Kanye West's album performance was interrupted by Apple's email notification sound

Kanye West played his new album, "The Life of Pablo," for the first time last night in Madison Square Garden, New York.

Instead of standing on stage, West chose to MC, standing in a crowd of his friends while models stood on raised platforms.

The performance was streamed around the world to theatres and on Tidal, the music streaming service owned by rapper Jay Z.

West had been hyping the show, which he also used to show off his new fashion line, over the past week and fans were eager to hear what, exactly, he had come up with.

The songs feature a number of artists including Rihanna, Future, and Chance the Rapper, with a distinctly soul-like vibe, albeit with a lot of cursing and derogatory language.

Towards the end of "Famous," a song he made with Rihanna which references Taylor Swift, West received an email alert that "dinged" with the unmistakable sound Apple's Mac computers make.

"As the song concluded, the laptop playing the album received an email, sending the distinctive Apple ping reverberating through Madison Square Garden," wrote The New York Times in a live blog of the event.

The crowd laughed, but West brushed off the noise and continued showing off his new works.

Tidal, which has exclusive streaming rights for the event, does not let users skip through the video, but it happens after about 10 minutes.

West also showed off a video game that he made that shows his mother, who died in 2007, flying to Heaven.

"I worked on a video game and I wanted to show y'all," he said during the performance. "The idea of the game is, my mom traveling through the gates of heaven."

The performance was fun and lighthearted, with West making several jokes about his life, his work, and even his relationship with his wife, Kim Kardashian.

At one point, Kanye played a 30-second rap in which he mocked the view that he loves himself.

The crowd liked it and started chanting his name, to which he replied "What you say?"

West also thanked Adidas, who he collaborates with on his Yeezy line of clothing, for "paying for all of this." The new clothes, which follow on from a previous collection released late last year, were modelled by Ian Connor and Naomi Campbell, among others.

The future of his clothing also came up when West, unprompted, said he would like to be the creative director of Hermès, the high-end fashion brand.

"To be creative director of Hermès was a dream of mine," he said, according to The New York Times. "I just want to bring as much beauty to the world as possible."