Kanye West to give concert in Korea in August

U.S. hip-hop superstar Kanye West will be visiting Korea this summer to give his first concert in the country, according to concert organizer SK Telecom on Monday.

SK Telecom announced in a press release that West will be headlining the "Summer Week&T 2010" music festival, to be held in Seoul in August.

The annual music fest, which kicks off this year and takes place beachside, is a grand scale concert that will feature some of the biggest names in the local and global music business.

"Kanye West is the biggest hip-hop icon in the 21st century who wields his talent in music as well as fashion," said an official at SK Telecom. "We expect that Kanye West's sophisticated, innovative music will heat up the intensity of the festival."

The event is the latest in a series of mega-scale culture projects that Korea's mobile giant has been organizing since last year. Previous concert gigs -- "Rock Festival Week&T", "Beachparty Week&T" and "Jazz Week&T" -- were all promoted under the theme 'a joyful week with T.'

Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West first started out in the business as a record producer, working with notable musicians including Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson and Jay-Z.

He released his debut album "The College Dropout" in February 2004, whose first single "Through the Wire" was inspired by his near-fatal car accident in 2002. The album sold over four million copies worldwide and was named the tenth-best album of the 2000 decade by U.S. music magazine Rolling Stone.

His second album "Late Registration," released in August 2005, produced five hit singles and was considered one of the best albums of the year by numerous publications.

Despite his reputation for being arrogant and outspoken, the success of his subsequent album releases "Graduation" (2007) and "808s & Heartbreak" (2008) stapled his position as a bona fide hip-hop star and helped him collect a total of 13 Grammy awards to date.

Other artists in the line-up for "Summer Week&T 2010" include Calvin Harris, autoKratz, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Les Petits Pilous and D.I.M.

Further details, including additional headliners and the second line-up of performers, will be announced later this month. Tickets for the concert will go on sale at a later date as well.

Reporter : Lynn Kim lynn2878@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@