The Life of Pablo
The Life of Pablo is the seventh studio album by the American rapper Kanye West. It was released on February 14, 2016, through GOOD Music and distributed by Def Jam Recordings. Recording sessions took place from 2013 to 2016, in Italy, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. West and a variety of producers, including co-executive producers Rick Rubin and Noah Goldstein handled production. West enlisted guest vocals for the album from The-Dream, Kelly Price, Chance the Rapper, Kirk Franklin, Kid Cudi, Desiigner, Rihanna, Young Thug, Chris Brown, The Weeknd, Ty Dolla Sign, Vic Mensa, Sia, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, and Sampha.
The Life of Pablo
February 14, 2016
- 2010
- November 2013 – February 2016
- March 2016 – June 2016 (post-release)
- Abel's Crib (Trump)
- Ameryacan (California)
- Sound EQ (California)
- Dean's List House of Hits (SoHo)
- Germano (New York City)
- Home studios
- Home studios (Calabasas)
- Jungle City (California and New York)
- Larrabee (North Hollywood)
- No Name (Punta Mita and Florence)
- Noble Street
- Windmark (Santa Monica)
66:01
- Boi-1da
- Cashmere Cat
- Chance the Rapper
- Charlie Heat
- DJDS
- Havoc
- Kanye West
- Karriem Riggins
- Madlib
- Menace
- Metro Boomin
- Mike Dean
- Mitus
- Rick Rubin
- Sinjin Hawke
- Southside
- Swizz Beatz
Several promotional singles preceded the release of The Life of Pablo, including the tracks "Real Friends" and "No More Parties in LA". During the months before its release, the album's title and tracklist went through several publicized changes. West premiered an early version at Madison Square Garden on February 11, 2016, as part of his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show. After several additional sessions and alterations, the exclusive launch occurred for streaming on Tidal three days later.
Following its official streaming debut, West continued to make changes to The Life of Pablo. A largely updated version of it, including alternate mixes and other changes, was made available on other streaming services and for digital purchase on his website on April 1, 2016. The singles "Famous", the two-part "Father Stretch My Hands", and "Fade" were released to support it in 2016. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, with particular attention being paid to the fragmented, unfinished nature of the composition and release. Multiple publications named it one of 2016's best albums.
The Life of Pablo received five nominations at the 2017 Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album, though the Album of the Year rejection was deemed a snub by numerous publications. Following Tidal's initial disclosure of its streaming data and its release to competing streaming services, the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, becoming the first to reach the summit primarily through streaming, and was ultimately certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It also debuted at number one in Norway, and in the top ten in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Recording[edit]
Initial sessions[edit]
The Life of Pablo was recorded between 2013 and 2016, though recording for the track "No More Parties in LA" started in 2010, during the sessions for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.[16][17] Ty Dolla Sign reported that writing and recording for the album took place in Mexico in September 2014; he recalled McCartney and Rihanna were present.[18] American rappers Pusha T and Consequence confirmed that they had ended their feud to work with West on music to be released by him.[19]
In April 2014, during an interview with Self-Titled, English electronic music producer Evian Christ explained that despite West not always being musically clear, he just seemed "interested in pushing aesthetic boundaries as far into the Avant as possible". He will say "This is not experimental enough. This is too poppy. Make something else." This can confuse other musicians.[20] Christ said that West is "a dream to work with", adding that when it comes to creative freedom, West is on his own level in terms of the freedom.[20] He explained "he wants you to work to a blueprint, the blueprint is: 'Don't make a rap beat. Anything but a rap beat'".[20] In February 2015, while West was continuing work on The Life of Pablo, he confirmed the album was around 80% complete.[21]
In March 2015, during an interview with MTV, promoting his third studio album Dark Sky Paradise (2015), Big Sean spoke about the multiple recording locations involved in The Life of Pablo including Mexico and Hawaii.[22] In an October 2015 interview with The Fader, Post Malone, who is featured on the track "Fade" with Ty Dolla Sign, discussed his experiences with West describing him as "just a normal guy, like me, and super cool".[23]
On January 27, 2016, West revealed the update of the final track listing for The Life of Pablo on his official Twitter account. The updated track listing included a number of unannounced potential collaborators: Earl Sweatshirt, The-Dream, Tyler, the Creator, The World Famous Tony Williams, Diddy, Danny!,[24] ASAP Rocky, Kid Cudi, Lil Uzi Vert, Drake, Teyana Taylor, Zoë Kravitz, Bibi Bourelly, Doug E. Fresh, How to Dress Well, and French Montana, as well as a return of his frequent production collaborators, such as Mike Dean, Hudson Mohawke, Plain Pat, Vicious, Anthony Kilhoffer, A-Trak, and Noah Goldstein.[25][26][27] Following the album's premiere at Madison Square Garden, it was revealed that Brooklyn-based rapper Desiigner contributed vocals to "Pt. 2" and "Freestyle 4".[28]
Post-release updates[edit]
West released The Life of Pablo for streaming on February 14, 2016, following a performance on Saturday Night Live.[29][30] Although a statement by West around the time of The Life of Pablo's release indicated it would be a permanent exclusive to Tidal, the album was released through several other competing services beginning in April 2016.[31] Before the release of The Life of Pablo, West had tweeted that it was a hip hop and a gospel album.[32] In an interview on Big Boy Radio, West said: "When I was sitting in the studio with Kirk, Kirk Franklin, and we're just going through it, I said this is a gospel album, with a whole lot of cursing on it, but it's still a gospel album."[33] Following The Life of Pablo's initial Tidal release, West said he intended to continue altering the songs, declaring the album a "living breathing changing creative expression".[34] On March 13, 2016, over a month after the release, West uploaded an updated version of "Famous", swapping out the lyric "She be Puerto Rican day parade wavin'" for "She in school to be a real estate agent", as well as making slight tweaks to the overall mix.[35] Three days later, West updated the album's Tidal track list with a reworked version of "Wolves", which included previously removed guest vocals by Vic Mensa and Sia, and separated the ending portion sung by Frank Ocean into a separate interlude under the title of "Frank's Track".[36] This reworking was done around a month after West proposed a fix to the song.[37] On March 30, The Life of Pablo received a major update, with at least 12 tracks appearing in altered forms.[38] The updates included prominent vocal additions, new lyrics, and altered mixes.[38] Def Jam confirmed this incarnation to be "a newly updated, remixed and remastered version", and clarified that the album would continue to appear with "new updates, new versions and new iterations" in the following months, calling it "a continuous process".[39] A minor update was published on April 2, fixing the outro vocals for "30 Hours" which had been rendered off-time during the March 31 update.[40] Finally, on June 14, The Life of Pablo was updated to include an additional track titled "Saint Pablo" featuring vocals by British musician Sampha, with other miscellaneous alterations throughout the album.[41]
Discussing The Life of Pablo's continued alterations, Jayson Greene of Pitchfork mused "at what point is a record 'over', and who gets to make the call"?[42] He claimed West was "seeing how far he can stretch the point right now, in a way no pop star has ever quite tried", describing him as "testing the shifting state of the 'album cycle' to see if he can break it entirely, making his album like another piece of software on your phone that sends you push updates".[42] Winston Cook-Wilson of Inverse described the album as "a fluid construct", writing that "as a way of holding the public's attention span, Kanye's choice to continue to tweak The Life is Pablo indefinitely is genius".[43] He elaborated, "It encourages people spend time processing an album that deserves it: a bewildering, sprawling, and controversy-courting piece of art."[43] The unconventional updates post-release inspired other artists to do the same, with Future and Young Thug making similar alterations after the release of their albums.[44][45] However, in The Guardian, Nosheen Iqbal noted the criticism that West faced for updating the album.[46] Brian Welk and Ross A. Lincoln from TheWrap claimed West should have ended the updates after his initial changes to The Life of Pablo three days after its release.[47] In a January 2020 interview with GQ, West explained his continuous updates to the album, saying, "Nothing is ever done."[48]
Musical style[edit]
The Life of Pablo was noted by Entertainment Weekly's Madison Vain for its "raw, occasionally even intentionally messy, composition" in contrast to West's previous albums.[49] Compared to his pre-Yeezus work, Robert Yaniz Jr of Cheat Sheet viewed the album as West taking on a sound that is not as accessible and "more self-indulgent".[50] Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield wrote that The Life of Pablo sounds messy, though he expressed the feeling the sound is purposeful to follow on from "the laser-sharp intensity of Yeezus", saying the album is "designed to sound like a work in progress".[51] Carl Wilson of Slate suggested that with the given context of the sonic landscaping throughout The Life of Pablo, the point is that "in West's kamikaze, mood-swinging way, Pablo now seems undeniably (not half-assedly, as I'd been about to conclude) like an album of struggle", noting the strange connections that it created "between Kanye's many iterations—soul-sample enthusiast, heartbroken Auto-Tune crooner, hedonistic avant-pop composer, industrial-rap shit-talker" while making use of bass and percussion lines "that are only the tail-end decay of some lost starting place, some vanished rhythmic Eden".[52] Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick claimed the album sounds like abstract hip hop work and noted the somewhat disjointed sound,[53] while Pretty Much Amazing critic Nathan Wisnicki noted occasional elements of "hyperactive" progressive hip hop.[54]
West described the music on The Life of Pablo as "The gospel according to Ye", explaining that his gospel differs somewhat from what happened in the Bible, "but it's this story idea of Mary Magdalene becoming Mary".[33] Corbin Reiff of The A.V. Club claimed the album only works "as a gospel record if, as a listener, you worship at his altar".[57] Madison Vain described The Life of Pablo as "a gospel album".[49] In Uproxx, Steven Hyden dubbed the album as West's "ecstatically bleary gospel-rap excursion".[58] Gavin Haynes of NME described The Life of Pablo as the point where West suddenly changes direction "from futuristic beats on the likes of 'Feedback' to bog-standard modern trap", with Haynes citing Desiigner's vocals on "Pt. 2" as an example of the latter, while he noted West took on the direction of "vintage soul on 'Ultra Light Beam'".[59] Chance the Rapper and his instrumental collaborator Donnie Trumpet bring elements of soul revivalism into the track during Chance the Rapper's guest verse.[57] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune contrasted Chance the Rapper's "gospel-informed hip-hop tracks" with West's take on that tradition, claiming the version of gospel provided by West includes "some of those sonic cues – heavy organ, soaring choirs".[60] However, Kot concluded by describing West as "more preoccupied with gospel text and the notion of redemption".[60] "Ultralight Beam", in particular, has been described as featuring several gospel elements, including "the sound of a 4-year-old preaching gospel, some organ", as well as a church choir singing the refrain of "This is a God dream".[56] Gospel elements similar to those of the song are included in "Low Lights", adding to the general gospel theme.[61] "Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1" was described as gospel music in its composition.[62]
Artwork and title[edit]
On February 11, 2016, West revealed the album's artwork, designed by Belgian artist Peter De Potter.[122] De Potter's level of fame at the time was not as great as that of artists such as George Condo and Takashi Murakami, who had previously designed cover art for West.[123] As De Potter had collaborated with fashion designer Raf Simons in the past, and West had cited him as an influence, there was much speculation that Simons was the reason the two became involved with each other.[123] The artwork was described as a "post-modern cover" and it displays the album's title in all caps, as well as featuring a small family photo in the bottom corner.[124] West shared another cover for The Life of Pablo on the same date with the phrase "which one" on it that was included on the notepad of the final track list, and a cropped photo of British model Sheniz Halil that shows her buttocks;[125][126] this artwork was used for the official release.[29] Kim Kardashian reportedly chose Halil for the artwork. After this information was revealed, Halil's Instagram popularity increased.[127] In response to being selected, Halil said in an interview with the New York Daily News that she "couldn't be more flattered and honoured", thanking both West and Kardashian.[126]
By titling his album The Life of Pablo, West confused people as to which Pablo he was referencing with the title.[128] Pablo Escobar, Pablo Neruda, Pablo Picasso and a child named Pablo who famously shouted his support of West for president at the 2015 VMAs were viewed as potential people referenced in the album's title.[129] MTV pointed to the title being in reference to Picasso, as West had said during a 2015 lecture at the University of Oxford that if he "was going to do art, fine art", then he would have aimed "to become Picasso or greater".[129] By writing "Which one?" on his notepad, West hinted that he might not remember the meaning of the title he had chosen.[128] West eventually revealed the meaning during an episode of the American talk show Kocktails with Khloé in April 2016. His sister-in-law Khloé Kardashian asked him, "Who the fuck is Pablo"? He replied the title was inspired by Escobar, Picasso and the Apostle Paul, since Paul translates into Pablo in Spanish.[130] Writing for The Guardian, Jonathan Jones drew an artistic comparison between West and Picasso, claiming that West's sampling of music, "reworking old songs" and "mixing it all up" is similar to the way in which Picasso "first put bits of the real world into modern art".[131]
Commercial performance[edit]
After being made available solely on Tidal, The Life of Pablo failed to chart initially because West declined to share the streaming numbers with Nielsen Music.[158] The album was reportedly subject to over 500,000 illegal downloads within 24 hours of its release, becoming the most illegally downloaded album ever and causing a resurgence in the file sharing of music.[159][160] Despite West asking Tidal to withhold streaming numbers for The Life of Pablo in February, the service revealed in March 2016 that the album was streamed over 250 million times within ten days of being released.[161] In May 2018, the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv published an investigative report that accused Tidal of manipulating Beyonce's Lemonade and Kanye West's Life of Pablo streaming numbers.[162] The report claimed that "listener numbers on Tidal have been manipulated to the tune of several hundred million false plays"; the service denied the report.[162]
On April 9, 2016, Billboard reported that after The Life of Pablo had been released to services other than Tidal the album was set to debut atop the US Billboard 200 and had sold 90,000 album-equivalent units at the time.[163] The Life of Pablo was a chart-topping debut, West's seventh consecutive number one studio album in the United States, selling 94,000 album-equivalent units.[164] 28,000 of the album-equivalent units for The Life of Pablo were pure album sales, while the remaining 66,000 units were streaming equivalent albums that equated to over 99 million streams and accounted for 70% of the units.[164][165] This stood as the first time an album had topped the Billboard 200 with the majority of the units coming from streaming equivalent albums, surpassing the previous benchmark of 44.6% set by Rihanna's eighth studio album Anti (2016).[164] The Life of Pablo's 66,000 streaming equivalent albums stood as the second highest streaming sum behind the 67,000 by Canadian singer Justin Bieber's fourth studio album Purpose (2015).[164]
In its second week on the Billboard 200, The Life of Pablo descended three places to number four and pushed 47,000 album-equivalent units, experiencing a 50% decline from the first week's sales.[165] The album dropped 95% in pure album sales, selling around 1,000 copies.[165] The album ranked as the 27th most popular album of 2016 on the Billboard 200, while ranking at number 88 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for that year.[166][167] On April 4, 2017, The Life of Pablo was certified platinum in the US by the RIAA for sales of one million album-equivalent units,[168] 798,000 of which had been sold up to January 1.[169] Though it had been confirmed that the RIAA do not break out the components of any certifications, West's label Def Jam confirmed the album was certified from streaming-only.[168] This made it stand as the first streaming-only album to go platinum in the US and also gave West his eighth album to achieve an RIAA certification of platinum or higher.[168] The album was certified double platinum in the US by the RIAA for selling two million album-equivalent units on February 27, 2020.[170]
The Life of Pablo debuted at number one on the Norwegian Albums Chart and remained on it for 62 weeks, giving West his first chart-topping solo album in Norway as well as his longest-charting album there.[171] The album peaked at number two on the Swedish Albums chart, standing as West's highest charting album in Sweden and ultimately ranking as the 55th most popular album of 2016 on the chart.[172][173] In Denmark, The Life of Pablo attained the same peak position on the Danish Albums chart.[174] The album ranked as the 12th most popular album of 2016 on the chart.[175] On November 12, 2018, The Life of Pablo was certified double platinum in Denmark by IFPI Danmark for shipments of 40,000 copies.[176] The album debuted on the Finnish Albums (Top 50) chart at number 12 and climbed seven places to number five in its second week on the chart.[177] On the Canadian Albums Chart, The Life of Pablo entered at number six and ranked as the 40th most popular album of 2016 on the chart.[178][179] In the week of Jesus Is King's release in 2019, The Life of Pablo rose 93 places from number 159 to number 66 on the Canadian Albums chart, increasing in consumption units by 51%.[180] The album reached number eight on the Dutch Album Top 100 and ranked as the 72nd most popular album on the chart in 2016.[181][182] The same position was attained by The Life of Pablo on the Irish Albums Chart.[183] On the UK Albums Chart, the album charted at number 30.[184] It stood as West's eighth top 40 album in the UK and spent 47 weeks on the chart.[184] The Life of Pablo was certified gold in the UK by the BPI on March 3, 2017, for sales of 100,000 album-equivalent units that were the results of streams, becoming the first album to ever do so in the country.[184] Official Charts data reported that the 100,000 units required for being gold accounted to each song being streamed an average of 10.5 million times and that the album equivalent streams amounted to 100,316.[185]
The same week that The Life of Pablo debuted on the Billboard 200, 12 of the tracks appeared on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, with "Famous" charting the highest at number 13.[186] However, since the song had debuted on the chart a week prior, only 11 of the 12 tracks entered the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs that week; the entry of "Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1" at number 14 stood as the highest debut.[186] Eight of the tracks debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Famous" having the highest entry at number 34.[186] The tracks appearing on the charts lead to West reaching a new peak of number three on the Billboard Artist 100, which was the first time he reached the top ten of the chart.[186] On the UK Singles Chart, nine of the tracks charted upon the album's release, with "Famous" having the highest debut by opening at number 33.[187]
Notes
Sample credits