ye

Kanye West

explicit

Released on 6/1/18 by Getting Out Our Dreams, Inc. - Def Jam Recordings
Main artists: Kanye West
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

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Kanye West's careering burst of innovation and instinct from the days of "Life of Pablo" left him exhausted. Out of breath, he interrupted his tour and dropped off the radar for a few months. Needing a rest, he disappeared into obscurity. Finally, he was spotted at an out-of-the-way ranch in deepest Wyoming, where the artist was convalescing and slowly returning to the hard slog of creation. Weeks went by, and a few prestigious artists visited the most sparsely-populated state in the US, to work with this modern-day genius. After a year's gestation, Kanye and his team decided to release seven tracks each week, taken from these sessions in the middle of nowhere.

So, after Pusha T, it was Kanye West's turn to put out a condensed album. Under scrutiny following his controversial statements on Trump and freedom of speech, the Chicago rapper in fact avoided any talk of politics at all, concentrating instead on his bipolar disorder. With a few pieces and a sleeve image pulled on the same day they were released, Kanye is still playing with snapshots, taking musical polaroids of his mind and his imagination. Oscillating between murderous schizophrenia (“I Thought About Killing You”,“Yikes”) and reflections on self-love, personal growth (“Ghost Town”, “No Mistakes”), Kanye only flirts with total introspection, but clearly displays his cracks, offering them up to an uncaring world Musically, Kanye West remains an extraordinary conductor. He uses each performer with incredible precision: rising star 070 Shake, full of emotion, and the ever-vital Ty Dolla $ign, Jeremih, Charlie Wilson and Kid Cudi. Blending the saturated noise of Yeezus with the more dramatic and grandiloquent sound of My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy, Kanye plays out epic scenes from a brain shot through with a very precise breath of tragedy.

More driven than Life of Pablo, Ye strips down its complex swerves to get to the essence of the moment. Closing with a question on the future adolescence of his daughter North with "Violent Crimes", this eighth album from Kanye West is both tortured bloodbath and musical therapy, where every strength becomes a weakness and vice versa. Kanye continues to evolve, in spite of his contradictions and the remaining Wyoming releases should show us where Ye is leading. © Aurélien Chapuis/Qobuz

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Kanye West

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I Thought About Killing You Explicit

00:04:34

Mike Dean, Producer, Mixer, Engineer, Additional Producer, StudioPersonnel, ComposerLyricist - Richard Cowie, ComposerLyricist - Dexter Mills, ComposerLyricist - Malik Yusef, ComposerLyricist - Kanye West, Producer, MainArtist, ComposerLyricist - Benny Blanco, Producer, ComposerLyricist - Jess Jackson, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Andy C, Producer, Additional Producer - Joseph Adenuga, ComposerLyricist - Cydel Young, ComposerLyricist - Mike Malchicoff, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Francis Starlite, ComposerLyricist - Aaron Lammer, Producer, Additional Producer - Francis and the Lights, Producer - Terrence Boykin, ComposerLyricist - Zack Djurich, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Sean Solymar, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Kenneth Pershon, ComposerLyricist