Last Thursday, four days into the tweet storm that has gripped pop-culture over the last two weeks, Kanye West announced the release date of his next studio album with a simple tweet that read, “June 1.”
Immediately, it brought to mind the rollout to 2013’s Yeezus, which was kickstarted with Kanye tweeting, “June Eighteen”, on May 2, 2013. Yeezy would stay true to his word, dropping the album on June 18, 2013. And, five years on, the seeds for the rollouts leading up to 2016’s The Life of Pablo, as well as the one that’s currently captivating the hip-hop community, were planted on that fateful night.
Since then, Kanye’s fame has increasingly transcended hip-hop, while Twitter has served as the medium for which the saga that is Kanye West’s career plays out. Although these twitter rants have generated more controversy as they’ve grown inescapably political, Kanye’s proven that, for better or worse, it’s always about the music.
If anything, he’s cemented his status as the only figure in pop music whose album promotions double as can’t-miss entertainment. They’re erratic yet inspiring, baseless but thematic; and yet, we can’t look away.
Over the last fifteen years, Kanye’s promoting tactics have evolved with the times: from the age-old release schedule followed on his first three projects, on through the…
