Fighter: Kanye West
Trainer (Gym): Rick Rubin, Noah Goldstein (GOOD Music, Def Jam, Roc-A-Fella)
Cut Men: Boi-1da, Cashmere Cat, DJDS, Frank Dukes, Charlie Handsome, Havoc, Sinjin Hawke, Charlie Heat, Anthony Kilhoffer, Madlib, Metro Boomin, Menace, Mitus, Hudson Mohawke, Plain Pat, Karriem Riggins, Daz Dillinger, Allen Ritter, Caroline Shaw, Southside, Just BonaFide, Swizz Beatz, Velous, Fonzworth Bentley
Weight Class: Rap Heavyweight/Vanguard
Notable Fire: Ultralight Beam, Wolves, Highlights, No More Parties in LA
Notable Trash: Freestyle 4
Tale of the Tape: The name Kanye West evokes many adjectives: “mercurial”, “brash”, “insane” are some, while “genius”, “savant” and “dope” are others. But the self-proclaimed “38-year-old 8-year-old” tries to add “husband” and “father” to the mix on his latest album. The Life of Pablo.
TLOP is a marked and honestly welcomed about-face from the Yeezus, the last Kanye album. Throughout his seven studio albums, Ye has taken on many different identities. From the young and hungry backpacker during the early College Dropout years, to the grieving and heartbroken period of 808s and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and the aforementioned Yeezus experiment, Kanye is definitely entering a “rapper dad mode”, which Nas exemplified on Life is Good.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t address the manner in which TLOP was presented to the world. Now, it’s commonplace for artists to change the name of their albums, and even workout which songs will be saved for any potential “three-step drop” situations, bonuses, and which given away on mixtape. Kanye West, either through pure hubris or genius, publicly went through these changes along with other tirades on Twitter. Even after Pablo dropped as a Tidal exclusive, Kanye was still making improvements to the songs which we addressed on the 3.08.16 HHSR Podcast. If the United States Constitution is a living and breathing document, then The Life of Pablo is a living and breathing album. Kanye and the minds behind TLOP added instrumentation, a menagerie of guest vocals, and samples to these songs which completely took the LP to a much higher level.
Chi-City’s finest.
The album opens up with what is hands down one of the top ten greatest Kanye West songs in “Ultralight Beam” featuring Chance The Rapper, The Dream, Kelly Price and Kirk Franklin. The opening track channels into the same emotion that “Jesus Walks” created on The College Dropout 12 years ago. Chance the Rapper completely stole the show here with his verse and quite possibly set himself up to “move up a weight class” in the same fashion that Nicki Minaj did when she obliterated “Monster” on MBDTF.
“Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” is an interesting journey as it starts off with another gospel style introduction that is cut short when we’re all reminded what happens if Young Metro don’t trust you, only to have Kid Cudi crooning about how the lady in question is “the sun in the morning”. Then, to put it cleanly, Kanye worries about a model ruining his shirt.
Sidebar: I believe that the model here refers to Kim Kardashian and this is part of their “origin story”? Am I crazy to think that?
On “Pt. 2”, Kanye reflects on his parents’ breakup and how the role his own father’s focus on the almighty dollar helped cause it. However before West can get too deep into this sensitive subject matter, he gives the ultimate boost to a then largely unknown GOOD Music signee Desiigner, by sampling the song “Panda“…which as far as I can tell has nothing to do with anything.
Sidebar: Whatever the reason, it worked. “Panda” is currently the #1 song in the country according to Billboard.
The disjointed nature of “Father Stretch My Hands PT.1” and “PT.2” are prime examples of my only real criticism of the album. Throughout the first 14 tracks, the album centers around those relationships Kanye holds most dear, but at the same time is too distracted to focus on. The subsequent five songs feel like a totally different album, or better yet, random bonus tracks without being called as such. Then again, this is Kanye West we’re talking about here and he’s going to do exactly he wants to do no matter how random it may be.
Between “Famous” and “Feedback” (which was partially written by Chance the Rapper) Kanye revels in his own successes and “eccentricities”; from coppin “a jet to fly over personal debt” and then noting, “I’ve been outta my mind a long time/I’ve been saying how I feel at the wrong time/Might not come when you want, but I’m on time.”
After this dalliance with more “trivial” aspects of the megastar rapper life, Kanye begins to coalesce again around family, in his own special Kanye West kind of way that is.
On “Highlights”, which was co-written by Young Thug of all people, West brags about his family (and the Kardashian’s by extension), first noting that he and Ray J would be friends if they weren’t eskimo brothers (and West wasn’t rich) before declaring the Kardashian-West union to have created the “new Jacksons”. The family outpouring continues on “Waves”, wherein West grieves his late mother. It’s interesting to wonder how Kanye’s musical career would’ve progressed had Donda West not been taken too soon.
Sidebar: “Waves” was co-written and arranged by Chance the Rapper and features Chris Brown and Kid Cudi vocals.
Where “Waves” was focused on his late mother, “FML” featuring The Weeknd shifted the focus on his wife and putting her, and by extension their family, before other women…while other women are wanting to get in-between and excitedly breakup a happy home. West reveals the layers to his soul as he raps, “God, I’m willing/To make this my mission/Give up the women/Before I lose half of what I own.” Not quite a noble pursuit, but a sacrifice nonetheless.
The evolution of TLOP was nowhere more apparent than on “Wolves”, the penultimate track of the non-bonus portion of the album. The vocal distortion, the howls and nature sounds in the background, and the snares blend together perfectly from a purely musical sense. The late addition of vocals from Vic Mensa and Sia completely elevated the song, in no small part because Kanye…God bless him, he just can’t sing. Lyrically West expresses regrets for past wild behaviors, some sentiments of regret for not being good enough for his wife, and even how their relationship creates so much ire in the public sphere. The outro “Frank’s Track” not only completes “Wolves”, but also encapsulates a project focused on family, love and loss.
Or at least it should….
The previously mentioned “bonus tracks” (“30 Hours”, “No More Parties in LA”, “Facts”, “Fade”), while they are of varying quality, are basically one-offs along for the ride on TLOP. In fact, each of them were released on Kanye’s G.O.O.D Music Fridays, with little to no noticeable improvement before being added to the final tracklist. “30 Hours” was good, but had the most annoying part of any 90s rap album: the “shout out” track. “No More Parties in LA” is well put together and Kendrick Lamar did his thing as he is known to do. On “Facts”, Kanye lost me and I’m sure others, when he asked if anybody “felt bad for Bill Cosby”. With the current state of American politics, this concerned me considering his “2020 I’m gon run the whole election” declaration. Last and possibly least, “Fade” with Ty Dolla $ign and Post Malone, feels like something that should’ve been left on the cutting room floor.
Fight Night: Winner By Split Decision
The Life of Pablo is disjointed but in a good way. Lyrically, it’s a mixed bag but that’s what you get with Kanye West as he’s always been a “producer rapper”. Conversely, as far as the sonic qualities of the music, TLOP is awesome; there are so many layers to these songs. There is the issue of the three skits; the “Silver Surfer Intermission” (a prison phone convo with the incarcerated Max B, who initially inspired one of the album’s old titles that launched a brief beef with Wiz Khalifa) which is trash, “Freestyle 4” which is trash, and the “I love Kanye” which is cute as a tongue-in-cheek joke on Kanye by Kanye , which is fine and certainly not as hateful as the other two.
With the three skits, the four bonus songs, the entire album feels short at just under an hour long, but is overall a good listen with repeat play value.