle of the sold-out show at the 70,000-capacity stadium, the rapper and producer now known as Ye brought none other than Ms. Hill onto the stage – she appeared in a flowing dress amid a cloud of smoke. As the two stood on the spherical Earth-like stage, the audience erupted in thunderous cheers as they launched into a rousing performance of “All Falls Down.”
Ye smiles, Hill takes over
West, now known as Ye, smiled throughout the set – a rare sight. Ye, a longtime fan of Hill’s, sampled a track from her live album “MTV Unplugged No. 2.0” – “Mystery of Iniquity” – for his Grammy-nominated 2004 single “All Falls Down.” At the time, he was unable to get the original sample approved for official release and hired Syleena Johnson to re-sing the relevant passages, which were then heard on “The College Dropout” version.
Then that Friday evening, Ye disappeared through a trapdoor on stage, leaving Ms. Hill to take the field. After Hill performed a version of “Doo Wop (That Thing)” from her debut album, she announced, “I brought some people with me.” She was soon joined by her sons Zion Marley and YG Marley. YG and Hill joined together to sing “Praise Jah in the Moonlight,” his 2023 debut single that mother and son co-wrote.
While Ms. Hill’s performance alongside Ye sent both the packed SoFi Stadium and the Internet into a frenzy – the concert was streamed live on YouTube – Ye had other guests with her throughout the evening. Earlier in the night, Travis Scott had shown up wearing a mask and a shirt with “Unsane” printed on it. The two performed their joint track “Father,” which was released on March 28, 2026 as the lead single from “Bully.” Scott also delivered a performance of “Fein,” the hit from “Utopia.”
North West, CeeLo and more
Ye followed up with CeeLo Green, who performed the album’s title track. Ye’s daughter North, who had already performed on the first evening, appeared a second time and rapped “Bless Me” and “Piercing on My Hand”. In another special moment, Ye invited André Troutman to perform their track “All the Love” together. As he had done the night before in Los Angeles, the usually outspoken artist refrained from commenting on the controversies and backlash he faces after years of anti-Semitic rhetoric, mental health crises and his public apology in a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal last January for his anti-Semitic outbursts.
At one point, Ye asked the audience, “Tonight we’re leaving all of this behind us, right, LA?” Whether that will actually work remains to be seen – but the artist once known as Kanye West and the sold-out stadium seemed ready to do just that, at least for this one evening.
