If you’re a fan, Kanye West’s last few months have been a time.
Announcing their return to the scene, artists often return to the music industry with either weary trepidation humility, caution or some combination of all three. Pablo was a massive album and a lot to follow. But Yeezy was undaunted because Yeezy had five albums (likely many more) under his belt. There was no hesitation or fear.
Kanye jumped on Twitter and dominated entertainment media for an entire three weeks. He told us to free ourselves from hatred and focus on love. To be here now. He told us to give up on other people and go within (as a meditating, Ram Dass reading, Steiner educated hippie, that one was my personal favourite). It was all very Tony Robbins meets Keeping Up with the Kardashians and really if you think about Kanye’s life now, that makes a lot of sense.
Watch: A little summary of Kanye West’s last few months
Then came the music. The first thing Kanye dropped on us was ‘Lift Yourself’, an anthemic, loopy, uplifting freak out for antiheroes. It slaps you around. it wakes you up and makes you go, “wait – am I being trolled?” Is this good? Is this amazing? Is this terrible? Is this bipolar? Is it awesome?
But there was so much more music to come. Five more albums, to be concise.
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A lot of people like to complain about ‘Ye, but you can’t argue with the output, and you can’t argue with good songs and amazing albums. Having a bit of trouble keeping up? G.O.O.D. Music have put together a Turnt mixtape so you can give yourself a little primer on what is, admittedly, a kind of overwhelming amount of music. It also features a few bomb tracks from Post Malone, Nicki Minaj, J.Cole and other friends of Kanye.
Over here, we love Kanye like Kanye loves Kanye. If you haven’t jumped on board yet, I do advise you listen to ye, which is wild, romantic, bipolar and awesome.
