Before his new album was released, Kanye West dominated a lot of the conversation surrounding the entertainment industry—on everything but music.
He had a rough month: his clashes with Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa, supporting a man who has been accused of sexual assault by 50 women, and awkward conversations around Kimye’s sex life are just a handful of the dramas Kanye has partaken in. And he recognizes this on his new album, The Life of Pablo: “Name one genius that ain’t crazy.”
There has been much debate about whether the artist is “crazy,” but Kanye West is right about one thing—he is a musical genius.
Known for his explicit nature and speaking his mind, Kanye definitely did not disappoint this time around. Kanye recognizes his behaviour and often remarks that he says things at the wrong time in real life. Similarly, in his music, he works to illustrate his introspection of his own life, often being outspoken with his lyrics.
On Kanye’s albums thus far, one prevalent theme is his struggle with his faith as a Christian against his instinctive behaviour. TLOP takes his past month (and beyond) of reckless intuitive decisions—along with his internal struggle with fame and success—and puts it on one bold album.
He takes the time to trash Taylor Swift, Amber Rose, and even comments on his relationship with Kim Kardashian.
He also highlights the Black Lives Matter movement, by using the lyric “hands up, don’t shoot” to make parallels between raising hands in celebration to the dark truths the Black community continues to face in “Feedback.”
His direct approach did not make his album any less powerful. In fact, this juxtaposition between his struggle to find the truth in life and in God makes the album as powerful as it is.
Kanye claimed TLOP was a gospel album a week before its release. Kanye clarified on Twitter the title “The Life of Pablo” in fact alludes to Paul the Apostle, whom he described as “the most powerful messenger of the first century.”
The rapper also alludes to Pablo Escobar, the infamous drug lord. The vast differences between the two lets the listener sit in on Kanye’s internal struggle of which path he should take.
On the album before, Yeezus, Kanye paired his verses with metallic, electronic, industrially-inspired music, but on TLOP, he turns to music of Black origins, in its most spiritual and soulful forms. “Ultralight Beam,” backed by gospel voices, was an experience of its own, being a great choice to start off the album. On top of this, he pulls in samples from the gospel sounds of Pastor T.L. Barrett and Kirk Franklin, as well as Nina Simone’s soulful voice.
Kanye has always been clever with sampling to support his tracks. The artist has never gone wrong with Nina Simone, and he was successful in using her voice yet again, along with sampling others such as Sister Nancy’s reggae hit “Bam Bam” to make “Famous” the song it is.
On top of being the king of sampling, in TLOP, he featured a wide array of artists, including The Weeknd, Young Thug, Rihanna, Future, Chris Brown, and the most iconic, Chance the Rapper.
Chance’s appearance on the album is spectacular, his cleverly crafted verse on “Ultralight Beams” being the most evident of this. Furthermore, the rapper took the lead in putting together “Waves,” the song that delayed the release of TLOP, but when released made it more coherent and powerful. Their collaboration was truly remarkable and transformed the album into excellence.
TLOP showcases a completely new Kanye, one who acts as the messenger, like Paul the Apostle once was. Throughout the album, he opens the eyes of the listener to different sounds and talents. His new role makes the album what it is. He undermines the idea of fame and his wrongful chase after it, and clearly differentiates it from the success and happiness he wants to find.
Word is Kanye is still tweaking the album, particularly the track “Wolves.” Nobody truly knows if the current version on Tidal is the final one. I really do not know how much more genius one album can hold.
