Overview

The Life of Pablo is Kanye West's seventh studio album. The album was heavily promoted by both the record labels responsible for releasing it and also West himself. In addition, several separate controversies surrounding the album's content, release, and title caused a great deal of online discussion.

Background

Early reports of a new album surfaced in late 2013^[2], when he began to record, and reports claimed the rapper was hoping to have his new album out by summer 2014. Although est did not put out any music in 2014, there were additional reports of a new album, titled So Help Me God with a release date unknown on March 1st, 2015^[1]. A song West performed in February 2015 during Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary, titled "Wolves," was also named to the album's track list^[3].

In May 2015, West announced he was changing the name of the album to SWISH, but also stated that he was open to other names as well.^[4] In January 2016, West released three tracks, with only one of them being on the album, "Facts, No More Parties in L.A." (originally in the album's tracklist, but cut last minute) and "Real Friends". West also announced SWISH was to be released in the following month, and also changed the name of the album to Waves. This name didn't last long; on February 9th, three days before the album's expected release date, he changed the name again, to The Life of Pablo; at the same time, he also offered free tickets to a fashion show and live performance of his album to celebrate the release of his new line of clothing, Yeezy Season 3, and the chance to win a pair of his Yeezy shoes. The album was officially released February 12th, 2016.

Notable Developments

Due to massive hype, both intentional and not, much controversy has surrounded the album's release.

Wiz Khalifa Beef / #KanyeAnalPlaylist

On January 27th, 2016, West revealed in a tweet that his upcoming album would be titled Waves. In response to West’s announcement, Wiz Khalifa, Pittsburgh-based rapper who has had a child with West’s ex-girlfriend Amber Rose, tweeted “Please don’t take the wave" in an effort to credit another rapper, Max B, for popularizing “wavy-ness” as a slang term.

Khalifa then tweeted “Hit this kk and become yourself,” suggesting West to come up with more of an original album title by smoking marijuana, which Khalifa and his fans have often referred to as KK, or short for “Khalifa Kush.” West, apparently unaware of this shorthand lingo, misinterpreted this tweet as a diss towards his wife Kim Kardashian, and fired back with a series of 31 tweets that took Khalifa’s personal style, music, and relationship with West's ex-girlfriend Amber Rose to task.

Amber Rose, observing that she was involved in the fight between her two ex-boyfriends, took Khalifa’s side, tweeting “Awww @kanyewest are u mad I’m not around to play in ur asshole anymore? #FingersInTheBootyAssBitch.” In two days, the tweet received 286,269 retweets and 336,450 likes. The next day, West denied that the couple had engaged in anal play, as Rose had alleged. However, Rose's tweet led to the development of the hashtag #KanyeAnalPlaylist, which Twitter users assigned to tweets that imagined songs that West and Rose would have listened to during intercourse.

Handwritten Tracklist

On January 25th, 2016, West tweeted out a handwritten track list of the album, claiming he was "so happy to be finished with the greatest album of all time." The tweet gained over 150,000 retweets and 200,000 likes.

West proceeded to tweet two more versions of the list, showing the same piece of paper as it acquired the signatures of West's collaborators and friends, including A$AP Rocky, Chance The Rapper, 2 Chainz, Earl Sweatshirt, Kylie Jenner, and many others. Collected, the 3 tweets received just under 300,000 retweets, and just under 400,000 likes.

New York Fashion Week Presentation and Album Preview

On February 1st, directly following the brief feud with Wiz Khalifa, West announced that he would be premiering the album at a February 11th listening party at the New York City basketball arena Madison Square Garden at an event which would also serve as the presentation of his fashion line, Yeezy, for New York Fashion Week. According to West, the event, called "Yeezy Season 3," sold out in minutes; many more attempted to watch a crashing stream on Tidal. The presentation was arranged by the artist Vanessa Beecroft and featured nearly 100 models on a stage and on the floor of Madison Square Garden wearing clothing from the Yeezy line and posing. Kanye made an announcement and plugged in his laptop, debuting The Life of Pablo for the world.

In addition to the people present in Madison Square Garden, the stream was viewed by more than 20 million people live. A reporter from Complex Magazine tweeted the rules that the models were supposed to follow, which was heavily reported by the media.

Martin Shkreli Purchase Offer

Following Kanye West's dual fashion show and album performance, infamous entrepreneur Martin Shkreli sent a message to West via Twitter about his interest in purchasing exclusive rights to the album for 10 million dollars for the purpose of it never becoming available for purchase.^[6] Shortly after, he wrote an official letter to his label, containing the details and conditions of the purchase.^[7]

Taylor Swift Lyrics

On the song "Famous," which debuted along with the album, West recites the following lyrics about pop star Taylor Swift, an allusion to the Kanye Interrupts incident.

For all my Southside niggas that know me best
I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex
Why? I made that bitch famous
God damn
I made that bitch famous

West immediately faced backlash for the lyrics, which many called crude and mysoginist. As a response, West used Twitter to claim that he had obtained prior approval from both Swift and her team; however, Swift's publicist denied that she had prior knowledge of the lyric and that she had warned West to not release a misogynist song.

Related Memes

TLOP Album Cover Parodies

"TLOP Album Cover Parodies" refers to parodies of the cover of The Life Of Pablo. When the album art was released on February 11th, several parodies immediately began to appear. In addition, a generator^[7] was created.

Search Interest

External References