"The Life of Pablo," Kanye West's 7th studio album, took on a life of its own before the album itself was even released. There are a lot of points in time we could begin at, but I think the true moment that signified Kanye's return to music after releasing his 2013 album "Yeezus" and then shifting his focus to clothing, was when he took the stage at the 2015 BRIT Awards on February 25th to premiere his song "All Day". The performance painted a striking visual of Kanye and a mob of his associates dressed in all black, dancing and using two large flamethrowers to spew fire into the air above them as he rapped energetically. The crowd was visibly captivated, and the hip-hop fans everywhere were filled with excitement as the self-proclaimed creative genius seemed as if he was finally ready to deliver a new body of work.
After that, the signs of what was to come began to appear. Kanye did a series of shows at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in early March, where he not only performed but also played his "All Day" music video exclusively for fans who showed up. The same video would later be shown in late July at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for a limited time, yet it never made it to the internet. It seemed that while other artists were sticking to the formula of putting their videos on YouTube, Vevo,Vimeo and other hosting sites, Kanye chose to go against the grain. Instead, he opted to make the video an experience, something you had to get up and go to rather than watch online at your leisure.
Fast forward again to February 2016, almost a year since "All Day" was premiered. After releasing only a handful singles in the time since his fiery return, Kanye had taken to twitter at the top of the year to connect with fans. For weeks he teased his followers with pictures of a notepad that grew full of signatures from people who visited the studio and worked with him on his album. He changed the album's name several times going first with "So Help Me God", then "SWISH", then "WAVES" before finally settling on the acronym "T.L.O.P.". He challenged his fans to guess the meaning of the new title and even gave free shoes to all those who got it right. He also revealed the track-list through twitter only to change that as well, but on February 11th at Madison Square Gardens he held an event where he played the current iteration of the album for the world. Celebrities, fellow musicians and fans alike all piled in to hear the new sounds from West. They were greeted sonically with the sound of a little girl going on about how "we don't want no devils in the house" as a church organ softly faded in on the opening track, "UltraLight Beam." At the center of the room was something hidden, covered by a white sheet that was pulled back as the music intensified to reveal a presentation that evoked a photograph taken by Paul Lowe depicting a Rwandan refugee camp. Models filled two stages and the spaces around them while dressed head to toe in Kanye's latest designs for his Yeezy label. The event was streamed live on Tidal for all those who could not make it, and when the event came to a close people expected the album to be released within the next twenty-four hours. That wasn't the case, though.
The Life of Pablo was released three days after the Madison Square Gardens event, and the number of songs varied greatly from what had been announced days before. Instead of ten songs, there were eighteen. "All Day", the single that seemingly kicked off the journey thus far was not on the album at all even though an updated version of the song was heard days before at Kanye's fashion exhibition. In the months after its release the album was updated again on multiple occasions as Kanye added new elements to songs such as additional instrumentation, new background vocals, choirs, and entire guest verses as well as splitting one song into two and finally adding a new closing track entitled "Saint Pablo" that coincided with the announcement of his Saint Pablo Tour.
In the time post-release, Kanye created more experiences for his fans by renting out retail spaces across the globe and opening up "pop-up shops", stores that exist for only a few days where merchandise displaying fan-favorite quotes from the album could be purchased. Each time one of these stores opened the fans came out in droves, filling city streets and forming lines that wrapped around city blocks for a chance to get ahold of a piece of the Pablo experience. Each shop had certain specially designed garments featuring some indication of where the clothing came from, be it the Los Angeles shop or the one in Paris or the one in New York City.
On top of these periodic shopping opportunities, Kanye once again called his fans away from their computer screens, this time to The Forum in Los Angeles for the premier of his latest music video for the song "Famous". Once again featuring exclusive merchandise only available at that location, The Forum was filled with supporters as Kanye along with his family and close friends looked on from a balcony as people viewed his latest work. The video featured footage of Kanye and his wife Kim asleep in a large bed with very deceiving wax figures of various other celebrities such as Amber Rose, Donald Trump, Taylor Swift and George Bush, each of them being people who had a connection to the artist in one way or another. A large chunk of the video actually didn't even feature music instead, the scenes of the sleeping celebrities were accompanied by sounds of snoring for nearly four minutes. The entire screening seemed to many to be a practical joke as it even ended with Kanye suddenly waking up and turning his head directly towards the overhead camera is it showed the bed and all of its occupants. It was almost as if he was saying "gotcha" to the entire audience. Kanye revealed that the inspiration for the video was a painting entitled "Sleep" by Vincent Desiderio.
Now, with Kanye's upcoming tour on set to begin in late August, we are left to wonder if more changes and additions could be in store for "The Life of Pablo". Knowing West, he is sure to aim for more memorable and headline-worthy moments as he is known for his grandiose live performances. Will there be new music premiered on tour, or maybe special visuals that will only be shown on the road? No one knows, but the album is most definitely more than a collection of songs, it's "a living, breathing, changing creative expression". Those are the words from the man himself.
