Thoughts On: The Life Of Pablo

Welcome back to the annual segment of my blog known as “Thoughts On”. In the midst of the Grammy tomfoolery and my continued disappointment with the masses definition of a good album, I decided that it was time to talk about something before you tired of hearing about it. The “It” in this situation of course being “The Life Of Pablo” by none other than Kanye West. After months of him changing titles, morphing track lists, and countless Twitter posts from people in the industry claiming this album was the greatest album to ever grace music, it finally dropped. So what does this Titan of the music industry have to say with his latest   release?

So who is Kanye West? Well at this point if you don't know who Kanye is then you should receive some kind of award. This 39 year-old producer and rapper shook the game up when he helped to produce the 2001 classic “The Blueprint” for fellow rap megastar Jay-Z, however his real break came when he released his solo album “College Dropout” in 2004. This story driven was filled with humor, bars that did not revolve around the gangsta rap tropes of the time, and most importantly contained some of the smoothest soulful production on a rap album ever. This was so groundbreaking it shot Kanye into the limelight as the “alternative rapper”, and more than a decade and 6 critically acclaimed albums later, he has delivered TLOP for us to enjoy. Kanye is more than just a popular icon, at this point he is one of the most important figures who have ever been involved in Hip-Hop culture. Single-handedly changing trends and paving the way for artists of similar tastes to make it big. Some of my favorite rappers would not exist without Kanye (Gambino, Lupe, Logic), or at the very least their own paths to success may have taken a much longer time. So needless to say, each Kanye album is an event, and how he chooses to construct these events may lead to another big change in the sound of Hip-Hop culture.

So what does this album have to compete with? Usually this is not such a big issue, but taking into account all of his albums are huge critical successes, his backlog needs to be taken into consideration. Kanye has gone through many styles over the years, so I was curious as to what the final product of his latest album would sound like, luckily for me Kanye took a step in the abstract direction and decided make an album akin to a stream of consciousness. Tracks connect and flow out of each other tight enough to make a solid project, but loose enough to let people play around and make their own track list, thus making the album more personal in some ways. Things about the release of this album seemed sloppy, everything from the constant change to the albums cover (which I despise) just seemed odd and disconnected. I was worried that maybe Kanye finally lost it. Well it turns out he did in the best of ways. Thematically Kanye always has some sort of overall point that he is trying to say with his music. With the Graduation Trilogy (College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation), the point was to express Kanye's rise to stardom without needing conventional tools of success via College or traditional Jobs. By the end of the series he had accepted his place in rap and wraps up the idea with a nice bow. After this he moves into the more dramatic and singing based album “808's and Heartbreak” which was a complete shift in sound and a mega hit in the music world. From then on it was “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” which was his best work, combining the production elements of just about every producer out there who matters and giving us a landmark album that dealt with themes of sin and power. Then with “Yeezus” he proclaimed himself to be against music, and the album represented that with industrial influence and its portrayal of Kanye as a God. It was the culmination of how Kanye felt during the height of his power and it was a stark contrast to “Early Kanye”. Yet despite all his past work, TLOP stands out to me as the most Kanye album that Kanye has ever made.

So all that in mind, We get to hear the opening track, 'Ultralight Beam', and it is something we have never heard from Kanye before. It is the unfiltered Gospel influence that he has always shown he has, but more concentrated and fused with the love of autotune that he found later in his career. Drums kick in every couple of beats to make the instrumental feel sparse as an actual choir rings out with the call of the song's namesake and Kanye interjects with sung verses before a female vocalist comes in and brings the house down. The song features Chance The Rapper and Kirk Franklin, and more so than anything else, feels the most spiritual that Kanye has dared to be in years. Post “Yeezus” Kanye has seemed to be stuck in the position of being the crazy rapper, the one is expected to go out and be weird for the sake of being weird. And while I am sure Kanye embraced this, being put in a box was never his style. No matter what people say, there is always expectations of musical artists to be some kind of way. It doesn't matter how much you love Lady Gaga, if she picked up a mic, started rapping, and promised never to sing again, I can guarantee she would lose a lot of her fanbase. This is where Kanye has a bit of an advantage, since he is far past the stage where being labeled actually means anything to him. His production and features of late have all been geared toward the big sound banger movement that is currently most popular in mainstream rap songs, and he is good at making these songs. One could almost fear that his own project would reflect this, but instead he found a way to shift the mainstream sound to fit his own Kanye style.

In 'Famous' the tone shifts back to the bold bragging Kanye that we all love and hate, but with the added elements of the dark production that make this song hit hard as nails. He even has Rihanna on the hook, which is ANOTHER trend that his been happening in rap music (See Drake and Eminem) and twists that to suit his taste as well. Usually the hook that is sung in the traditional “Popular female singer on the chorus” type song is catchy and memorable, so much so that it kind of overpowers the rest of the lyrical content of the song (Love the way you lie and What's my name), but here it is just another instrument in Kanye's arsenal. One thing that will never cease to amaze me about Kanye is his ear for music and production. So far he has managed to create an album that praises God while still retaining the sinful human elements of Kanye's personality and past. It moves back and forth, through angelic chords to devilish drums and beats to create this reflection of what I can only assume is the inside of Kanye's mind.

In 'Highlights' we get Kanye's take on what would otherwise be a typical Young Thug type song, with sing song rapping fused with braggadocious rhymes about his sex life, but out of nowhere it morphs into something much more beautiful. While the beat shifts from a straight boom-bap beat to a jazzy chords, back to the boom-bap, then to synth based chords, Kanye talks about his son and the kind of song he wants him to have. The very human Kanye uses the theme of highlights to just emphasis his joy for being alive, and this is something that we have not heard in what seems like forever, a happy Kanye. A few tracks after this we get 'Waves', which feels like the melodic fulfillment of that same Kanye. With bright chords rising in the back ground in a futuristic, combined with Chris Brown's perfectly utilized voice, it is the kind of song you can just sway to. Apparently this song was arranged by Chance, which just shows the kind of effect that Kanye can have on fellow artists if it leads to songs like this. Through this part of the album the Godly theme is not stated per say, but it is felt through the music. Kanye has never let himself be this free when it comes to his music and it certainly feels different. From how melodies just keep going or the lack of actually back to back rap bars, this album just feels different. For a man who has done just about everything, what left is there to conquer? I think Kanye found the answer in the form of challenging himself to be more of himself. So not only is the production top notch, but everything he says (from the vulgar to the profane) feel more true than ever before.

'Real Friends' is a kind of a heart breaker. Starting off somber musically, this song is about West's broken relationship with his own family, created mostly by his own fame. Adjusting to change would be hard for anyway, but after years of Kanye being the important figure that he is, any chance he had of trying to balance being present in the family and being well, Kanye, is all but gone. Lyrically the song touches on forgotten birthdays, awkward appearances at family gathering, and the question of whether or not any one has real friends, all set to the tune of an instrumental that sounds like it is crying. He states he tries to make time, but as the busiest man in rap I can imagine it is hard to be present 24/7, all the money in the world can't buy feeling loved or cared for, and it can't fix a broken family. The humane side of Kanye continues into 'Wolves', which contains a grimy bass-line and mesmerizing background vocals by Sia. It revolves around feeling lost in the world and being received as “too wild”. It is very possible that he just feels misunderstood, but I think it goes deeper than that. In life you are going to do things you regret, and these things range from having sex with the wrong person to saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. But as the haunting melody carries on it reminds you of something else, it reminds of how you kept going despite your mistakes. Lost in the woods surrounded by wolves, some of which you created, the song is about how you deal with the fangs of life. With a more bare bones vocal appearance by Frank Ocean at the song's end hammering the idea that life is precious, and despite what you do wrong you have to conquer your past to succeed anywhere.

While '30 Hours' is not the last song on the album, it feels like the perfect end to the confusing and gorgeous narrative that Kanye is trying to paint for us. As it samples 'Answers me' by Arthur Russell, it creates the perfect backdrop of a road trip. It keeps going and going and as you listen you just get all this time to reflect. Kanye also chooses to use this beat to reflect on his past again as well, since this song was based off a real 30 hour road trip he took. More important than this, this song is a good overall summation of Kanye West as an artist. It demonstrates his legendary skill in sampling, his love of stopping and starting beats for emphasis, his tendency to add fellow artists voices to his songs just like they were their own instruments, and his rap style the seems to just float over the top over the top of the music. He even had the audacity to play with my heart and put Andre 3000 on the hook. The song goes on far past Kanye actually rapping anything significant over it, and he even points out himself that he just wants to let this rock like a bonus track on an old rap CD. He has come full circle and now is making a track to emulate the feeling that listening to classics back in the day gave him. And much like the wavy instrumental keeps going and going, so will Kanye's influence into the future. This is not only a good end to the album, but if this was the last song Kanye ever made, it would feel like an appropriate fit.

TLOP is a scattered and mixed up mess in a lot of ways. The themes are not consistent, the mood shifts quickly and severely, and it has almost no commercial appeal. That being said I think it is the most honest album Kanye has ever made. Hitting on everything from his own spirituality to demons that he fights everyday. A lot of rappers and artists can tell stories about how the feel or where they are coming from. A Lot of producers can make music that sticks in your head for days at a time. Many songwriters can evoke feelings that usually cannot be put into words. However not many singular artists can do all three as effectively as Kanye has done on this album. By picking his brain and letting it all fall out into the music, he has shown us what it means to be Kanye. The highs and lows, the pain and promise, and underlying spirit that guides him through it all. This is the soul of a man who wants to make art for as long as he can, and despite how scrambled you may feel after listening to it, you know that you are grateful for the time you had. In a lot of ways I want this to be his last album. I feel like this takes everything he has ever been known for, every Kanye he has been, and combines it all to form the True Kanye. We get bars, soul, inspiration, and the ever present controversy all in one package and it feels like a celebration of everything that is Kanye West. This album feels like a journey that has it's hiccups, but these hiccups are some of the most enjoyable parts of the ride, reminding you of when you first heard that breakout artist back in 2004, when it first occurred to you that this man might just become a legend in the Hip-Hop world.