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18. The Life of Pablo - Kanye West (2016)
Hip Hop
They say you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. I doubt anyone would have predicted the strange, gospel turn Kanye’s career took in the years after the release of his seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo, back in 2016. From where we sit here in 2020, TLOP seems the obvious pinnacle of Kanye’s trajectory. 2018 followups Ye and Kids See Ghosts were fine, but pretty underwhelming, and they didn’t even come close to achieving what TLOP achieved.
After the flamboyantly experimental Yeezus in 2013, Kanye was relatively quiet. He stayed busy with some high profile one-off collaborations that whet the appetites of fans, but he was largely silent, musically, during this period. In 2015 when rumors of what would become TLOP began to surface, they were accompanied, in true Kanye fashion, by a slew of misinformation, misdirection and fickleness from Kanye that kept everyone guessing. By the time the album was finally released via a live event at Madison Square Garden in NYC,‘Ye’s true believers had been starving in the proverbial desert for three years. TLOP instantly became the promised land.
Originally 19 tracks, and eventually 20 with the post-release digital addition of “Saint Pablo”, TLOP is Kayne’s magnum opus from a production standpoint. As with 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he assumed the role of foreman on a team of superstar producers he handpicked, directing and guiding, but allowing the freeflow of creative juices and ideas. The result is a wonderfully eclectic, complete and total package of expertly made beats replete with Kanye’s signature sample heavy fingerprints all over it. Gospel sensibilities are found throughout and from the very beginning, with “Ultralight Beam” denoting the album as a “god dream”, before handing the reigns to Chance the Rapper for a memorable cameo. After kicking things off relatively innocently, “Famous” is vintage provocateur Kanye at his finest, sardonically asserting that he made Taylor Swift (not so lovingly referred to as “that bitch”) famous in the aftermath of the notorious mic-snatching incident back in 2009. “Feedback” is a super minimal track that features Kanye spitting some surprisingly impressive bars, foreshadowing the backend of the album where he returns to top form lyrics/delivery wise.
“Freestyle 4” and “FML” take darker turns, as Kanye lets his demons off the chain, if only for a moment. “Waves”, one of the many working titles for the album, ends up being a standout track featuring a sweet assist from Chris Brown on the hook. The ultra personal and thoughtful “Real Friends” is a confession and a reflection on whether success has turned Kanye into a bad friend to those he cares about. The back-to-back “30 Hours” and “No More Parties in LA” are masterpieces that feature some of ‘Ye’s best rapping since The College Dropout. “Facts”, “Fade” and “Saint Pablo” wrap things up immaculately and emphatically cement The Life of Pablo as one of the best and most forward-thinking rap albums ever made. The case could absolutely be made for it being Kanye’s best album.
*image; cover art for the album The Life of Pablo by Kanye West