The Life Of Pablo, which one?

"I know some fans who thought I wouldn't rap like this again, but the writers block is over emcee's cancel your plans"

After 4 weeks, a lot of information, one tired hip-hop head, and we've finally reached the end of the road. But of course, I have to leave something good before I decided to retire my services to this blog. I need to give you guys something sweet, something beautiful, something the kids are going to want to jump and sing when they here it. That's a college dropout reference, kudos if understood. Back to the topic.

        I decided to leave you guys with the last album that will definitely change how music is released. The Life Of Pablo by, the man everyone loves to hate, Kanye West. Kanye West has a reputation that often precedes itself. He's a house hold name, from his cockiness to being the best artist out no matter what, to Taylor Swift, to never smiling, Kanye West is surely the character, the "38 year old, 8 year old" himself.

        One thing that sets Kanye apart from artist's who attempt to act in a similar matter is his value as a rapper and producer, is that Kanye actually has the resume to back up his endless rants of him being an important figure in hip-hop.  Behind the board and the in the booth Kanye was one of the original dual threat artists, succeeding in both areas. Now, back to the topic once again.

        The Life Of Pablo is Kanye's seventh studio album, and will eventually follow suit to commercial and critical success like his last six albums. Pushing musical boundaries and thematically and sonically, TLOP was a different monster in entirety. From having start studded features, from Rihanna, to Kendrick Lamar, even to the mostly absent Frank Ocean, the album was a crazy clash of artists from all over the genre. What makes this album different is how it began. It started off as SHMG, So Help Me God, back in 2013. According to Kanye and many others who worked on the album, this album was going to be different because it will be closer to Kanye's heart and will be more personal like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The album was reported as nearly finished many of times through out the 3 year absence, he's played the album on set of Anchorman 2 during filming, practically forced Seth Rogan into a limo to hear Kanye perform the album, playing all the Paul McCartney tracks in random nightclubs, the album was his best kept secret and he kept it well.

        After his two released tracks of All Day and Only One, the album was later given a name change again to Waves. Kanye started becoming more active on twitter, taking a picture of the album track list, written on a notepad and signed by other artists and celebrity figures, who we assume are featured on the album as well. The notepad at one point looked like a Jackson Pollack painting filled with signatures and got many fans excited.

        The album was once again changed to TLOP, which he promised a free pair of his Yeezy sneakers to anyone who can guess the acryonym. Later he announced that the album would be released during his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show and anyone who buys a ticket for the show will receive a copy of the album when it's released. The show happened, the album took everyone by storm, but one thing remained. No one ever got a copy of the album. Turns out the album wasn't finished like everyone thought.

        Half a month and an SNL performance later, the album was eventually released as a Tidal exclusive, and Kanye himself announced that the album will not be released anywhere or will be available for sale. The album was still not up for download. Somewhere after weeks of it being released to stream, the album was actually given an update in terms or mixing and mastering, and in some cases for other tracks even an extra verse or two. He's added and subtracted almost every other week which was nothing no one had ever seen before. It essentially became an album with software patches like a video game. Nonetheless the album was a huge success, and definitely changed a lot of how albums will be released. Messy rollout or not, Mr. West is in the building.