Soon after the great critical acclaim of his new album "Yeezus", a pleasant response from part of his audience and a tour that was a success, Kanye West plans to release a direct sequel to that album the following year with production from Q-Tip and Rick Rubin and should be called first "Yeezus II" then "So Help Me God" (the original title of the last album was "Thank God for Drugs", just to remember). This sequel album will never come, also because some of the best singles are released independently of the album and also see the participation of Paul McCartney, among others, obtaining a warm reception also from the public and becoming hits. In any case, West plans a new solo album whose title keeps changing, from "SWISH" switch to "Waves" then to "The Life of Pablo", less than a week before release. The title creates controversy.
Production is made by Kanye West, Mike Dean, Chance the Rapper, Swizz Beatz, Rick Rubin, Derek Watknins, Plain Pat, DJDS, Noah Goldstein, Metro Boomin, Allen Ritten, Menace, Caroline Shaw, Havoc, Charlie Heat, Andrew Dawson, Hudson Mohawke, Velous, Southside, Trevor Gureckis, Anthony Kilhoffer, Mitus, Boi-1da, Frank Dukes, Darren King, Sevn Thomas, Cashmere Cat, Sinjin Hawke, Karriem Riggins, Madlib and Benji B. No guests are credited, however, featured Chance the Rapper, Kirk Franklin, The-Dream, Kelly Price, Natalie Green, Samoria Green, Kid Cudi, Desiigner, Caroline Shaw, Rihanna, Swizz Beatz, Young Thug, El DeBarge, Chris Brown, The Weeknd, Ty Dolla Sign, Vic Mensa, Sia, Frank Ocean, Max B, French Montana, André Benjamin, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone and Sampha.
Kanye West declares that the album is permanently exclusive to Tidal, this doesn't allow the disc to enter the Billboard charts and West also chooses to withhold sales data from Nielsen. Only later the disc is also released on competing streaming services and it begins to make its way up the charts: this confusion about publishing methods on one hand takes away audiences and sales, and on the other allow him to establish several records: is West's seventh consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, the first to reach the top with most units coming from streaming equivalent albums, the first to earn platinum certification from the RIAA for streaming only, besides being the most illegally downloaded album ever, this is the only real goal to which West aimed with the release of this product. The disc is one of the best sellers of the decade in the USA and one of the best sellers of the period in the Scandinavian countries (first in Norway), but doesn't enter the top five in Canada, something that hadn't happened since his debut in 2004, and doesn't go beyond the top thirty positions in the UK, where West dominated for decades with his records and had never gone beyond the #12 box of his debut.
After releasing the album, the first to be released on his own GOOD Music label, Kanye decides to alter it and starts editing songs and then re-releasing them, in a continuous work in progress that lasts a few months until the following June. That doesn't stop critics from continuing to revere the artist who is untouchable for their superb judgments: it keeps raining perfect scores ("NOW", "The A.V. Club") and for the "New York Times" it's the album of the year. West still firmly retains his very strong niche of enthusiasts around the world and the record is nominated for five Grammys, all of which Kanye lost (including Best Rap Album, against Chance the Rapper, who like him released a gospel project): West comes to 16 Grammy nominations lost in a row.
In the author's intentions, the album mixes hip-hop, trap and gospel with an excess of profanity and swearing. The final product, even after Kanye has been tinkering with it for months, it's a jumbled mess that looks like a mixtape: deliberately messy, chaotic, disjointed, inconclusive and raw, it presents a random collection of tracks. There are many high points ("Ultralight Beam", "Waves", "Wolves", "No More Parties in LA", "Saint Pablo") and many low points ("Famous", "Freestyle 4", "FML", "Facts", " Fade"), in the midst of so much mediocrity. Frank Ocean's half-minute solo, which West ultimately decides to separate from the original track "Wolves," is one of the best moments on the record, a gem. Desiigner's "Panda" remix is a bad effort, Nike dissing is avoidable, dissing Taylor Swift is meaningless, horrible choice to once again undermine his own artistic career, as he had already self-reported in "All of the Lights" six years earlier.
The production is excellent at its best, shoddy and unaffordable at its worst, decent the rest of the time, and decent is not a common adjective to describe Kanye West's output, once a brilliant artist now a speck character on the road to decline. West's rapping style is awkward, stuttering and clumsy, to help himself he still resorts to his beloved inseparable autotune, almost like he's T-Pain, and the vocal effects in most of these songs are awful, resulting in a series of very bad and poor tracks. Lyrics continue to be the weak point in this dude's catalog, despite half the music here sucks. West is concerned with religious, evangelical, meditative lyrics, matters of faith, family and his character as a cultural figure, combining other personal topics without disdaining the beloved misogyny, one of the staples of lyricism in his discography. In fact, West just doesn't know what to say, and he takes refuge in cheap sex bars that are more harmful than useless, bringing out more crappy, ignorant, stupid writing, on the other hand, he's a boy who has made a point of pride out of ignorance and stupidity and for this he has been applauded and thanked many times during his life.
This work isn't the record of a perfectionist which Kanye had been up to this release, even in his worst moments. Here he lets himself go. He releases the disc when it's not even finished yet and it doesn't matter, because he can do as he pleases. Except "No More Parties in LA" with Kendrick Lamar, a track that seems to have sneaked straight off his 2010 LP, the album is disastrous and unstructured, incoherent and surly, torn apart, a series of puzzle pieces that it's up to you to put together in the right order, an impossible challenge for everyone, even for Kanye West himself. Here he's already ill and his health problems begin to worsen due to drug withdrawal. You could guess it when, a few days before the official release, West posts "Bill Cosby innocent" tweet, provoking an immense wave of controversy and hatred and making each day more and more indefensible. Or when he enlisted the help of billionaires to pay off his personal debts of over $50 million. However, the confirmation comes months later, when the rapper and producer embarks on a promotional tour for this album. The tour should last until December, but ends early in the month of November when, after publicly expressing his support for presidential candidate Donald Trump, always arousing controversy, West ends up in the hospital due to his drug problems. For him, it's the beginning of the end.
Rating: 6/10.
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