Kanye West has dropped out of Coachella, Variety confirms. The rapper was set to close out the music festival both weekends, which runs April 15-17 and April 22-24 in Indio, Calif. A rep for the star did not immediately respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.
It’s unclear what prompted West to pull the plug on his performance. He was headlining the festival along with Harry Styles and Billie Eilish. There was massive buzz around the Grammy winner’s appearance given his social media posts over the past few months. TMZ reports Travis Scott was set to join the rapper on stage at Coachella, which would have marked Scott’s first performance since November’s Astroworld tragedy, but the outlet reports that is now scrapped, too.
The news comes days after West’s rep denied reports he told ex-wife Kim Kardashian he was “going away to get help.” The rumor mill started when Page Six and Entertainment Tonight posted the same story, claiming West told Kardashian he would stop cyberbullying her and Pete Davidson.
A source close to the Kardashians told both outlets, “for the sake of their kids, Kanye told Kim he’s not making any public appearances or inflammatory social media statements, and he will go away somewhere to get better.”
West’s rep hit back, telling Yahoo Entertainment the reports are “simply untrue.”
“Ye monitors all headlines pertaining to him and his family daily. Most all are being fed to media by ‘sources close to the Kardashians,’ which have been creating a false narrative that not only is untrue but further compromises his goal of creating a healthy environment for the beautiful children he shares with Kim,” West’s new Head of Media and Partnerships, Hollywood Unlocked‘s Jason Lee, said on Friday. “He’s been focused on taking care of himself, being a present and loving father and a creative genius well before all the false headlines we’ve seen as recent.”
Lee concluded, “If you don’t hear it from his mouth, read it from his social media, or get it from a press release he approved it’s simply false.”
West, who won two Grammy awards on Sunday, was axed from performing during the show over his “concerning” online behavior. West lashed out at Trevor Noah after the late-night host called out the rapper’s harassment of Kardashian. West, who called Noah a racial slur on Instagram, was suspended from Meta platforms for 24 hours.
The rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye, was last seen in public on March 27 when he and Kardashian attended son Saint’s soccer game.
MORE: Trevor Noah calls out Kanye West’s harassment of Kim Kardashian
