Self-proclaimed and deserved genius Kanye has done it again. If you live under a rock and haven't heard of his new album, "Life of Pablo," you're seriously missing out. However it's understandable if you haven't actually listened to the album in full, considering it's still only available on the music streaming site, TIDAL. This is definitely linked to the fact that Kanye and buddy Jay Z are stake holders in the site. Luckily for me, I've had access to it. The whole concept of the album is that it isn't actually finished. What now? As most artistic works argue, it's still a work in progress and is still subject to change. Listen to it a few days or even a week from now, and the tracklist could be different, there could be new contributing artists, and the album artwork could be a different version of the original.
The album title, in general, is something to address. Could Kanye be comparing himself to Pablo Picasso? Almost definitely. Kanye's pompous and smug ego is almost overwhelming at times with tracks like, "I Love Kanye" and "Famous," but after listening to others like "Real Friends" or "Ultralight Beam," his music begins to mirror those historically established artists as they're riddled in genius.
Despite the genius of the album, it's absolutely a mess. The unquestionability of brilliance and the common interjections of rudeness bring together all aspects of Kanye's work from the past in this jumbled and shameless performance. If you want to learn about some of the tracks before they become more universally accessible, here are a few highlights.
"Ultralight Beam"
Debuted on "SNL," this track was one to remember, and easily my favorite on the album. With an exuberant choir and an uplifting tone, and not to mention a few noteworthy guest artists, this one hits you right in the feels. Chance the Rapper takes this song by storm, totally making it his own. Interesting of Kanye to let the spotlight slide off of his back. Could this be a recognized emergence of the Acid Rapper as his successor? I certainly hope so. Seriously, though, Chance slays in this song.
"You can feel the lyrics, the spirit coming in braille/ Tubman of the underground, come and follow the trail/ I made Sunday Candy I'm never going to hell/ I met Kanye West I'm never going to fail."
Watch the SNL performance here.
"Famous"
Rihanna opens this one with her sultry crooning voice, only to be paired with a delectable beat. This track is where Kanye's isn't afraid to be a bit of a**hole. And by a bit, I mean a huge a**hole with lines like "I feel like me and Taylor may still have sex/ I made that b*tch famous". If it's not obvious enough to you, he's directly referring to Taylor Swift and more specifically a very famous VMA acceptance speech. Go ahead, just watch.
Like the end of the video, Taylor Swift has made no comment about this song.
"I Love Kanye"
This song speaks for itself, which is what Kanye literally does.
"See I invented Kanye/ There wasn't any Kanyes/ And now I look and look around and there's so many Kanyes."
"Wolves"
Frank Ocean is back? Honestly, that's all that matters.
These are only a few of the golden tracks. Others, like "Real Friends" with Ty Dolla $ign propose a more important message of the difficulty of staying in touch. "FML" with the Weeknd has an underwater vibe with an angry Kanye towards the end. And finally "Waves" with Chris Brown proves to be a great turning up beat.
Aren't you just itching to buy TIDAL premium?
