TLOP opens with the strangely seraphic Ultralight Beam – one of a trinity of songs with input from Yeezus‘ exec producer Rick Rubin. But, like Jesus Walks, it’s profane – and tormented rather than joyful. West has proclaimed TLOP a gospel album – ‘Pablo’ named for the apostle St Paul, in Spanish, but also a nod to drug lord (and Mafioso rap hero) Pablo Escobar and genius touchstone Pablo Picasso. Elsewhere, West, proud Chi-towner, dusts off old house classics (awesomely, Larry Heard’s Mystery Of Love on Fade). West deploys samples discordantly – deconstructing the soulful paradigm of 2004’s The College Dropout.įreestyle 4, for which Hudson Mohawke has a studio credit, lifts its sinister strings from Goldfrapp’s early Human. Sonically, TLOP takes more cues from 2013’s Yeezus than anticipated – only it’s less electro-punk and more drill and coldwave. Is TLOP a masterpiece? Being fragmentary, it’s not easily discerned. But, as underscored by the meta acappella I Love Kanye, a flashback to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, this “genius” understands public perceptions. West’s former ghostwriter Rhymefest (Meek Mill alert!) has questioned his mental health. There could be a dark aspect to the spectacle.
Even now TLOP is in flux, West updating the world through Twitter. West virtually invented the producer/curator – and, here, he directs a cast on the scale of Beecroft’s. TLOP mirrors its chaotic creation – it’s an album refracted through digital culture. Now, following Rihanna with ANTI, Ye is utilising the divisive Tidal to share TLOP.
It was all streamed online via Jay Z’s TIDAL (West is a stakeholder) and into cinemas globally.
West jumped around while models stood motionless as part of an epic still life installation by controversial conceptual artist Vanessa Beecroft. The MC/producer/fashion designer premiered his eighth outing by playing it off laptop as the soundtrack to the Adidas Yeezy Season 3 fashion show at New York’s Madison Square Garden.