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Kanye West Has Become the Phantom of the Opera

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Universal Music

If you see a masked character in a big red puffy suit wandering around the bleachers at the next Atlanta United FC match, that’s not a mascot; it’s artist-in-literal-residence, Kanye West. After a listening party for West’s tenth studio album, Donda, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on July 22, TMZ reports that West is living inside of the building. Apparently the version of Donda that West presented on Thursday isn’t complete, and he’s aiming for an August 6 release date. Until then, “Kanye and team have created a studio space, living quarters, and even have a chef to prepare his meals” inside the stadium.

On Saturday, he was spotted in the same outfit that he wore at the listening party — pantyhose on head and everything — by spectators at an Atlanta United FC game in the stadium. It’s his house and he lives there. It was only a matter of time before he went full Phantom of the Opera.

Update, July 28 at 9:40 a.m.: West shared a picture of his sleeping quarters in the stadium on Friday, and it’s bleak, folks. A twin bed, limp duvet insert without a cover, concrete walls, lack of windows, single fluorescent panel in ceiling, TV way too high. It’s wild that someone with that much hoarded wealth would choose to live like this, especially when they own, like, all the land in Wyoming.

Or as Twitter user River Page put it, “Kanye living like a Scandinavian serial killer serving his 3 year maximum sentence.”

Kanye West Has Become the Phantom of the Opera