![austin kanye life of pablo austin kanye life of pablo](https://d2u8towkwolubl.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Kanye_West_Lollapalooza_Chile_2011_2.jpg)
He attacks the half-woozy, half-abrasive banger of an instrumental on “Feedback” with some serious bravado, growling, “Awesome! Steve Jobs mixed with Steve Austin / Rich slave in the fabric store picking cotton / If Hov’s J, then every Jordan need a Rodman” on the fourth verse. I’ve only mentioned duds worthy of latter-day Eminem thus far, but there are plenty of times when Kanye assumes the role of hellraising megalomaniac with the same spark he has in the past. And like he did on Yeezus, the ways in which he talks about Kim Kardashian are extremely out of pocket on “Highlights” he raps, “I bet me and Ray J would be friends / If we ain’t love the same bitch / Yeah, he might’ve hit it first / Only problem is I’m rich,” and on “Wolves” he repeats “I know it’s corny bitches you wish you could un-follow / I know it’s corny n****s you wish you could un-swallow.” I feel bad for North and Saint West more than anything - if (somehow) nothing else tips them off as to how fucked up their parents are, The Life of Pablo will surely clue them in. His first extended verse on the record comes with second track, “Father Stretch My Hands,” which he kicks off with these shockingly terrible bars: “Now if I fuck this model / And she just bleached her asshole / And I get bleach on my t-shirt / I’ma feel like an asshole.” So just in case you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into, that should clear things up pretty quick. The Life of Pablo’s more trap-influenced cuts find Ye more brash and offensive than ever. Kanye, on the other hand, has found a much stranger, more exciting way of gaining notoriety - namely by becoming more incendiary and unhinged (both musically and otherwise) as the years have gone on. Most superstar rappers (like Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Eminem, and beyond) achieve their infamy by continuing way past their prime when they could easily just retire, putting out shitty projects that have tarnished their respective legacies. It’s sort of shocking how fast he went from being the observant backpacker making tracks like “Jesus Walks” and “Heard ‘Em Say” to a confrontational, excessive, and arrogant prick whose music is largely about how much of a confrontational, excessive, and arrogant prick he is.ĭave Chappelle once said, “you can become infamous, but not un-famous,” and truer words about celebrity have never been spoken. West has made a point to transform himself into popular culture’s greatest villain. Not that Kanye would be even halfway convincing if he tried to posture himself as an imposing kingpin (the thought alone is pretty laughable), but because Mr. It could be that the Pablo here is Escobar. Next to the title is scrawled “WHICH ONE?” - as in, which Pablo is supposed to be the guiding force behind TLOP’s themes and aesthetic?Īn interesting question indeed. Yeezy announced the name by posting a picture of a notepad with the title along with the (since changed) tracklist. One thing that I’m fairly confident is final at this point is the record’s title, The Life of Pablo. In fact, he’s rumored to still be editing the damn thing - I don’t even know how much this review will reflect the final product (whenever the fuck that even comes out). The road to release for Kanye’s sixth solo LP has been incredibly strange - he’s been recording the project for three years, scrapped numerous singles from it, switched its executive producersįrom Q-Tip and Rick Rubin to Paul McCartney to just himself, cycled through four different titles, and changed the tracklist about a thousand times.