Kanye West Tries to Make Up for Frank Ocean Cancellation With Rihanna

Frank Ocean’s absence at this weekend’s FYF Fest in Los Angeles was felt a little less thanks to help from Yeezus.

Frank Ocean was scheduled to headline Saturday night of the festival but canceled late in the week “on his own terms,” according to a press release. Kanye West was announced as his replacement.

For any Frank Ocean fans, his cancellation wasn’t altogether shocking. Ocean was supposed to drop his highly-anticipated second album this July. Instead of new music, however, we’ve been met with radio silence and no album. FYF would have likely been Frank Ocean’s first opportunity to perform his new material on a major stage. Admittedly, I can see how it would have been somewhat odd for him to show up with that elephant in the room.

As disappointing as his cancellation was, the blow was softened a bit by Kanye West, which was a rather impressive last-minute pull by the festival, if not a perfect replacement music-wise.

Kanye came out and generally behaved himself with a solid performance which included a surprise Rihanna appearance. According to Billboard, the guest appearance wasn’t planned. Kanye saw Rihanna in the audience and pulled her onstage without any warning. She sang the chorus of “FourFiveSeconds” from the pit and eventually came onstage for “FourFiveSeconds.”

Personally, I’m still pissed at Frank, but kudos to Kanye for stepping up and remembering that a little Rihanna makes everything better.