Drake’s set from his joint Free Larry Hoover Concert with Kanye West has mysteriously vanished from Amazon Prime ondemand streaming of the event.
The video streamed on Amazon Prime was edited to remove Drake‘s 12-song set from the benefit concert held last week without an official explanation. On Thursday, Variety reported that the video was edited, and a highly sanitized version showing only Kanye’s performance remained on the Amazon Prime video stream.
The reunion of the rappers came after years of lyrical beefing that threatened to get personal as the rappers took jabs at each other as Kanye West went on an album war on Drake.
However, Kanye later appealed to Drake to come together for a concert geared at helping to Free Larry Hoover at the event which took place last Thursday (Dec. 9) at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
It’s unclear what transpired behind the scenes, but according to Variety, Amazon removed Drake’s performance, and only an edited version of the concert remains with a few key parts remaining.
The parts that have remained in the video are the beginning when Drake steps out in a grand show of unity with Kanye, as both men walk down the steps of the Coliseum, and the very end when Ye and Drake perform their collaboration “Forever.”
The part where they are seen leaving the stage together is also present, but the entire performance by Drake, which includes his 12-song performance, which amounted to around 24 minutes, is edited out.
The graphics promotion of the show does include Drake, however. There has not been any formal explanation by Amazon, neither Kanye’s nor Drake’s team.
However, fans online have speculated that the rappers are still beefing, which could explain why Drake is not in the video stream.
Some have suggested that Drake might have requested his removal from the video, mainly as fans felt that the entire benefit concert was a low-key set up by Kanye of a clash which Drake was not prepared for, given his choice of songs from his expansive catalog.
In the meantime, Variety is reporting that the reason for the edit could be that rights issues as granted by Drake for his live performance but not for the on-demand streaming permanently.
The publication also suggested that Since the rapper’s OVO Sound Radio is on SiriusXM, his Amazon licensing deal may conflict with Sirius, which has an exclusivity deal for video content.
Meanwhile, the reunion concert was supposed to raise awareness for Larry Hoover, cofounder of the Gangster Disciples, who is currently serving six life sentences after being convicted of murder and running a criminal organization in 1997.
Kanye West has faced backlash for his support for a convict who federal authorities say is among the “worst of the worst” when it comes to convicted felons.
Kanye has also faced backlash for capitalizing on the event purportedly for charity as the G.O.O.D. Music rapper sold millions in merchandise which he later said would not go towards the efforts to free Hoover.
Kanye West has not addressed the criticisms.
