Everyone either loves or hates Kanye West, so it’s hard to look at his music objectively. The problem with Kanye is that he tries so hard to get people to understand him as an artist, and tries to make you seem like you’re in the wrong if you don’t like him. Guess what, Ye? You don’t have to be liked by everyone, but you might be if you calmed down a little bit.
What he is successful in is getting people to listen to his music, because whether they want to listen to it because they like him or they want to listen to it to see how bad it is, they’re still listening. So I think he made a big mistake by talking up The Life of Pablo so much because the hype made it so disappointing. Yeezy describes TLOP as a “living, breathing, changing, creative expression,” but all I heard was autotune and a lot of talking.
I won’t lie and say that there aren’t a few bangers, but they also happen to be extremely derogatory or offensive. For example, “Highlights” mentions Ray J and how the two might have been friends if they hadn’t both been with Kim. This could’ve been a funny line, but he follows it up with calling his wife a “dumb bitch.” Not sure how that one slipped by Kim but I certainly wouldn’t want the father of my children making a play on my sex tape.
“Famous” would also be a great song if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s taking irrational credit for Taylor Swift’s fame. And again, is Kim okay with Kanye saying he thinks he might still have sex with T-Swift? The sample in this song, “Bam Bam” by Sister Nancy is fire, but it’s a sample, so I can’t give him any credit.
While there are some great features on the album, my biggest issue is that there’s rarely a time when Kanye doesn’t use autotune or isn’t simply talking. There were times when I couldn’t recognize his (very signature) voice because of the effects. Anybody can put a beat in the background and rant about how much they love themselves (“I love Kanye”) but nobody else would be so cocky to do so, or act like it’s “art.” You go ahead and keep expressing yourself, Ye, but stop acting like the whole world should be able to get something out of your lyrics.