My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy about the Life of Pablo

I am a huge Kanye West fan. I’ve been a fan through all of his outlandish moments. Rather if it’s taking the mic from Taylor Swift, saying that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”, or going on one of his famous twitter rants. He is an arrogant, loud, and rude person. But no one could really say that the music wasn’t amazing. In my opinion every one of his albums are classic. They contain groundbreaking sounds for music. At least up until now.

A few weeks ago Kanye released “The Life of Pablo” for the world. The self proclaimed “best album of all time”. To say the least this was not the case at all. In my opinion it was very disappointing. It is the representation of a hip hop legend in the first phases of his decline.

The album opens with “Ultralight Beam” which has a very dramatic instrumental. The record has an angelic feel to it. The song builds and builds over all five minutes and ends with a powerful tone. Chance the Rapper, a growing superstar who is also a Chicago native just as Kanye, has a feature on the song. He adds a lot to the record, he gives us an amazing verse. The first time listening to “The Life of Pablo” I was very excited to hear the rest of the album after this track. But unfortunately, this is the best part of the album.

The album proceeds with pretty much sub-par tracks most of the way through. On a song called “Famous” he raps “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, why? I made that B* Famous.” The line is in reference to Taylor Swift and to say the least is very debatable. But that really isn’t even the point, the fact he mentions Taylor Swift at all seems like a grab for attention.

After the “Famous” track there quite a few very forgettable songs. They simply are not very impressive. Towards the end of the album there is somewhat of a light. There is a song called “Real Friends” which is solid, and there is a song called “30 Hours” which is probably the second best song to “Ultralight Beam” which I mentioned before.

“30 Hours” has an amazing instrumental and Kanye flows perfectly over it. It also has a simple but perfect hook. Only later did I find out that Drake, the biggest rapper in the world right now, was a credited writer for this song. I wasn’t with them in the studio so I do not truly know how much of the song each artist wrote. Drake could have written one line or he could have written a majority of the entire song. No one knows. Also don’t get me wrong there isn’t anything wrong with collaborating. It is pretty common in music. But it is important to note this when we think about the entire album and this is the second best song.

Honestly, that is about it. That is just about everything that stands out to me. Overall my take away from the album was mostly boring, forgettable tracks that are not up to par with what Kanye has given us in the past. Maybe his other albums are just so epic and I expected so much from this that it was disappointing when it did not even come close to those standards. The first time I listened to “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” an album he released in 2010, I can still remember laying in my bed and taking in every instrument, every line, and every single hook. It was epic. I have done the same thing with “College Dropout”, his very first album. They are near perfect from start to finish. “The Life of Pablo” is not. I have listened to it probably ten times and my opinion still hasn’t changed on it. I honestly want to like it. But I don’t.

However, with all of this being said my opinions have not been the general consensus for “The Life of Pablo.” Critics have called this album one of his best and have nothing but praise.

Here’s a link to a majority of the praise it is receiving.

So maybe the album just isn’t for me, which is perfectly ok. I’m sure Kanye West is not too upset with the fact that I do not like his album. But to me it is the first phase of the decline of a legend. I am truly sad to see one of my favorite artists go downhill. It is inevitable for anyone to avoid, and now I think his time is finally up.