'The Life of Pablo' Ages Well, Even When Kanye Doesn't

It’s 2016, you’re on your way to school, eternally tangled headphones dangling from your ears, mask nowhere to be seen. Life is good.

But it’s about to get even better, because Rapper Kanye West just dropped his seventh studio album, “The Life of Pablo.”

With hit songs like “Famous,” “Ultralight Beam,” and “Fade,” the album quickly climbed up the charts and into party playlists worldwide. The highly anticipated record was shrouded in mysteries, its countless dubious release dates and ambiguous title spurring a hashtag to trend on Twitter long after the album’s rollout. Not to mention, this era of Kanye West has brought us pop culture like no other, filled with various celebrity beef wars and news of Kim Kardashian West being held up at gunpoint in Paris.

While the album’s namesake may remain undecided, its purpose is clear.

“Wolves,” “No More Parties in LA,” and “FML” all have a funky, offbeat style, characteristic of that old ‘Ye that the rapper hints at in the hilarious bop “Love Kanye.” “Pt. 2” redirects the album into more mainstream territory, with Young Thug blasting heavy on the autotune in “Highlights.” Conversely, songs like “Waves” and “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” have a more gospel sound to them, hinting at the quintessential Christian lyricism the rapper would grow into all these years later.

Ever the trendsetter, Kanye facilitates the marriage of modern 808’s with old-school synthesizers to create a harmony representative of his multifaceted career. Transitioning between old and new, the mogul flirts with the past and present in a battle of the Kanyes.

Now, five years have gone by in the blink of an eye, and a Trump-endorsing, post-Twitter, scandal-embroiled Kanye is at large. With such a drastic schism in the rapper’s career — and in most aspects of his personal life — a permanent transformation in sound is inevitable.

You don’t have to be a diehard fan to notice that the music Kanye drops today has evolved beyond recognition. Highlighting the production process has always been essential to Kanye’s mission, but his rapping has never fallen far enough behind his instrumentals to hurt that ]mission. In the wake of recent projects, like his latest album “Jesus Is King,” however, some say that this is no longer the case.

Speculations are that his newfound focus on his design collection, Yeezy, along with a renewed devotion to religious worship, have stretched Kanye too thin and led him astray from his sound. The giant strides in his personal life have effectively distanced him from his fans, making his intentions less relevant by the day. As a result, some fans think that the new Kanye is trying too hard to set trends he used to smash back in his day. Others disagree and praise the rapper for his constant ingenuity, whatever form it may take on.

Whatever you may believe, for all intents and purposes, “The Life of Pablo” has immortalized the spirit of the Kanye who was once first and foremost a rapper.

— Staff Writer Alisa S. Regassa can be reached at alisa.regassa@thecrimson.com.