Kanye West Experiences Dark Days and Eventual Freedom on “Ye”
Wyoming is a beautiful place. I went to Jackson Hole when I was 16 for a family skiing trip during March of that year and it was an incredible experience. Kanye West released his album titled “Ye” Friday morning on all platforms like Apple Music and Spotify, but he held a listening place on Thursday night in Jackson Hole. People were wondering why the album was made in Wyoming and why the listening party was held there as well, but if you’ve never been to Wyoming you’d assume that there was nothing there as I did before I traveled there five years ago.
The album itself is unlike many Kanye albums, but is also similar to many Kanye albums. The tracklist runs seven songs, and 24 minutes long which is the part that is unlike many Kanye albums. The part that is similar is that “Ye” sounds like if “MBDTF,” “808s,” and “The Life of Pablo” all had a strange orgy and created an incredibly peculiar baby.
The beats and features on this album are all up to Kanye fan’s standards, but the lyrics may not have lived up to some of their expectations. Although, Kanye’s lyrics haven’t exactly been the most riveting over his career with lines like, “Let’s have a toast for the douche bags / Let’s have a toast for the assholes,” from “Runaway” or even “Now, if I fuck this model / And she just bleached her asshole / And I get bleach on my t-shirt / I’ma feel like an asshole,” from “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1,” which may have been written by Drake due to the Pusha T beef. Lyrics have never been something that Kanye is the best at. He’s the best at producing monstrous beats that make all of our bodies move in weird ways and our heads bob, and that’s exactly what happened on “Ye.”
Kanye tells his story of going to what seems to be his darkest and lowest point of his life. He raps about how he thought Kim Kardashian was going to leave him and how he’d understand, but she wouldn’t go away on “Wouldn’t Leave.” He’s never really shied away from being vulnerable necessarily, but this seems to have been the most open he has ever been on any of his albums. He opens up the album with “I Thought About Killing You,” with the oh so wonderful Francis and the Lights feature, but discusses how he thought about killing himself. That’s as deep as it goes, but, “And I love myself way more that I love you, so / Today, I thought about killin’ you, premeditated murder.”
Over the past two months, Kanye made his return to Twitter and stirred up an entire ruckus. It led to some hype for the album and many more albums that he produced for artists like Pusha T and Nas. Kanye was wearing a Make America Great Again hat and lost nearly 15,000 followers in a matter of minutes. He pissed off a ton of his fan base, but said he would explain everything on the album. I don’t think we got an explanation for anything with the MAGA hat on “Ye,” but I believe we got an explanation of what has happened in his life over the last two years since his last vulnerable album, “The Life of Pablo.”
Kanye hasn’t seemed like he’s ever cared what people think about him, and it doesn’t seem like he still does. Something over the last two years pushed him to a dark place, and it seems like he’s out of that period of time now. He smiled in a ton of pictures during his album listening party on Friday night, which we’ve never seen Kanye smile that much for pictures at any point in time. “Ye” is a journey from his dark times leading into his now seemingly happy life. It makes sense that the album was made in Wyoming and why the listening party was there too. The mountains are calming and peaceful so it seems that Kanye is happy, he’s different, but he seems happy, and that’s all that matters.
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