'SNL' Fans Blow up Social Media During Kanye West Performances

Kanye West's performances during the season 44 premiere of Saturday Night Live had social media [...]

By Jose Bastidas

Kanye West's performances during the season 44 premiere of Saturday Night Live had social media going crazy.

The rapper, who changed his stage name to Ye ahead of the premiere of the long running variety sketch show, rocked the stage some of his latest hit songs.

In the first performance, West surprised viewers by bringing out Lil Pump to perform their collaboration, "I Love It," dressing in Perrier and Fiji Water bottle costumes, respectively.

The performance definitely got the attention of fans, who did not necessarily enjoy the unique show.

"Why did people clap after Kanye's 'performance'? I don't [know] what that was," one user wrote.

"Kanye has officially booted Ashlee Simpson out of the worst musical act ever on the show. Congrats!" another user wrote.

"I can still remember waaaay back when people actually respected Kanye. But at this point I think performing on TV dressed as a bottle of water, is just the natural progression for him," a third user tweeted.

For his second performance West brought out Teyana Taylor for a new song, keeping the performance single with no costumes this time.

"Damn I was really hoping #KANYE and his co-singer would be dressed as ketchup and mustard," another user wrote.

In a format change from previous seasons, West returned for a third performance during the episode's credits. Wearing his "Make America Great Again" hat, he performed "Ghost Town" alongside Kid Cudi and 070 Shake.

West took to Twitter to announce his "name change" Saturday morning, writing, "the being formally known as Kanye West," it read with no punctuation. After a double line break, he added: "I am YE."

West shocked viewers when he was seen in a promo for the episode wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, which he also wore during his performance.

West has made headlines at different times of this year and been panned by fans for his public support of President Donald Trump.

Just before announcing his name change, Kanye shared a video of a teenager named Nino Blu, who thanked the rapper for inviting him to the studio after hearing him perform on the street, PEOPLE reports.

"I'm here with Kanye West," Blu said in the clip. "My birthday was the other day and I just became homeless because the guy at the place I was living with was a little crazy and I'm living out on the street. And Kanye's bringing me into the studio right now. He heard me rap, he let me rap with him. He says I have good energy and he's going to show me some beats and stuff."

"I feel extremely blessed," Blu continued. "I feel very happy. I feel like God is just looking out for me right now. I don't have any words at all to describe what's going on. It just feels a crazy ass miracle. I just want everyone back there to know that if you have a dream, or if you have anything that you feel like you're pursuing, keep going for that s— until the very end. You don't know what potentially could happen. The universe works in very mysterious ways. And I feel extremely blessed for Kanye West to help me out with this."

West's upcoming album, Yandhi, was expected to drop Saturday night.

Saturday Night Live airs weekly at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

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