“I want to thank y’all for sticking by me all these years,” he told the crowd. “Through the hard times, through the low times. I love you for that.”

His assumption of unwavering loyalty might have been a bit too generous. In the suite, those around me expressed feelings of conflict similar to what I, and much of my Instagram inbox, seemed to struggle with before the show. Attendance was justified by a mix of “let us enjoy something without guilt” coupled with “this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience”—albeit still tainted.

“Like sorry, if we have to deal with everything that’s going on in the world at the moment,” a friend lamented online, “At least let us listen to good music. I wish he wasn’t so annoying. Imagine being able to just praise his talent without the stress.”

By devoting the first half of the set to the songs that had propelled him to god-tier status, Kanye West staged a love letter to the fans who’ve stayed, despite everything. His lavishing continued with the appearances of self-described “little bro” Travis Scott, CeeLo Green, daughter North West, and Lauryn Hill—who stepped in for Syleena Johnson’s part on “All Falls Down” and performed her own Miseducation of Lauryn Hill track, “Lost Ones.” As a special treat, Ye performed “Everybody,” a still unreleased single anchored by a sampling of Backstreet Boys’ 1997 hit “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).” The band, reportedly, never gave permission.

Towards the end of the show, I looked across to find West’s wife, Bianca Censori, dancing enthusiastically to a song from Bully. With unfathomable proportions—like something shaped from clay by a teenage boy chasing a Weird Science fantasy—she was impossible to miss and seemed thrilled to be there. “He wrote this song about her,” my friend affirmed.