The Life of Pablo. A The Life of Pablo review written in the essence and form of The Life of Pablo: the Album (mixtape), and the event.

The Life of Pablo. A The Life of Pablo review written in the essence and form of The Life of Pablo: the Album, and the event.

Here at Sad Moth Music we really take into account hype when we begin writing our album reviews. We like to wait awhile and let things die down a bit so we can review things with a clear head and no outside influence affecting our decisions for scoring. It's totally not because we're lazy, or that some of us don't meet the completely arbitrary deadlines we set for ourselves. It's totally not because we're busy with school, or because we have girlfriends. Let me just reiterate one last time it's totally not because of any of that...

Sorry about the wait. "It was Chance's fault."

The Life of Pablo, Kanye West's highly anticipated and pontifically released mixtape really was just a bit unorganized and unfinished. However that's not to say that it didn't have it's moments and aspects that were faithful and executed well in relation to the mixtape's intended concept: which is the dichotomy between artist and celebrity and the perils of that. 

Picasso? Maybe. Escobar? Maybe.  Backyardigans? Yes.

***

It's not any revelation to say Kanye's a media phenomena. He's a "pompous asshole," a fashionista, a living meme, and he's only a small degree of separation from being a Kardashian. Considering that portrayal, empathizing with Kanye isn't really an accessible connection to make. However he's certainly very misunderstood. How he sees himself and his intentions in contrast to how the media does probably creates a lot of dissonance for him, and Kanye clearly handles that sort of stress, and constant criticism in a very flagrant almost character like way. His reactions are always elicited in this weird public sphere of people who passionately love or hate him in ways that are sometimes quizzically disingenuous. Kanye's "diehard" fans worship him like a god, where as his haters want to beat the shit out of him: both are relationships on the extreme ends of the fandom spectrum, and I can imagine that being really tiresome. Especially since I think that Kanye is at a point in his musical career where he's making art for himself and his own expression rather than for other's entertainment.

The main thing that I got out of The Life of Pablo is that Kanye is clearly lonely and mentally exhausted. Being a artist with a creative image as big as Kanye's is probably really difficult especially when you are considered to be one of the contemporary greats of Hip-hop, he has a lot of internal and external expectations to live up to. Also Kanye doesn't really sell out when it comes to his creative endeavors. With that being said, he definitely is living a lifestyle that is past luxurious--it's to the spending level that's really only comparable to a block buster director or a drug kingpin. It's to the point where he's apparently surmounted 53 Million dollars in debt. I read an interesting Huffington Post list that broke down some of his spending. From 2.2 million dollar music video budgets that hold up the grandeur of his creative image, to 2 Million dollar armored cars to protect his family, the Pablo question is begged: Escobar, Paul (Pablo en Espanol) or Picasso? "Which One?"

And I think at times the album portrays this dichotomy and this identity crisis well...Wait "album?"... To be honest I don't even think this is an album, I think it's a mixtape. Why? Well it isn't charting, it's a Tidal exclusive; it has a ton of mixtape oriented artists on it (Chance, Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign); and finally it doesn't even have a physical release. If you really want to read into it I think there's an incredibly deeply read analytical argument to be made that Kanye knew that people were going to pirate the shit out of it and not pay for it. So he then distributed like a mixtape: through drop, third party downloads, and word of mouth. And I can't help but feel like Kanye definitely wants you to think that pedantically when listening to TLoP and analyzing the events around its release. It would be interesting if he was that self aware and understanding to the level of how much he affects hip-hop as a whole, and how popular he truly is--I just feel like Kanye is on a different plane right now and that's probably why people don't really get him.

Anyway, at times I think the mixtape portrays the "Which One?" dichotomy well. You're not supposed to have an understanding of which Pablo Kanye is talking about because the point is that Kanye operates in a middle ground of all three. TLoP is about pushing boundaries, commercially, artistically, and religiously. These contrasted themes about the curse of fame, creative misunderstanding, and emphatic isolation fit very well with each Pablo respectively.  Kanye lies in the middle of it all. He's someone who makes triple platinum albums, pushes his genre musically, and gets his listeners to listen about god in one sitting. That's the self awareness that this album exudes--call it arrogant, but it's true. However the thing that holds true throughout all of these tracks is that they're all in really weird parts of the mixtape except for maybe Ultralight Beam. There's not really a discernibly concrete flow, this review took me a long time to make because I had to basically look at each track individually. It seems like the track list is all over the place. The songs don't transition well to one another thematically nor stylistically. It was changed so many times from it's "final form" that it seems to be this constantly evolving project. Even it's official Tidal release was
altered multiple times before finally coming out on Spotify and Google Play. To me in a way these constant changes are form challenging in the sense that the mixtape isn't concrete, it's almost like it's alive and ever changing, at least that's what I feel like he's trying to do with it. This of course has varying degrees of success, it just comes off as disorganized. But, individually, on a track by track basis, it has some shining moments. This is especially apparent when you see a list of the features.

The opener Ultralight Beam is simply a beautiful track. When Kanye understands and respects the artists that work with him he incredibly highlights their talent. There's no way around it, Ultralight Beam is belongs to Chance. Similarly the majority of No More Parties in L.A. belongs to Madlib and Kendrick. Notice how at the beginning of the track Kanye sets up this amazing little alleyoop-esque intro for Kendrick to just slam dunk his verse into the track. When you have two rappers of Kendrick and Kanye's caliber, ESPECIALLY when Madlib is producing, there needs to be a give and take. There needs to be teamwork or synergy. When Kanye does it right it's amazing--Ultralight Beam and No More Parties in LA are two of my favorite tracks on the mixtape.
But Kanye is definitely good at what he does, and this is clear regardless of the album's flaws. Most tracks on the mixtape are definitely solid even if I didn't particularly care for them. A minute into Highlights there's this amazing backup singer one off before Kanye's main verse that just makes the song feel so bloomed. Kanye can really make his music feel big, or even orchestral. It's scale is just capturing, it has stature--I seriously only like the song for that one part. I would even go as far as saying it's my favorite part of the entire mixtape.

Also how much do you think that Madison Property Management Inc paid to get Kanye to plug Equinox Apartments?

Every bad bitch up at Equinox! Blatant product placement, wake up Sheeple!

Famous is cool because of it's controversial nature, the Rhianna feature, and the classic Kanye West stylized sample that it leads into.

Feedback is great because of it's messy, industrial, Yeezus like production.

Facts is heavily improved. The new production by Charlie Heat makes it a million times better than it's original release. It's more in your face now, it feels like an actual diss track. But the thing about Facts that's weird in general is that everyone is thinking that it was such a bold move to stand up to Nike like that. But really it was inconsequential. If anything I'm sure that Nike just saw a Kanye West Nike diss track to be the best free advertising that they're going to get all year.

FML is really haunting, and evocative. The Weeknd sounds angelic amidst the ethereal and hazy production.

I Love Kanye is just kinda cute. Awww.

Then there's Real Friends. Which to me is the saddest, most relatable moment of the mixtape. It made me wish that the themes brought up specifically in that track were what the Life of Pablo was focused on. I feel like a lot of times Kanye West doesn't really know what to say or talk about, sometimes I even feel that maybe he doesn't have anything to talk about. But Real Friends is clearly a moment in which I genuinely empathized with him. I wish that he would express himself in ways as productive and meaningful as he does in this track. It's so powerful that it contextualized the mixtape for me: Kanye is clearly in a dark place, and he's clearly struggling with his fame, family, and fortune in complex, non-binary or easily describable ways. There's this melancholy nature to the song, you know that Kanye isn't actually alone, but he still feels lonely. I can really relate to that. I can relate to people making you feel even worse than being alone. I think we can all relate to not feeling understood, or feeling like the people around you aren't genuine enough. You often wonder if you're always going to be this bored. You wonder if there's hope for you out there after all, or if this is it. You wonder who your real friends even are, or if you're even theirs...

Like I was saying earlier No More Parties in LA is awesome, it's like some sort of contemporary hip-hop fan's wet dream. Madlib is amazing and consistent as ever, the production is so good Freddie Gibbs even took to rapping over it in his own spin "Cocaine Parties in LA."  The thing I love about tracks produced by Madlib is that they loom behind the vocal parts like a puppeteer. He sets the entire tone and scene of the track remarkably. And then Kendrick's verse leads the track into what are arguably some of Kanye's best lyrical moments of the mixtape, "And as far as real friends tell all my cousins I love 'em, even the one that stole the laptop you dirty motherfucker." Holy shit that's an awesome moment, and it's especially highlighted by that great sample they play right after it. I just keep on lovin' you... That's a moment you really only get when you have this many great musicians on one track.

RIP KANYE'S LAPTOP STEALING COUSIN

???--2016

THE MOST REKT MAN OF 2016 

(so far)

Even Freestyle 4 is good because...well actually like what the fuck is going on in this one? This is just some straight-up Eyes Wide Shut shit. The crazy violin harmonics? Kim and him starting an orgy at a Vogue party? If anything is form challenging or avant-garde about this mixtape it's this track. Jesus. Christ.

Wolves is kind of on par with Freestyle 4 in the weirdness factor, the Mary Joseph analogy is a little much. The thing about it is that I feel like Wolves feels like it thinks that it's more profound and beautiful than it is. It exudes this self-awareness that's just "yeah I'm super mysterious, yeah I'm really pretty oOoOoO..." it's kind of obnoxious if that makes any sense.

I didn't really like Father Stretch My Hands Pt 1 because I feel like it's not that memorable, and it's a little annoying. I don't really get it. Although Pt 2 does go really hard, and the production is really solid. I also like the robot voice towards the end because it's really out and it's an interesting creative decision in my eyes.

Low Lights is really stupid. I'm sorry but what is going on with that? I like the production because I feel like it could be used to make something pretty cool. But I just don't like the lyrical content of the track. It doesn't fit to the rest of the mixtape in any way I can even think of other than possibly some sort of weird narcissism that Kanye has for himself or some vague message about god. Mary J. Blige is just out of place on this one.

Waves is literally meh. It's just kind of boring to me. It feels really flat musically and metaphorically.

And god dammit I guess the main thing I don't like about the mixtape is just the ending. To me it's just so lazy. And you're sitting there wondering why Post Malone? Is it just some sort of hail Mary attempt to scout for some future talent just so you can get them before they're super, super big? Is it to capture some weird relic of 2016? This weird fried kid that's somehow representative of our times? A weird dank vignette for Kanye to meme out? Why? And then the mixtape is just done. That's it.

And that's the mixtape, and apparently the review, I got out all I wanted to get out. I mean this is how it ends: if Kanye can do it why can't I?

Thanks for listening,

Emanuel

The Life of Pablo-Kanye West 8/10

The Life of Pablo. A The Life of Pablo review written in the essence and form of The Life of Pablo: the Album (mixtape), and the event-Emanuel Aviles 6/10

Favorite tracks: No More Parties in LA, Real Friends, Ultralight Beam, Highlights.

Least Favorite tracks: Fade, Low Lights, Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1


Post Publish Edit List:

Least Favorite Track list (4/15) 2:45 PM

Frieza Meme (4/15) 2:45 PM

Random Wording (4/15)

No More Parties in LA Blurb (4/15) 2:50 PM

Title (Tidal?) Fix (4/15) 3:00 PM

Changed certain instances of "album" to "mixtape" (4/15) 3:10 PM

Fixed Wolves part (4/15) 3:17 PM

Made the post publish edit list have a better look. (4/15) 3:18 PM

General edits: grammatically and wording wise. (4/15) 7:38 PM

Review score. (4/15) 7:39 PM

Fleshed out ideas on what the Life of Pablo is about including the "third" Pablo Apostle Paul. This is an album about following a middle path between all three Pablo's, it's not about the question, it's about the action of asking. (12/12) 11:56 AM


Review score. (6/30/2020) 1:33PM