By Jaritza Mendoza | Staff Writer |
Kanye West dominated Valentine’s week with his album release, Saturday Night Live (SNL) performance, fashion show, and unenviable controversy.
West performed “Highlights” and “Ultra Light Beam” on SNL Feb. 13 alongside guest performers; Young Thug, Chance the Rapper, El DeBarge, and Kelly Price.
After performing the hip-hop gospel crossover “Ultra Light Beam,” West announced his album “The Life of Pablo (T.L.O.P)” is officially available through Tidal.com.
“My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale…You can only get it on Tidal,” tweeted West on Feb. 15.
The album, which West described on Twitter as a gospel album, will stream for one full week before a wider release.
Days before he announced he will live stream Yeezus Season 3 collection and play the full album “The Life of Pablo” at Madison Square Garden (MSG), he also confirmed that Tidal subscribers will exclusively be able to view all of the madness at MSG in theaters around the world.
West continuously teased fans with surprise singles, snippets, and four title changes throughout the end of 2015 to present day, in a series of Twitter posts.
Within a four month span of Feb. through May, it was switched from “So Help Me Go,” “Swish,” and “Waves,” before becoming “T.L.O.P.”
West also released his single “Real Friends” and a snippet of “No More Parties in L.A” on SoundCloud and posted a picture of a handwritten list of the “official” 17 track list.
Finding a West song on my playlist would be unlikely; however, his performance of “Ultra Light Beam” on SNL may change that.
The song starts with a little girl’s voice saying, “We don’t want no Devil in this house/We want the Lord.”
The SNL stage gave a spiritual feeling with a colorful ceiling grid above a gospel choir dressed in white, while West sang.
The movements from the choir consisted of folding hands and bowing heads like in pray formation, as well as holding hands out to prayer over West.
My take on the song is summarized in the lyric, “I’m trying to keep my faith but I’m looking for more, somewhere I can feel safe.”
Essentially asking God for peace and trying to keep faith while living in a world where devil resides nearby.
With its deep lyrics and spiritual influence, it easily became my favorite song in the album.
West, being no stranger to starting controversy, sparked some major issues this week as well.
West reignited the flames of the infamous 2009 MTV Music Award incident where West interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for “Best Female Video.”
As “Famous” played during the fashion show, many were furious of one line that read: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that bitch famous.”
West said he obtained Swift’s blessings; although, Swift’s representatives said that is untrue.
Through his mishaps, many fans still believe West’s creative mind is brilliant.
“I understand why people don’t understand Kanye, I don’t always either, but as far as an artist he has a madness to his method and you never know what your going to get,” said student Abel Berdusco.
In the course of one week, West managed to stay on top of entertainment news with his fashion show, performance, album and Twitter rants.
Leave a Reply