Kanye West 'Ye' Album Review

Zoe Taylor · Jun 03, 2018

Kanye West's anticipated 8th studio album 'Ye' dropped on Friday, and now that we've had some time to digest it, we're ready to review it.

At only 7 songs and 23 minutes, the album is relatively easy to get through. On first listen, the overall sound of the album is much more mature. Vibing a bit with the tone on '808s & Heartbreak', the album doesn't have any singles that go hard, Like 'Life of Pablo' or his other 7 albums did.

This is Yeezy's first album since he has faced controversy after controversy since late 2016, including cancelling his Pablo tour and being hospitalised. More recently, Kanye has been in the public eye with his return to Twitter and subsequent TMZ interview, Interview with Charlamagne tha God, the release of 'Lift Yourself' and then everything with Rhymefest & Drake.

'Ye' is the second in a series of five albums that West is producing and releasing with G.O.O.D Music, the first being Pusha T's 'Daytona' and Kid Cudi's is up next.

Kanye West - 'Ye' Track List

1. "I Thought About Killing You"
2. "Yikes"
3. "All Mine"
4. "Wouldn't Leave"
5. "No Mistakes"
6. "Ghost Town"
7. "Violent Crimes"

The candid project by Ye is very open and honest about his internal thought processes. ‘I Thought About Killing You’, the album’s opener, is a dark piece that explores a dark place. The song, however, changes about 2/3 through to something a lot more upbeat, which was strange but sort of worked. 'Yikes' and 'All Mine' are relatively commercial raps and honestly, not super memorable.

'Ghost Town' is probably going to be the most well-known song off the album, considering the outro by 070 Shake. Previously not-known, this verse apparently left the viewing party stunned in Wyoming.

I feel you need to listen to the album as a whole. Those seven songs, although we've been shortchanged with tracks, work together as a cohesive whole to form an array of ideas and a singular, rather melancholy mood.

Ye Album Artwork

In an interview, Kanye said “I’m so blessed and so privileged because think about people that have mental issues that are not Kanye West, that can’t go and make that [album] and make it feel like it’s all good. Think about somebody that does exactly what I did at TMZ and they just do that at work, right? But Tuesday morning, they come in and they lost their job and they can’t go back and make that. That’s why God put that on me at age 40. I never been diagnosed until I was 39 years old […] diagnosed with a mental condition. […] But like I said on the album, it’s not a disability, it’s a superpower.”

“I believe ye is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible it means ‘you,’ so I’m you, I’m us, it’s us. It went from Kanye, which means the only one, to being ye—just being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, everything. The album is a reflection of who we are.”

The merch for 'Ye' sold half a million dollars in just 30 minutes.

The listening party in Wyoming for this album wasn't as highly streamed as people predicted, however, the NBA Final Game 1 was at the same time so that definitely would have impacted listenership.