In Anticipation Of Kanye West's Latest Album

By Uloop Archives on February 1, 2016

Taken by Pieter-Jannick Dijkstra

It has been a trying time.

Kanye West fans, hip hop heads, and music listeners in general have been eagerly anticipating his latest album, T.L.O.P. (until recently known as Waves, until recently known as SWISH), for eons it seems. His last solo album, Yeezus, was released only three years ago, which is somewhat of a eternity in the world of pop culture.

After all, maybe only a few months went by before the incredibly polarizing album finally sunk in and the masses came trampling back, tongues wagging for new music. Many have remained there ever since, perching their hope at the tip of their souls.

Alas, 2014 came and went with no new music from Kanye, except for a couple of guest verses. This was unbearable, considering that Kanye dropped at least one new project every year from 2010-2013. Questions about a Yeezus follow-up were pitched often, receiving vague responses in return. Whenever Kanye said he would drop the album soon, the timeframe of ‘soon’ became longer and longer.

In the meanwhile, Kanye concentrated on other ventures. He began a full breakthrough into the fashion industry, starting up his Yeezy Season clothing line. He also started a family, marrying Kim Kardashian and raising up his little daughter, North. Still, there was no album, much less a song. Rumors of collaborations and potential tracklists swarmed the internet, but even the most hopeful seemed jaded by such false prospects.

If 2014 was the year of the Yeezy drought, 2015 was the year of the Yeezy tease. When the New Year swung in, Kanye dropped “Only One“, a beautiful auto-tuned ballad that channeled a monologue from his late mother, Donda, to his daughter. The song also featured none other than Sir Paul McCartney on co-production, validating collaboration rumors that had been circling for months.

Shortly after came “FourFiveSeconds,” another West-McCartney hit that featured Rihanna. Kanye then performed at SNL 40, debuting a new song called “Wolves” with Sia and Chicago rapper Vic Mensa. In March, Kanye finally announced the title of the upcoming album, So Help Me God, and released another single, the grimy “All Day.” Two months later, he decided to switch the album title to SWISH.

Despite the output, news on SWISH remained murky. He had promised the album in 2014, and it never came. He then promised it for some point in 2015. Again, it was consistently pushed back. Fans feared the worst. As rappers like Kendrick, Future, Vince Staples, and Drake all released some of the most acclaimed records of the year, SWISH was nowhere to be found.

Despite the lack of an album, 2015 was a monumental year for Kanye. He continued expanding his Yeezy Season and Yeezy Boosts fashion lines, was listed among TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, performed at SNL 40, the BRIT Awards, the VMAs, the Billboard Music Awards, and the GRAMMYs, collaborated with several other rappers and musicians, participated in the launch of the streaming service TIDAL, received an honorary doctorate from School of the Art Insitute of Chicago, won MTV’s Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award and announced a presidential bid in the same night, headlined Glastonbury Festival and the Pan Am Games Closing Ceremony, and was named GQ’s Most Stylish Man of the Year.

Basically, Kanye managed to rule 2015 even as he kept the masses on their toes.

At the same time, the year proved many other things about Kanye. Not the least that when his new album finally drops, it could prove to be the end of Kanye West the fiery musician and the continued reign of Kanye West the fashionista, Kanye West the family man, Kanye West the global icon.

It is clear that there are many other important priorities in his life, and being the perfectionist he is, Kanye knows he requires the 10,000 hours he normally devotes to his music to be redirected into new prospects. People grow, people change, people reinvent themselves. No one is more proof of this than Kanye, who went from aspiring art student to hit producer to all-star rapper to multifaceted mogul in the span of his lifetime. And he is not yet even 40 years old. The world is still his many-colored oyster.

Fortunately for fans of Kanye the musician, 2016 has come with more surprises. The New Year saw the debut of “FACTS,” a crazed Nike diss sonically reminiscent of Future and Drake’s “Jumpman.”

Kim Kardashian West then announced the renewal of G.O.O.D. Fridays, the promotional campaign that preceded the release of his previous career revitalization, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The following Friday, Kanye posted a new track, “Real Friends,” to his Soundcloud, which also contained a snippet of another new track, “No More Parties in L.A.” with Madlib and Kendrick Lamar. The same day, he finally announced a release date for SWISH:

Swish February 11 16

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 9, 2016

The next G.O.O.D. Fridays track, the full version of “No More Parties in L.A.,” was three days delayed from its implied release date. While both “Real Friends” and “L.A.” were welcomed with open arms and acclaim, worries about the album still abound. The latest G.O.O.D. Fridays track, as of this writing, is still M.I.A.

The album’s title has been changed multiple times now, just when fans were getting used to the name SWISH. Waves was the next potential album title, then T.L.O.P. was declared the new title. A tracklist has been released with some very exciting collaborators, but it has often been edited, and it may not be complete just yet.

Questions fill the air. What if Kanye still has much to wrap up for Waves? What if the album does not get finished on time? What if Kanye pulls a Frank Ocean and bails on his album release date? Worse yet, what if Kanye, distracted by all of the other things going on in his life, drops a decidedly lower-quality album?

The music world’s collective nervousness stems from the fact that his new album’s release is unbelievably important. If the rumors are true and this is Kanye’s last album, it will serve as the final stamp of Kanye’s musical career, the bookend of an influential discography, the postmark of a legacy.

Kanye knows himself, perhaps more than anyone, that this has set an inconceivable bar to surpass. Even at its most polarizing, Ye’s music is ambitious, challenging, and consistently exceptional. Every single one of his albums from The College Dropout to Yeezus have changed and shaped the trajectory of popular music in unprecedented ways. As popular writer Shea Serrano puts it:

no rapper’s discography has ever been as situationally fluid as kanye’s is

— Shea Serrano (@SheaSerrano) January 19, 2016

The inconsistency of his latest releases, quips about writers block, mentions of hastily finished verses, bold Twitter spurts, and continued vagueness about the album have rightly kept music fans on edge.

But consider that Kanye finished much of Yeezus almost right before it got released, and it still met its scheduled date. This may just be another case of pre-album jitters, and it can be reasonably assumed that Kanye will do all he can to make sure Waves meets its set deadline. The quality of the album is yet to be determined, but the latest tracks, excluding “FACTS,” have been promising.

Now onto a much more important question: If this is the finale, what comes next? Kanye may continue to break into the fashion world, a well-publicized goal of his for the past few years. He may continue to run his record label, G.O.O.D. Music, home to popular musicians such as John Legend and Pusha T, its current president. He may also try to work with other famous businesses, similar to his current dealings with Adidas.

Better yet, Ye could propel that presidential campaign into full force — West 2020 anyone? Or maybe more than anything, Kanye may just try to be a good father and husband from here on out. Some of the most revered musicians of all time remained prolific well into old age but were terrible fathers to their children. Ye does not seem to want that. His legendary status is established at this point; maybe now the rest of his life will be devoted to the other things most important to him.

Whatever you may think of Kanye and his music, you cannot deny that 1) he has made some of the most influential music of the past 20 years, 2) the fiery ambition that kept him on top of the music world will continue to float him in other ventures, and 3) he has reached a status of iconicity that few others can even hope to attain.

The fact that so many are so impatiently awaiting the album’s arrival and keeping track of Kanye’s every tweet and movement is testament to this. Kanye fans remain confident in Yeezy’s ability to keep the season aloft, get the people going, and drop another bomb on the collective consciousness. Whether it drops on its scheduled date or not, T.L.O.P. (or whatever it will be called) is coming soon, and as ready as we are, we are surely not prepared.

The masses are still at the door, their mouths still salivating. The waves are rolling in.