The path to new Kanye West music is never smooth, but this
time it included Donald J. Trump, a Make America Great Again hat, a
winding 105-minute YouTube interview, an excess of Twitter posts, controversial comments
about slavery and a confession on TMZ TV about liposuction.
For some, it even included a trip to Wyoming. With Chris
Rock.
Yet as the planned Friday release date for Mr. West’s new
album approached, next to nothing was known about the much-anticipated project.
That changed late Thursday night as Mr. West unveiled the first taste of his
eighth solo LP — titled “Ye,” Mr. Rock announced in his introduction around
midnight — via live stream from near Jackson Hole, where for months Mr. West
has been working on a slate of releases for his G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam
collaborators.
The debut of “Ye,” which was made available on streaming
services like Spotify or Apple Music by Friday morning, included seven songs,
with guest features from Ty Dolla Sign, Valee, Jeremih, PartyNextDoor, Kid
Cudi, Charlie Wilson, John Legend, Dej Loaf and 070 Shake. Mr. West’s lyrics do
not shy from current events (Stormy Daniels, North Korea, Tristan Thompson),
nor from his recent brushes with ignominy. On one track, he references comments
he made about slavery during the TMZ appearance: “They said build your own, I
said, ‘How, Sway?’”/I said slavery’s a choice, they said, ‘How, Ye?’/Just
imagine if they caught me on a wild day.”
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On another, Mr. West references the rape accusations against the hip-hop mogul
Russell Simmons, rapping: “Russell Simmons wanna pray for me, too/I’mma pray
for him ‘cause he got MeToo-ed/Thinkin’ what if that happened to me too.”
The last-minute, seemingly slapdash musical rollout, complete with a
destination event (including chartered flights for influential people) and an
online video stream, had a whiff of the reveal for “The Life of Pablo,” Mr.
West’s previous album from February 2016, which he debuted during a fashion show at Madison Square Garden.
(“The Life of Pablo” was not uploaded online for public consumption until two
days later, and Mr. West continued to tweak the content long after its release.)
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The rapper’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, said on Twitter
that the album cover for “Ye” — showing the Wyoming landscape with the scrawled
words “I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome” — was a photo taken by Mr. West on
his way to the album listening on Thursday.
On the second track, “Yikes,” Mr. West calls being bipolar his “superpower,”
adding, “ain’t no disability.” Other song titled include “I Thought About
Killing You,” “All Mine,” “Wouldn’t Leave,” “No Mistakes,” “Ghost Town” and
“Violent Crimes.”
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Mr. West’s recent return to the fray — both musical and extracurricular —
followed a period of relative quiet from the rapper, who scrapped tour dates and was hospitalized for psychiatric care near the end
of 2016 following a period of onstage unpredictability. His meeting with the then-President-elect at Trump
Tower that December was his last public appearance for some time, though it did
foreshadow his interests upon resurfacing.
In April, Mr. West announced that he would be producing five albums, including his solo release
and a collaboration between himself and Kid Cudi (as Kids See Ghost) scheduled
for June 8. Pusha-T’s “Daytona,” released last Friday, was the first to see the
light of day, while albums from Nas and Teyana Taylor are forthcoming. Each
album from the Wyoming sessions is expected to be just seven songs long.
Promises of new music aside, Mr. West has turned heads with
his extended Twitter embrace of President Trump, the MAGA hat and other
conservative figures like Candace Owens, who was on hand for the album debut in
Wyoming. The rapper’s Twitter posts about “freethinkers” and the “thought
police” earned him praise on the right, while some
longtime supporters and collaborators were left scratching their heads.
The two songs he has released since were similarly
polarizing: “Lift Yourself,” a satire of sorts, had nonsense lyrics
(“poopity-scoop”), while “Ye vs. the People” found Mr. West debating politics
with the rapper T.I. “Ever since Trump won, it proved that I could be
president,” Mr. West argued.
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