Kanye West had a meeting with the mayor of Cody, Wyoming, and was very interested in the local area.
The 42-year-old rapper brought his religious gathering to Wyoming – where he recently purchased a R203 million range – last weekend at the Powwow Garden in the Buffalo Bill Center of the West museum, but before it took place, his “people” reached out to local officials to request a meeting with Mayor Matt Hall.
The mayor told The Daily Beast: “I think he wanted to come in and say hi.
“He asked where would be a good place to have the Sunday Service. We gave him a few ideas, but ultimately he went with the [Buffalo Bill Center of the West].”
The mayor was impressed by the “Stronger: hitmaker’s desire to learn more about the local area and find ways to get involved with the community.
He said: “[Kanye was] a pretty open and sincere individual. He had a desire to talk about deeper subjects, what he could do to possibly help the town.
“He seemed curious about what Cody is like, actually, from my perspective.
“I’ve heard some of his songs and liked a few of them, but I’m not a huge fan.
“I’ve been reached out by relatives on the west coast who still want me to call them back and talk about it.”
The pair spoke about how the economy largely relies on tourism but both officials and local residents are keen to diversify the types of jobs available in Cody.
While they got on well, the mayor insists he has no plans to visit Kanye, his wife Kim Kardashian West and their four children at their new home and will mostly leave them alone.
He said: “The way our town works is that when people move here, it’s a lot of times with the intent to have a space away from the world a little bit. Generally, the culture of the town is, ‘Yeah, ok, do your thing.’ “
The Sunday Service details were advertised only on local news stations and those in attendance found the organiser to be a low-key figure.
Macy Nelson – who drove two hours from her home in Billings, Montana, for the service, said: “People are commenting about how they don’t want Kanye and Kim there because they’re ‘too much,’ saying they will ‘ruin’ the town’s rich history of being a ‘small’ town.
“Others claim that Kanye is doing the Sunday services for attention and to bring publicity to his family.
“However, I found exactly the opposite. He only spoke a few words the whole time and was singing with the choir the rest of the time.”
Another attendee, Erika Dahlby got there before doors had opened.
She said: “Looking at the line, there were little old ladies from Cody, people with their kids, and a lot of people from the regional area. There were ladies who had to be in their seventies who brought their fold out chairs. It was so cute to see people curious about who Kanye is and what his service was.”
At one point, the choir director asked people from Wyoming to make some noise, before impressing those gathered with his local knowledge.
Erika said: “He went into name-dropping these little towns, like Powell, a town of 5,000, then Sheridan, then Billings.
“It was nice that they took the time to learn where people were coming from. They made an effort to know their audience.”
