Lorde claims Kanye West and Kid Cudi “stole” her stage design
West and Cudi’s live debut of Kids See Ghosts bore striking similarities to Lorde’s recent tour.
Kanye West and Kid Cudi's project Kids See Ghosts made its live debut over the weekend at Camp Flog Gnaw. The show included a clear, floating rectangular box containing both artists as they performed, and on Monday, Lorde drew comparisons between the design and her stage setup from previous shows in March and at Coachella 2017.
Lorde made the accusation on Instagram Stories – view them here or check out screenshots below. In her final slide, she wrote "I'm proud of the work I do and it's flattering when other artists are inspired by it, to the extent that they choose to try it on for themselves. But don't steal — not from women or anyone else — not in 2018 or ever."
As Reddit points out, West and Lorde share a stage designer. Devlin co-designed Kanye West's Yeezus and Glow In The Dark tours, as well as Lorde's Coachella performance (Lorde shared a screencap of Devlin's Instagram in her Stories). It is unclear if Devlin designed the Kids See Ghosts show as well.
The FADER has reached out to Lorde's representatives for more information.
It's the latest time Kanye has been accused of plagiarism in 2018. Nine Inch Nails frontman accused West and The Weeknd of copying his live show, and DJ David Morales pointed out the similarities between one of his 1991 remixes and West's hit "I Love It."