For his first of two Los Angeles shows this week, the artist formerly known as Kanye West again enlisted the visual prowess of Aus Taylor, a name that should be familiar to readers.
The production for the SoFi Stadium show on April 1 saw Ye performing atop a globe-like structure that at some points resembled our home planet, but at others resembled something far more abstract.
While Taylor has been widely credited as the designer of the set, with lighting attributed to See You Later and Trask House’s John McGuire, he made it clear in a comment on this Instagram post from Complex that his actual title is more nuanced than that. Per Taylor, the visual presentation at SoFi was the result of a collaborative process between himself and Ye.
“Ye & Aus — I’m just a vessel,” Taylor said.
Taylor, to be clear, is not just a key player in Ye’s Bully era. His presence is integral to the 24-time Grammy winner’s latter-day period. In 2024, for example, he directed the video for “Slide,” a track off Ye and Ty Dolla Sign’s second Vultures volume.
That same year, Taylor gave what was billed as his first-ever interview to Claire Koron Elat for 032c. According to Taylor, who has also collaborated with the Paris Texas duo and Steve Lacy, his work is made possible thanks to the “deep” relationships he has with his collaborators.
“Those relationships are really hard to find, so I would rather nurture the creative relationships I have,” he said when elaborating on his “no commissions” stance.
For a deeper look into who all helped bring Bully to life, see here. Two months before the album’s release, Ye affirmed that he is “not a Nazi or an antisemite” in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad. In the piece, Ye also spoke about his struggles with bipolar disorder, zeroing in on a “four-month long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid, and impulsive behavior” that he says “destroyed” his life.
