In his eighth studio album, Ye, apart of his compilation of releases: DAYTONA, NASIR, and KIDS SEE GHOSTS, Kanye presents what’s likely one of his most introspective, and self-exposed projects yet. Following the release of The Life of Pablo, which released in 2016, ye, touches on the antics, and the controversies that occurred in the last two years, and can hopefully baptize every ear that had to listen to "Lift Yourself".

 

Kicking off the project, with eerie and distorted vocals in the intro, “I Thought About Killing You”, Kanye reaffirms that even if you’ve been making music for over a decade you can still have shock factor, and this track epitomizes that. The more Kanye progresses through his explanation of why he contemplated murder, he manages to seem more and more reasonable in explaining that this isn’t rooted in insanity, nor madness, but rather love. Kanye's musicality manages to overpower his eccentricity with transition after transition, going from a monologue to harmonizing with his next verse, then finally a much more emphatic, aggressive cadence. The next song, “Yikes”, encapsulates a much less somber mood, and much more fast-paced, and in your face type of vibe. This song falls short in comparison to the following tracks, as it feels very Yeezus-reminiscent, where the enjoyment of the song relies somewhat solely on just a head-banging, mosh-pit type experience but feels very surface-level, and production-reliant compared to the next few songs.

 

“All Mine”, kicks off with just about the most Kanye line you could ask for, “If I pull up with a Kerry Washington//That's gon' be an enormous scandal//I could have Naomi Campbell//And still might want me a Stormy Daniels”, yes just ignore the “outcome/out-cum” line. In the previous reference, Kanye is quite obviously citing a situation relating to both Donald Trump, and his relationship with pornstar, Stormy Daniels, as well as Chris Rock and his alleged cheating incident with Kerry Washington. As douchey as Kanye could’ve came off with this line alone, the more you look through the perspective of a man who's confessing sympathy, and not envy it becomes much more admirable. The admiration originates in how he is evidently empathizing with Trump, and Rock’s mistakes, and how easy it is to lose track of your fidelity when both your fame and power are at an all-time high. This track heavily centers on Kanye’s lust and the consequences of putting his desires first before his relationship, and kicks off a series of exceedingly inward-looking tracks from Kanye.

 

 

As much as one loves to hear Kanye make a fool of himself and title a song, "I Am a God", or scream, "YOU AIN'T GOT THE ANSWERS, SWAY", there's something equally enjoyable of seeing Kanye expose his own humanity in the following tracks. “Wouldn’t Leave” follows up an introduction of a lust-driven Kanye with a much more humbling song featuring angelic vocals from Jeremih, leading in to Kanye’s confession of his mistakes in his relationship- embarrassing his wife, and making a fool of himself publicly. Following this, “No Mistakes”, is yet another apologetic track, this time accompanied by Charlie Wilson, and the gospel-like chorus speaks for itself as Charlie Wilson preaches, “Make no mistake, girl, I still love you”, as piano keys echo throughout, with crashing cymbals. Kanye references his shaky year, the chaos regarding drama with Drake; yet, despite every predicament, Kanye’s love for his wife remained a constant. Unless it wasn’t obvious enough, and you needed to see Kanye holding big bold letters that scream, “KIM I’M SORRY”, then “Ghost Town” and “Violent Crimes” should do the job to push Kanye’s narrative. Who better to convey sadness, and sorrow than Kid Cudi himself in “Ghost Town”, the duo in this song come together to illustrate a melancholy-filled track that sacrifices nothing in musicality, going from PND’s drunken ranting in the beginning, to Kid Cudi’s apologetic, “I've been tryin' to make you love me//But everything I try just takes you further from me”, and then going straight into a confession of Kanye’s shortcomings, how he “takes all the shine”, or talks “like [he] drinks all the wine”, and every minute of this composition is perfect. It’s the type of song you’d blast through a boombox, and throw pebbles at your crush’s window to, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

 

The narrative remains consistent in “Violent Crimes”, and how his perception of women has changed. Speaking on how men will never truly understand how to treat a woman until they have one of their own, and Kanye’s feminist prose is one to be praised in this track and is refreshing when compared to his peers. He double back’s on his own misconceptions and makes it very evident how much he’s been impacted by his daughter in the last two years.

 

In just seven tracks and 23 minutes, Kanye West shows more vulnerability in this album alone, than possibly any other project in his discography. Known to be on the cockier, self-titled “Savant” side, Kanye West goes from preaching about how much he loves himself, and how that translates to wanting to kill somebody, then touching on issues in his relationship and where his faults lie as a husband, and then completely surprising listeners in speaking on his newfound perspective of women.

 

To take a step back, and not put Kanye on too much of a pedestal, there are drawbacks in this project. Yes, we're seeing a different side of him, with still equal quality in production, and overall there's enough variety between songs to never get bored. But the reality of this album, is that it's like a jenga tower, if you remove one song or another, the concept of the album kind of falls apart and individual tracks, such as: "Wouldn't Leave", "No Mistake", and "All Mine", are very much so shallow in their meaning as an individual track, kind of forcing the listener to listen to the entire album throughout to get the full appreciation for songs like these. And let's not get started on moments where you just want to stop listening once Kanye trolls the listeners with lyrics that equate to a Vietnam flashback of "poopity-scoop", and take all of the sincerity out of the project.

 

In the same token Ye, is very much so, a musical memoir, it’s filled with all of the impactful, and jaw-dropping production you’d expect from any Kanye project, and where most of his projects normally fell short due to Kanye’s vanity, or ego, this one stood out from the bunch, and delivered where it needed to. “An introspective Kanye album that isn’t narcissistic”, is all the shock value this project needed to make it one of 2018’s bests.