The Life of Pablo Turns 5
It’s February 11, 2016. Kanye is old. Thirty-eight years old to be exact. Once known for being the Louis Vuitton don with other designer accouterments, he’s traded in his couture for a Gildan sweatshirt and a baseball cap. At this point in his life, he’s a husband and a father to two kids. A seasoned veteran who’s gone from pariah to messiah to villain, it seemed as if we’ve seen every facet of the multi-hyphenate musical auteur - or so we thought. At 4:40 pm, the dome at Madison Square Garden is lifted, showcasing West’s Yeezy Season 3 collection, featuring Black and brown models draped in desert tones, who turns out were ordered not to move or breathe. Ten minutes later, Kanye previews Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1, a moment that continues to exist in viral infamy.
It’s February 14, 2016, and The Life of Pablo is finally out. I’m sixteen years old. My facial hair is growing in for the first time and it looks fucking terrible. It’s a rough time like it is for any teenager, yet somehow I saw myself in Kanye, despite him being old enough to be my dad. His once sharp goatee was now a rough beard. Once known for his lavish designer outfits, his sought after public appearances were marked by mismatched sweatsuits and sneakers. He had undergone several media cycles antagonizing and deifying him. At this point in his career, it didn’t look like the world necessarily hated or loved Kanye. It was simply done with him, and with one release, he turned that all around. Kanye proved he was still fully capable of reinventing the wheel, all with grandeur and controversy. With a star-studded career, it turns out there was a side of him we still hadn’t seen. Kanye, the human.
Much like a Picasso painting, The Life of Pablo is cacophonous. It’s loud, it’s textured, and it’s emotional. At times it’s paradoxical, being both haphazard and meticulous at the same time. It’s imperfect on purpose, its greatness is in its expression, not in its perfection. Unlike My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or Yeezus, Kanye was not leaning into the image of himself as a God or as the villain. He was determined to showcase a newfound vulnerability, while still remaining braggadocious as ever, on one song proclaiming the struggle of maintaining his faith, while on the other saying he made Taylor Swift famous. He doesn’t shy from experimentation, going Yeezus levels of crazy on tracks like “Feedback” and “Freestyle 4” while showing his penchant for polished cuts like “Famous” and “Waves”. The Life of Pablo is Kanye’s rawest attempt at painting an accurate portrait of himself for an audience, a culmination of a colorful and controversial career.
Five years later, nothing has changed. The Life of Pablo still stands as a Kanye career highlight. His greatest creative challenge yet, following what many say is his peak commercially (MBDTF) and creatively (Yeezus), he showed us he still had another trick under his sleeve. Many would argue that Kanye has nothing else to prove. He’s marked himself as one of the greatest creatives of the 21st century. He’s a divorced father of four who has seen his days, a career marred by ups and downs. Ye makes it a point on the outro to proclaim, “I believe in the children, listen to the kids bro.” It proved that despite his accolades, a veteran Kanye could still relate to a sixteen-year-old kid like me.