Kanye West Liberates ‘The Life Of Pablo’

Ay you heard about the good news? Been sleeping on Kanye, ya’ll had a good snooze? Well there’s only one thing to say – it’s one beautiful morning waking up after Kanye West premiere of ‘The Life of Pablo’.

A testament to his life and art, Kanye West may just have got this right when he tweeted “this new album is ONE of the greatest albums not the greatest just one of …”

One thing that’s undebatable about Kanye West is he knows exactly why he does what he does, and what he does changes our perceptions of form as he creates waves of interdisciplinary art, with new levels in fashion, music and even gaming. ‘The Life of Pablo’ is a work of art on multiple levels and 20 million people across the globe streaming it live on Tidal, were honoured to be in the presence of his greatness. Still feeling misunderstood as an artist, Kanye is in the ring fighting for his art and making what’s in his heart, “So many musicians touch my life and made me who I am… I want to make something great to honor my idols.”

A listening party like no other, Yeezy Season 3 was a fashion show never seen before at New York Fashion Week with a 1000 black models standing, sitting and slouching centre stage at Madison Square Gardens. For Kanye “It was always a dream to have a listening party at Madison Square Garden” and he looked entirely at ease in place, in front of his laptop.

Freedom is art, creating the Yeezy Season 3 collection and the album ‘The Life Of Pablo’, Kanye’s allusions of freedom stem from his desire to break free of perceptions about the limits of his creativity while succeeding to shift paradigms about what art is. Being the Steve Jobs of music may now have been superseded by the allusion to living ‘The Life of Pablo’ – Which one? Picasso perhaps?

The premiere began on a gospel high, with the first track ‘Ultra Light Beam’ a fitting opening of what Kanye essentially calls his gospel album. Featuring Chance the Rapper it’s a realisation that “This is a God dream“, this is everything, this is an appreciation of the blessings in the joy of creation.

Kanye had already liberated the lyrics for ‘Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1/ Pt. 2’, on Twitter saying “I cried writing this“. The track features Kid Cudi and production by Metro Boomin on Pt.1, and Pt.2 liberated the rumoured signing of Desiigner to G.O.O.D music with a feature on the track and a throwback to ‘Panda’.

Putting in a lyrical breakdown over an eery ‘Under The Skin’ kinda feeling, ‘Freestyle 4’ is Kanye’s wake up call, this is the Pablo who considers himself a money making messiah, while rapping into a conscious call to wake up, “Hands up, we just doin’ what cops taught us.” It’s Kanye going out of his mind, or is he just being mindful of his mission.

What do you expect from a track called ‘Famous’ other than Kanye wanting the track to become famous and what other way then throwing Twitter, TMZ and Taylor some bait with the lyric “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous.” With a walk on by Naomi Campbell and co this was the penultimate ode to fame.

With a testimony about love, ‘Highlights’ readdresses the ‘Good Life’ and with a feature from Young Thug it’s also become one of the premiere highlights of the album. Young Thug made an appearance on the stage as a model for Yeezy Season 3, certifying that next huge moment which is likely to be surpassed on Saturday with an appearance on SNL with Kanye to perform ‘Highlights’. Passing the aux cord to Thug at the end of the show to play some new shit, the new Thug track got everyone hot under the hood.

If you forgot who the artist behind the ‘50 shades of Ye‘ is, remember who invented Kanye before you say “I miss the old Kanye“, “I miss the sweet Kanye“, “I used to love Kanye“, his rebuttal is simple “I love you like Kanye loves Kanye.”

‘FML’ a standout track from the premiere, Kanye gives a personal testament of his life without limits, featuring The Weeknd, it’s a multi-layered, sparse and spacial track that breathes in the tension. ‘FML’ is a testament to music only Kanye West knows how to make – originality at its core, it is Kanye at his best.

Kanye also revealed a new version of ‘Wolves’ reworked featuring Frank Ocean and no longer featuring Vic Mensa and the previously previewed ‘Fade’ which seemed to have dropped out of the running order of the premiere but got it’s play on demand at the end of the show.

Say what they feel, 20,000 people stepped into Madison Square Gardens to support a new state of mind and another 20 million streamed it on Tidal across the globe – this was a moment unlike any other, history in the making for a new moment in music.

Catch the replays of the Yeezy Season 3 premiere on Tidal while it’s free.