AN ALBUM MADE BY GOD: YE BY KANYE WEST

Oh man.

It has been over two years since Kanye West released The Life of Pablo, another fantastic album in his surreal 9, soon to be 11 (+Kanye & Cudi), album discography.

It felt like Saturday all day today, and walking home from work, I didn’t even realize that today was Thursday until I got home and saw that Kanye West tweeted out a link to watch the live stream for his new album.

(My hearts racing, waiting for this album.)

As usual, after Kanye dropped The Life of Pablo, he went back into quiet mode; as far as music goes, anyways. He is even bigger than music… but he is music. About a month ago he made his return to twitter and was tweeting up a storm everyday; of course it was all because he was unveiling his newest masterpiece soon. He was tweeting a few “controversial” things, and they were “upset” but at the end of the day, he’s Kanye West, and they don’t really care, they’re all tuned in right now waiting for the album to start playing on the live stream. It’s 10:47PM EST right now and the stream started at 10PM.

Anyways, the name of the album isn’t even out yet; all I know is that Kanye West is about to shock the world and leave WYOMING on fire.

 

Even after the stream, live from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, ended, the album, now we know is called Ye still didn’t appear on streaming sites. When I woke up I spent some dough on Kanye West merch then I immediately began refreshing Apple Music and Spotify. Finally, at around 8:15 this morning, Ye was revealed to the world.

I’ll quickly say the specs of Ye: 7 songs, 23 minutes.

Pressed play.

It’s going to be tough to put how I feel about what I just listened to into words, but I won’t publish this until it’s up to my standards.

Everyone says that Kanye West is the most arrogant person to ever walk the Earth, but why is it a problem to love yourself? Or to know you’re the best, and say it, and prove it. On Ye, Kanye West told his story. All his albums tell a story about himself in some way, but this album is his story. He flew to the mountains of Wyoming and crafted all his deepest, darkest thoughts into a 7 song work of art. Oh my goodness. He expressed himself in a way we haven’t seen since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the greatest album of all time; he didn’t hold back one bit, and that is why he named the album Ye, after himself, he gets extremely personal, he gives us information and lessons in the form of music; not only through lyrics but through the production, the features, the pitches, the album art. Ye is purely amazing.

I went through a whirlwind of emotions when the first song “I Thought About Killing You” started. Kanye West opens the song by saying “most beautiful thoughts are always beside the darkest.”, something that I gradually learned over these last couple years. I wont act like I feel what Kanye West is saying because like I said: he flew to Wyoming and crafted all his deepest, darkest thoughts into Ye; but, nonetheless, I feel what he is saying. Believe it or not. In the opening track, Kanye sets the tone for the entire album, and takes us on a ride over a wickedly wavy sample, then starts rapping as the beat switches.

Ye is a story.

He sets a cryptic vibe from the start, I know my stomach was flipping with the beats; this is my role model saying these things that I wouldn’t want hear him say. And it is things you wouldn’t expect him to say it either, he’s Kanye West, right? Only cares about himself? That’s the point. The first three songs “I Thought About Killing You”, “Yikes”, and “All Mine”, are serious, serious songs. Listen to the beats on all of them, they’re just so ghostly and sinister. *gets chills*

The fourth song “Wouldn’t Leave”, is for Kanye’s wife Kim, it’s more of his thoughts and telling us what he is scared of: Kim leaving him, the love of his life, and the mother of his 3 other true loves; North, Saint, and Chicago. Kanye tells her that he’s grateful for her and that even though the way he acts towards the public can cause damage to both their reputations, she wouldn’t leave him. You have to stick it out through the tough times in anything, if you care. That’s the point in life, or one of the points. “Wouldn’t Leave” is a magnificent lead into the fifth song “No Mistakes”. Here is where you begin to hear the sun come out through the clouds and the darkness of the album start to disapparate. Kanye raps about the things he knows they have been saying about him, opening up more about how he has been feeling, but unlike the start of the album, he is saying it in a much more positive tone, a much happier tone, and a much happier beat.

“Ghost Town” is the sixth song, and it is an incredible preview for next week when we get KIDS SEE GHOSTS by Kanye and Cudi. “Ghost Town” proves to be another step in the right direction for Kanye. The theme of the song is ‘someday’. Someday everything will happen. To me this song definitely sounds like a rebirth. It sounds like Kanye has let go of his past, of time, and is living brand new. ‘Someday’ means the day that Kanye was pleading for, the day when the rebirth will happen, it finally came in the form of making this album. The songs outro is perfect “nothing hurts anymore, I feel kind of free.”

The last song “Violent Crimes” is a song about his daughters, his kids are his reason to live, but having a daughter, I can try to imagine, is not easy. His daughters are going to have to deal with everyone knowing who they are, and as a result could get caught in the wrong crowd in the future. Kanye, speaking from first hand experience, knows how wrong the crowd can get. As a father, he has to be strong for them and be there for them during their lives up’s and especially downs, he knows he can’t worry about himself only now, and have thoughts about killing himself. This album, Ye, is a story. A story about Kanye finding his reasons to live. For Kanye, that’s his family.

My favorite song from the first few listens is “All Mine” ft. Ty Dolla Sign.  A whole lot of bangers came out on recent albums but none top “All Mine”. Like, wow; it’s a nasty song.

If this write up didn’t give it away, Ye is higher than a perfect score of 10/10, but that’s just me being extra. It’s a straight up 3hunna.