Eight days ago, Kanye West was finalizing the cover art artwork for Pusha T’s Daytona album. Now, we all know that $85,000 “cover art” to basically be an old photo of Whitney Houston’s bathroom, with drug paraphernalia sprawled across the counter. Want to know how much he spent for the Ye cover art? Not a penny. The cover is a photo he took last night on the way to his listening party. He then scribbled the words, “I hate being bi-pilor its awesome”. Yes, you read that without the apostrophe after the “t” on “its”. Who knows if the omission of the correct “it’s” was a deliberate cover art gesture or not. Today, after a myriad of media controversy, Ye has arrived. 

“The most beautiful thoughts are always inside the darkest”, he says on Ye‘s disturbing opening track, “I Thought About Killing You”. He recognizes how hauntingly ominous this sounds, but he continues to delve deeper into the pit of confusion that is loving himself. The song plays out as a battle against two versions of himself. He wants to end the life of one of them (if not both). Honestly, it was difficult for me to imagine the same Ye that made “Through The Wire”, “Celebration” and “Monster” created a song like this. However, we had a portent of what was to come as far back as 808s and Heartbreak.  

“Yikes” is more militant. He boasts about being bi-polar and calling it his superhero quality. Kanye has always been the “entertainer who cried wolf” for so long, that it’s hard to know when he’s serious or not. Nevertheless, he isn’t afraid to call out other superstars, like Russell Simmons (“Russell Simmons wanna pray for me too/I’ma pray for him cause he got #MeToo’ed”). “All Mine” is a welcomed ode to the old Kanye. The rocking bright colored polos Kanye. The happy go lucky Kanye. His punchlines are fierce here and he knows it. “Wouldn’t Leave” is a gentle contrast that finds Kanye West making fun of his own controversial statement about the concept of slavery being a choice. “I live for now. I don’t know what happened after here”. This song could have fit comfortably on 2016’s highly underrated The Life Of Pablo. 

“No Mistakes” has a melancholy, soulful feel. There’s just a slight pang of realization that as Charlie Wilson sings, “Make no mistake girl, I still love you”, Kanye is talking about Kim Kardashian. The track-listing of the album (as is the same as some of his previous releases) is void of featured artist listings. It comes off a bit narcissistic, but after all, this is Ye we’re talking about here.  Kid Cudi, Valee, Ty Dolla $ign, PARTYTNEXTDOOR, John Legend and Jeremih all appear as well, just behind the veil of the visible track-listing. “Ghost Town” is a scratchy, triumphant audible monument that sums up everything Kanye West has represented throughout his career. It’s what we can touch, but harms us if we do. 

“Violent Crimes” closes out on a nostalgic, Phil Collins “I can feel it in the air tonight” kind of way. As the last audible vocals of the track fade (interestingly supplied by Nicki Minaj…..weird), I felt a bit short changed. I wanted more. I needed an explanation of all the quirky, crazy and uncool things Ye has said and done in the past couple of years. But that’s not Ye (or Ye himself)and that’s not life. Sometimes we don’t get all the answers and sometimes they lie between the chords and inflections we missed the first time. 

However, Kanye West season is in full effect. By this time next week, everyone will be listening to the Kanye West and Kid Cudi collab album. This will be followed by Nas and Teyana Taylor’s highly anticipated albums, to round out the June G.O.O.D. Music releases. The question isn’t whether Ye is a solid album or not. Of course it is (although it’s not his best). The greater concern is just how close Kanye really is to the edge this time. Hopefully, this is just a sum of his craftiest publicity stunts to date. The seven track, 23 minute album is his shortest studio album to date. Ironically, it’s also the one that requires the most unpacking. 

Here’s an in depth interview between Charlamagne and Kanye West, just weeks before Ye‘s release.