Kanye West Plays Inaugural Ball

US hip hop don Kanye West has joined the celebrations as Barack Obama enters the White House, playing a special set at the Youth Inaugural Ball in Washington DC last night (January 20th).

Kanye West has remained one of the hip hop community's main talking points for a number of years now. With an ego almost as big as his talent, West is prone to self-aggrandising boasts. His recent album '808s And Heartbreak' saw the star veer away from his well-known rapping style to focus, for the first time, on singing.

The President and his wife made a brief appearance at the all ticket event, one of ten inaugural balls in the capital celebrating Obama's achievement. West told the crowd "my mama’d be so proud right now to see her baby boy performing the number one song in the country for our new African American president."

West also changed some of his raps to include the President, saying:

"From miles around they came to see him speak
The story that he told
To save a country that’s so blue that they thought had lost its soul
the American dream come true tonight."