A family man in his forties, nameless, black, devotedly Christian, who occasionally fantasizes about "big booty bitches" - that’s the side of Kanye that he’s trying to bring out in the album. But the name Pablo could still have a second “meaning” - Pablo is, in all likelihood, the everyman. The fact that Kanye titled his album after a Biblical figure shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, considering the overwhelming gospel influence on The Life of Pablo. The most powerful messenger of the first century…”, then comparing himself to the Biblical figure, “He was saved from persecution due to his Roman citizenship.I have the right to speak my voice…” and finally calling all pundits and theorists out, “All memes are wrong. Kanye refers to the Apostle Paul, whose name translates to Pablo in Spanish. In an Oxford Guild address, Kanye compared himself to the art icon saying, “My goal, if I was going to do art, fine art, would have been to become Picasso or greater." Others have theorised that Kanye was referring to the infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar - a figure whom several rappers have heralded for his lavish and brutish lifestyle, not unlike Tony Montana aka Scarface. On Valentine’s Day this year, The Life of Pablo was finally made available to the public.īut first, who the hell is Pablo? There was initial speculation that Kanye is referring to surrealist painter Pablo Picasso.
While all this was happening, Kanye once again booted up his much beloved GOOD Fridays series, originating back in 2010 prior to the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, giving away a free track every Friday. In the last couple of weeks, prior to the release of The Life of Pablo, Kanye sent the album through four name changes ( So Help Me God, Waves, Swish, and finally settling for Pablo), entered a rap beef with Wiz Khalifa (which abruptly ended), and once again offended Taylor Swift fans with outrageous lyrics from 'Famous' when it was first premiered with the entire album at Madison Square Garden for Yeezy Season 3. Music pundits speculated that this might be the direction Kanye would take his new album in - they were only half right. The samples he’d relied on so heavily for years were conspicuously missing, and we were treated to the idea of Kanye the lyricist, dropping the archetypal rap star bravado and taking us on an intimate, unfiltered tour of his personal life. But 'Only One' marked the most distinct shift in style for Kanye.
Kanye continued the momentum with singles like 'Four Five Seconds', which has also been omitted from The Life of Pablo, and 'Wolves'. This exchange came six years after the infamous stage-crashing incident at the 2009 VMAs.Yeezy season hype began with the release of Kanye’s both stellar and soulful experimental ballad 'Only One' (which has unfortunately been left out of album). At that year's awards show, Taylor presented 'Ye with the MTV VMA Video Vanguard Award, and the flowers were speculated to be a thank you gift. Just months ago, in September of 2015, Kanye sent Taylor flowers after the VMAs a signal to many fans that their beef was officially over. Kanye and Taylor have been on good terms for years now, after being spotted having dinner together in New York and Swift telling Vanity Fair straight up that she and West have become friends again. In another addition to the storied relationship between Kanye West and Taylor Swift, we find new lines about Taylor on West's new album, The Life of Pablo. The lyrics in question are part of Kanye's H udson Mohawke-produced track, "Famous," featuring Rihanna, Swizz Beats, and Sister Nancy, in which West says, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous." Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, "I made that bitch famous." She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. JieHJ4MDE6rUlmopVUQJgUO0DbBoYRyu Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single "Famous" on her Twitter account.