No Birthday Gifts For Kanye West

Photo: Patrick McMullan

Does showing up for a birthday party count as a birthday present? Kanye West’s pals say it does. Guests at his corporate-sponsored 30th bash at the Louis Vuitton store said they didn’t get the rapper anything. Jermaine Dupri: “He’s got me. I’m going. I’m the present. ‘Hi, how you doing? Happy birthday!’” Traver Rains of Heatherette: “Uh, a kiss on the cheek?” Sean “Diddy” Combs wouldn’t say if he picked up a present: “That’s personal!” Pharrell Williams: “I don’t know. Some wine or some shit,” he said. Williams’s fellow Neptune Chad Hugo? “My presence.” Only Fonzworth Bentley, Diddy’s former umbrella holder and now an artist on Kanye’s label, seemed to have made an effort. “I brought him a piece of art,” he said. “Apparently, I’m the only one who brought him a gift. Everyone else brought themselves in a hot outfit! But I know the etiquette.”

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No Birthday Gifts For Kanye West