At this point, Kanye West is a household name no matter how badly you’d like to dismiss it. Whether it’s been for good or bad, Kanye has remained in the celebrity limelight, and now it’s even more pronounced with the highly-anticipated release of So Help Me God. So far, few things are known about his upcoming release. He first released “Only One,” featuring Paul McCartney, as a single that was met with mixed opinions. After this, he performed “Wolves” live with Vic Mensa and Sia at his launch event for his Adidas Yeezy collection. He followed up by releasing a music video for “Only One” and performing it live along with a special performance of “Wolves” on SNL’s 40th Anniversary. Recently, Kanye performed at the BRIT Awards and premiered his song “All Day” featuring Allan Kingdom, Theophilus London, and Paul McCartney. On March 1, he tweeted the album title, So Help Me God, with a picture that is supposedly the album artwork, but there is no confirmation yet. The studio version of “All Day” was released and seemingly met with fantastic reviews. It’s unknown just exactly where this album’s direction is headed, especially with the stream of features he’s been on this year. From the standard pop rap of Rihanna’s “FourFiveSeconds,” to the insane bars that were spit on Big Sean’s “All Your Fault,” this album’s aesthetic could be anything. Thankfully for all of Ye’s fans, in an interview on Power 105’s “The Breakfast Club,” Kanye stated that the album is “80 percent finished.”
Being a longtime fan of Kanye West, hearing about a new album in the works months ago had me feeling beyond exhilarated. Yeezus, his most recent album, was greeted by people either praising it, or claiming it was trash. This was nothing new for Kanye: 808s & Heartbreak, though nearly a polar opposite of Yeezus, was hated by many but it is now considered a classic for its time. It’s understandable to see why Yeezus was quickly dismissed, even by longtime Kanye fans. It was different than anything Kanye had ever released. From the gritty production of Daft Punk, to the artwork (a blank CD-R with a red tag), Kanye knew the pool of hate he was going to receive, and instead of just dipping his toes, he dove right in.
I’ll be the first to admit that on my first few listens of Yeezus, I thought it was just, well, decent. But after several more listens, I began to realize the pure art of each song and the album as a whole. It was a front row seat to Kanye’s ferocity. In the realm of hip-hop, there’s an overabundance of try-hard, backpack rappers who are all trying to rap over the same recycled beats. This is where Kanye West steps in, drenched in gold and self-esteem. Kanye has never been afraid to do what he wants to do and say what he wants to say, and this fact really came through musically with Yeezus. The album had barely any marketing, except that the “New Slaves” music video was projected across the world on 66 buildings.
Whether you can call Kanye West a genius or not is completely subjective, but what isn’t is the ambition and creativity that he has. With 21 Grammys, six (soon to be seven) solo albums, a clothing line, and a sneaker line, Mr. West is certainly a dedicated worker. Yet, people remain to think that he’s a rude and uptight maniac by only seeing the surface level of things.
To start, “Only One,” the first single from So Help Me God, is a ridiculously touching song that focuses on one common theme throughout Kanye’s life: family. This time, it’s about his daughter, North, from his mom’s perspective. Kanye was incredibly close to his mom, the late Dr. Donda West, a fact known by most Kanye fans from his interviews and songs, specifically “Hey Mama.” While it’s understandable for people to be turned off by Kanye’s auto-tuned voice in this song, I heavily believe after hearing the vulnerability of Kanye in these lyrics that many people will realize he’s not as airheaded as people would like to think.
“Wolves” certainly has the biggest amount of mystery about it. It’s only been performed twice and I have a strong feeling that Ye will be making us wait until the actual album release for a studio version. The two features made me scratch my head, until I saw the performance on SNL. Vic Mensa is a fairly underground rapper, a Chi-town artist that rode Chance the Rapper’s coattails until his release of Innanetape in 2013, which was severely underrated. Sia, on the other hand, is one of pop’s biggest stars right now, with most of her music videos reaching over 100 million views. As the performance starts, you can feel the astonishing atmosphere it creates. Sia’s back-up vocals are haunting yet beautiful, and Vic Mensa’s hook allows for people to see his talent with singing. It’s unknown if what they performed was even the full version, but regardless, the studio version will be nothing short of beautiful. This is another song that I’m sure may be disliked by some listeners, but it leaves me astonished every time. At this point in time, you need to take whatever Kanye makes as art, which is exactly what music is. Not every one of his songs will be a stereotypical rap song, and that is okay with me. He chooses what he wants to move on to, and if “Wolves” is where his mind is heading, I’m in full support.
In August of 2014, a snippet of Kanye’s newest single “All Day” leaked. It was only under a minute, but it sent many hip hop heads into pure bliss knowing that he was working on a new album. I never got the chance to hear the snippet, purely because it was recorded on a phone and under a minute, but it was well worth the wait. This song is what I’m sure every Kanye fan has been waiting for. It has a beastly flow (reminiscent of when Kanye teamed up with Jay-Z on the classic Watch the Throne collaboration), A-list production, and a section where Paul McCartney just whistles. It’s astounding how anyone who listens to hip-hop could dislike this song. Much like how My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was jam-packed with credits to a large amount of musicians, this song features 21 producers and writers. Ranging from Puff Daddy to Travis $cott, to Kendrick Lamar, it is easy to tell there was a lot of effort put into this song. There’s this strange Yeezus-like atmosphere that begins the song, fades out, and then closes it, featuring up-and-comers Allan Kingdom and Theophilus London. While, lyrically, “All Day” is nothing to write home about (please, don’t write these lyrics to your parents), the intention of this song is to be a hype song. It does it ridiculously well. The bass is heavy, the hi-hats hit hard, and Kanye’s lines are clever, to the point, and worth a few punch line chuckles.
After all of his releases, it’s fair to say that Kanye West is truly sitting atop the throne of hip-hop. People always wonder why he is as cocky as he is, but after seeing his life, successes, and failures, it’s very easy to understand why his self-esteem is through the roof. He’s considered one of the best-selling artists of all time, selling more than 21 million albums and 66 million digital downloads. Every one of his solo albums has reached the Billboard charts’ number one spot, except The College Dropout, which reached number two. All of his solo albums have gone platinum, some even double and triple platinum. Some people consider My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to be a work of perfection. Kanye even said he thinks it is in a recent interview with Zane Low. While that opinion may change from one person to the next, Kanye can truly put his money where his mouth is. While YouTube commenters are typing how “the good age of music has died,” Kanye is at home polishing his 21 Grammys and enjoying his life with Kim and North West. I can confidently say that when So Help Me God gets released, it will flip the music industry on its head.
Zach Ritz is a second-year student majoring in communication studies. He can be reached at ZR812833@wcupa.edu.