It was about as DIY as it gets, played from his personal laptop from an aux cord. On February 11, Kanye delivered not the album’s actual release, but its debut at a Madison Square Garden listening party. (He also tweeted a mock Rolling Stone cover with him on it, photographed by Tyler, the Creator, which fooled enough people for RS to have to publicly deny its authenticity.) 7 “ album of the life,” that legal pad ballooned with dozens more scribbles and four track list changes, up until the day after the album was due. It started out traditional - ten songs, and a tag from sister-in-law Kylie Jenner - but boy, did that thing ever get out of hand. Three weeks away from the album, he started sharing photos from inside the studio with Swizz Beatz and Def Jam executives, along with our first glimpse of the most important document of the century, the legal pad containing the album’s track list and the signatures of everyone who worked on it. Here’s where things get complicated: A couple days later, Kanye tweeted about not wanting to work with anyone who won’t take his calls at 3 a.m., hinting at the all-nighters required to get the album ready. Finally, on January 8, he announced the album would arrive on February 11. Fridays, first with “Facts, then with “Real Friends” and eventually “No More Parties in L.A.,” signaling that Yeezy SZN had begun. Until early December, when Kanye made what was then a rare Twitter appearance to say (in all caps, of course) that he was finishing the album and not to ask him for anything until it was complete. 2015 came and went with nary an album in sight - just a slew of possible singles that were debuted at his fashion shows but never officially released. In one of the more unconventional album rollouts of the decade, Kanye spent more than a year teasing his new album - dropping “Only One” on New Year’s Eve last year - only to complete the marathon with a slapdash road to the finish line. Is the album even finished now that it’s on Tidal? Who made this thing? And what does it all mean? Here’s the Life of Pablo FAQ you’ll need to process Kanye’s latest ultralight beam. Kanye West’s bizarre promotional circus for The Life of Pablo has seemingly died down (for now), so how do we unpack this beast? It’s hard to know where to even begin, given his onslaught of confusing tweets, mixed messages about when the album would actually see the light of day, and extra-bold claims for how it would turn out. All Rights Reserved.Kanye West performs during Yeezy Season 3 on Februin New York City. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2019 and/or its affiliates. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc.2019. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. Frank Pallotta contributed to this report.
THE LIFE OF PABLO HAS IT LEAKED TRIAL
"Kanye put Pablo on Spotify and my free Tidal trial ran out not too long ago," wrote one Twitter user, "This is just wonderful." Unlike other streaming services, Tidal has two subscriptions tiers and no free option for listeners beyond an initial 30-day trial. The one-year-old music service announced this week that it has more than 3 million subscribers across 46 countries. It wasn't immediately clear to what extent the album's broader release might affect user numbers at Tidal, of which West is reported to be a part owner. Related: 'The Life of Pablo' streamed 250 million times in first 10 days His only tweet Thursday night was an announcement that the album was "now available for purchase" on his website. West hasn't so far launched into one of his trademark Twitter rants about his U-turn on Apple. And the album proved extremely popular on Tidal where users streamed it 250 million times in its first 10 days, according to the company.īut a hint that West's stance was shifting came earlier this week when "Famous," one of the songs from "The Life of Pablo," was released on Apple Music, Spotify and other platforms. That remained true for more than six weeks.