Rachel Mack
DISCLAIMER: I am a music guru with an ear for high quality sound production, eminent mixing technique, and like most people, a catchy hook. This review will have absolutely nothing to do with that. Instead, I will be focusing on Kanye West’s lyrical storytelling and colorful language.
Kanye has had a vibrant history when it comes to judging other artists. From interrupting Taylor Swift’s 2009 ‘Best Female Video’ acceptance speech to barely holding back on Beck’s 2015 ‘Album of the Year’ award for Morning Phase, he’s certainly very vocal about his subjective definition of musicality. Kanye must have a very confident demeanor upon releasing anything. Therefore, I have only the highest expectations that his album titled So Help Me God…I mean SWISH…no wait, WAVES …oh how could I forget, The Life of Pablo will grace my life with a newfound wisdom I have yet to embrace. Let’s take a look at Kanye’s brilliancy, because he wants us to.
I truly believe that some of the best records are the ones that are the most relatable. Kanye captured this essence from the very beginning. The album cover (as pictured above) depicts the many frustrations we have all had when it comes to formatting the front page graphic to our book report in the wee hours of the night. This one really brought me back to my high school days of countless marginal problems.
It’s title The Life of Pablo does not hold this same connection. It is rumored to pay tribute to the renowned Cubist painter, Pablo Picasso. Even Florian Picasso, the adopted great-grandchild of Picasso, told TMZ that the “entire Picasso family gives their blessing.” He compared Kanye and Picasso stating that “They both have vision. They both want to revolutionise the game. Pablo Picasso was into art and Kanye is into music. The way they think outside of the box is similar.”
Let’s dig a little deeper.
The first track on The Life of Pablo is titled ‘Ultralight Beam’. It’s a God-inspired tribute to the Almighty featuring a gospel choir, The-Dream, Chance the Rapper, and a recording of a 4-year-old overly excited to go to church. Considering Kanye’s Yeezus album featured the track ‘I Am A God’, the “He” we’re referring to may actually start with a capital “K”.
The second track ‘Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1’ starts with the line “you’re the only power”. At first, it feels like a continuation of the first track, aligned with the same spiritual themes of praise and gratitude. That quickly changes when Kanye begins his first verse: “Now if I fuck this model, and she just bleached her asshole, and I get bleach on my T-Shirt, I’mma feel like an asshole.” Descriptive?: Yes; Relatable?: I hope not. The third track is an extension of the second: ‘Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2’. Its lack of transition between both parts are even more evidently heard between the final bridge and outro which ends up sounding like a toddler got a hold of grandma’s transistor radio.
‘Famous’ is the track that resurfaced Taylor Swift’s beef with Kanye. He takes credit for making her famous while saying they may still have sex. It didn’t go over well with Taylor. But this track features Rihanna and – at least for me – that cancels out his ignorant and degrading comments.
Fast forwarding to Track 7 ‘Highlights’, performed on Saturday Night Live, where Young Thug sings that he “wishes [his] dick had GoPro, so [he] could play that shit back in slow-mo”. Not exactly sure how Kim felt about this song. I don’t think the “Husband of the Year” award would go to Kanye after rapping “I bet me and Ray J be friends, if we ain’t love the same bitch, yeah he might have hit it first, only problem is I’m rich”; a verse where he simultaneously calls Kim Kardashian a bitch and a Gold Digger.
You can watch his SNL performance here:
Track 9 titled ‘I Love Kanye’ is an audio recording of Kanye saying his bedtime prayer (basically).
‘Wolves’ brings back some of the religious thematic elements that somehow got lost along the way. He really puts it all into perspective when he raps: “I said baby what if you was clubbin’, thuggin’, hustlin’ before you met your husband? Then I said, ‘What if Mary was in the club when she met Joseph around hella thugs?’” *Mind explodes* It all makes so much sense now.
Track 15 ‘30 Hours’ samples Arthur Russell’s 1986 track ‘Answers Me’. It’s an easy listening tune rumored to reflect on his past relationship with Sumeke Rainey. It takes roughly 30 hours to drive from Los Angeles to Chicago where Rainey resided while Kanye was recording The College Dropout.
Overall, some tracks are catchy, some lyrics are questionable. But both of those qualities are the necessary ingredients to create a Kanye album. While Kanye may think he keeps redefining music, it’s unfortunately exactly what I expected. But that doesn’t mean I won’t add it to one of my Spotify playlists. I now pray to the Kanye gods for his next album to merge all of his mindless, mental breakdown tweets into an epic tale of love and loss. Maybe next year…
To listen to the full album: The Life of Pablo is exclusively streaming on Tidal, Jay Z’s subpar version of Spotify. The album is additionally available for free on the thousands of pirating sites Kanye might have forgotten about.
I just rolled over.