There will likely never be an album release week as strange, and exhaustingly controversial, as the one just given to us by Kanye West.
In the days since West previewed his new album, “The Life of Pablo,” in a splashy, chaotic, listening party/fashion show for a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden, the album has remained a key topic in the pop music conversation.
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West’s knack for commanding — and, yes, courting — controversy has kept his latest release at the forefront of our minds.
Even if it’s not on sale yet.
For weeks West teased last week’s Madison Square Garden event, an elaborate presentation that also served as the debut for his Yeezy Season 3 Adidas line along with his album, which didn’t even have its name set until a few days before its preview. It was originally titled “So Help Me God,” then “SWISH,” then “Waves” before West unveiled the album’s acronym was “TLOP.” He offered free tickets to Thursday’s event (along with a pair of his custom-designed Yeezy shoes) to anyone who could decode those letters.
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Kayne West, right, performs songs from his 2008 studio album “808s & Heartbreak” at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 25, 2015.
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Kayne West performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 25, 2015.
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Kayne West performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 25, 2015.
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Fireworks light the stage red as Kayne West performs his 2008 studio album “808s & Heartbreak” at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 25, 2015.
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Kayne West performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 25, 2015.
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Kayne West performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 25, 2015.
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Kayne West, right, performs “Heartless,” with Kid Cudi, from his 2008 studio album “808s & Heartbreak” at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 25, 2015.
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Kayne West soaks up applause after performing “Welcome to Heartbreak” from his 2008 studio album “808s & Heartbreak” at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 25, 2015.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Never one for understatement, West’s album premiere was beamed in movie theaters across the globe and on the Tidal music-streaming service as the polarizing superstar showcased 10 tracks of “The Life of Pablo” while models wearing items from West’s new line expressionlessly stood onstage.
Most of the attention was focused on the chaotic nature of the event, which included more of West’s famous “rants” along with preview footage from a video game about his late mother “traveling through the gates of heaven,” but much of it was obscured by the fact Tidal’s live stream crashed under the weight of some 20 million people trying to get a glimpse of the spectacle.
But in the end, at least there was a new Kanye West album — well, sort of.
The millions who tuned into the stream and patiently waited for their computers and smartphones to buffer could listen to the album, which includes collaborations with Chance the Rapper, Frank Ocean, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin, El DeBarge, Rihanna, Future, Kid Cudi, Ty Dolla Sign and the Weeknd.
“The Life of Pablo” features inspired, gospel-inflected choruses, beats that veer from soulful to experimental, West rapping about missing “the old Kanye” and one lyrical passage asserting he might “still” have sex with Taylor Swift and that he made the “bitch” famous.
That last one, obviously, didn’t go over well, particularly with Swift (more on that later).
Despite people dropping cash to attend Thursday’s event along with the money to secure a download of the album upon its release -- to say nothing of the anticipation felt by those who tuned in for the album release party -- there would be no actual album to purchase after the event.
In fact, as West eventually revealed, “The Life of Pablo” wasn’t even finished.
For the notorious perfectionist, it was both a rare moment of disorganization and yet the most West-like approach to releasing an album.
Why have a bombastic album release event if the album isn’t finished? Well, why not? West turned pomp into performance art long ago, and as messy as Thursday’s event appeared to be for those of us who weren’t there, many wanted to be there, judging from the flurry of online conversation offering tips on the best way to stream the event along with the sheer volume of bootleg rips that came available online shortly after the event ended.
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Kim Kardashian walks inside Armenian St. James Cathedral in Jerusalem with husband Kanye West, their daughter, North, and sister Khloe Kardashian.
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The celebrity couple baptized 22-month-old daughter North at a 12th century Armenian Apostolic church in Jerusalem.
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Kim Kardashian holds daughter North in her arms as she and Kanye West walk close to the Geghard Monastery in Armenia.
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West visit the genocide memorial, which commemorates the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, in Yerevan, Armenia.
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The fashion-forward couple attends the fall-winter 2015-16 ready-to-wear collection by Vuitton during Paris Fashion Week.
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The couple attends the Balenciaga show as part of Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2015/2016 on March 6, 2015. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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The rapper makes a face at photographers as the couple sits in the front row at Givenchy’s ready-to-wear collection collection during Paris Fashion Week.
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Jared Leto, who also debuted platinum blond hair the same day as Kardashian, Lewis Hamilton, Kanye West, designer Olivier Rousteing, and Kim Kardashian attend the Balmain aftershow dinner on March 5, 2015. (Jacopo Raule / Getty Images For Balmain)
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Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, friends of designer Alber Elbaz, attend the Lanvin show during Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2015/2016 on March 5, 2015, in Paris. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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Kardashian debuts her platinum blond dye job at the Balmain show in Paris on March 5, 2015. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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Kardashian, West and her mother Kris Jenner attend the Balmain show in Paris on March 5, 2015. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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Singer Beyonce, Kardashian, her daughter North and Vogue editor Anna Wintour attend West’s Adidas Originals x Kanye West “Yeezy Season 1” fashion show during New York Fashion Week Fall 2015 on Feb. 12, 2015.
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Kardashian and West pose with formidable Vogue editor and friend Anna Wintour, center, at the Adidas Originals x Kanye West fashion show on Feb. 12, 2015. (Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for adidas)
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Kardashian and West are interviewed at the 57th Grammy Awards after party on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015, in Los Angeles, during which West went on a tirade about Grammy-winner Beck and why he nearly interrupted his album of the year acceptance speech. (Colin Young-Wolff / AP)
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Kanye West smooches wife Kim Kardashian on the red carpet at the 57th Grammy Awards at Staples in Los Angeles on Feb. 8, 2015. He wears Balmain, she wears Jean Paul Gaultier. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Kanye West and Kim Kardashian arrive at the Roc Nation Pre-Grammy brunch on Feb. 7, 2015, in Beverly Hills. (Valerie Macon / Getty Images)
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Grammy nominee Kanye West poses with wife Kim Kardashian, fellow nominees Beyonce and John Legend and Legend’s wife, model Chrissy Teigen, at the 57th Grammy Awards. (Larry Busacca / Getty Images for NARAS)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, both wearing Balmain, arrive on the red carpet at the BET Honors 2015 where the rapper received the Visionary Award. (Kevin Wolf / Invision / Associated Press)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend the 2014 LACMA Art + Film gala in Los Angeles. Kim Kardashian is wearing a Cushnie et Ochs gown and a Cartier choker. (Jason Merritt / Getty Images for LACMA)
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Rapper Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian, attend the 2014 LACMA Art + Film Gala honoring artist Barbara Kruger and director Quentin Tarantino on Nov. 1, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Valerie Macon / AFP / Getty Images)
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The couple watch the Los Angeles Lakers play the Houston Rockets at Staples Center. The Rockets won, 108-90. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, photographed separately, arrive at the Tao Nightclub at the Venetian Las Vegas to celebrate his Kardashian’s 34th birthday. (David Becker / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian, cradling daughter North, Kanye West and pianist Helene Mercier, wife of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, sit in the front row at the Givenchy show in Paris. It was the second time the couple had brought their daughter to a show at the spring/summer 2015 womenswear presentations. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West arrive at the presentation of Lanvin’s spring/summer 2015 ready-to-wear fashion collection at Paris Fashion Week. (Jacques Brinon / AP)
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The couple attends the Lanvin show during Paris Fashion Week. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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In Paris for Fashion Week. (Zacharie Scheurer / AP)
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The couple returns to Paris after wrapping West’s “Yeezus” tour in Australia to take in Paris Fashion week. Here, they arrive at the Balmain spring/summer 2015 ready-to-wear presentation in Paris just after Kim was jostled in a crowd and nearly took a tumble as she exited her car. (Zacharie Scheurer / AP)
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The couple attends the British GQ Men of the Year awards at the Royal Opera House on Sept. 2 in London. The reality star was named the magazine’s woman of the year and appeared in a nude photo spread for the magazine’s October issue. (Anthony Harvey / Getty Images)
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Kardashian West, in a Ralph & Russo gown, walks the red carpet with her husband at the British GQ Men of the Year Awards in London. “It’s Kim Kardashian West,” she said when she accepted her award. “I want to thank GQ for making me Woman of the Year, and my husband for making me feel like woman of the year every day.” (Anthony Harvey / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West spend some time shopping in Paris the Wednesday before their May 24 wedding. (Jacques Brinon / Associated Press)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West leave their residence in Paris on May 23, on the afternoon of the day before their wedding. (Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP / Getty Images)
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Kanye West appears to drop a hint to the crowd as he, Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner, left, leave the George V hotel in Paris with baby North West on their way to Valentino’s castle for brunch. (Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend the “Charles James: Beyond Fashion” Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2014 in New York City. (Neilson Barnard / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian wears a Lanvin gown to the 2014 Met Gala, which she attended with fiance Kanye West. (Neilson Barnard / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian, left, and Kanye West attend the Hollywood Reporter’s celebration of power 100 women in entertainment breakfast on Dec. 11, 2013, in Beverly Hills. (Todd Williamson / Invision / Associated Press)
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Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attend DuJour Magazine’s event to honor artist Marc Quinn at Delano Beach Club on Dec. 4, 2013, in Miami Beach. (John Parra / Getty Images)
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The engaged couple attend DuJour Magazine’s event to honor artist Marc Quinn at Delano Beach Club on Dec. 4, 2013, in Miami Beach. (Eugene Gologursky / Getty Images for DuJour Magazine)
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The rapper and television personality arrive at the Tao Nightclub at the Venetian Las Vegas to celebrate Kim Kardashian’s 33rd birthday on Oct. 26, 2013. It was one of the couple’s first public appearances since their engagement. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
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The “Yeezus” rapper popped the question to the reality star on Oct. 21, 2013 -- her 33rd birthday -- at AT&T Park in San Francisco with the help of a 50-piece orchestra, family, friends and a glowing 15-carat diamond engagement ring. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
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Musician Kanye West and girlfriend Kim Kardashian at the Givenchy 2014 spring-summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show on Sept. 29, 2013, in Paris. (Pierre Andrieu / AFP / Getty Images)
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Actresses Noomi Rapace, Lily Collins, singer Ciara, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attend the Givenchy show during Paris Fashion Week. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian, in her custom-designed Givenchy by Ricardo Tisci gown, and Kanye West at the Givenchy show. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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“Yeezus” rapper Kanye West and reality TV star Kim Kardashian attend the Costume Institute Gala for the “PUNK: Chaos to Couture” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2013. (Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend the Costume Institute Gala for the “PUNK: Chaos to Couture” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2013, in New York City. (Larry Busacca / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend Givenchy fall 2013 ready-to-wear show during Paris Fashion Week on March 3, 2013. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend the NBA game between the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on Christmas Day 2012. Kardashian’s brother-in-law Lamar Odom played for the Clippers. (Victor Decolongon / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend the NBA game between the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on Dec. 25, 2012. (Victor Decolongon / Getty Images)
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Singer Kanye West, left, talks to his girlfriend Kim Kardashian before an NBA basketball game between the Miami Heat and the New York Knicks in Miami. (Alan Diaz / Associated Press)
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Singer Kanye West and girlfriend Kim Kardashian attend a benefit in New York. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press)
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TV personality Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West attend the Louise Goldin spring 2013 show at Milk Studios on Sept. 12, 2012, in New York. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West attend the Marchesa spring 2013 fashion show during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 12, 2012. (Chelsea Lauren / Getty Images)
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Actress Sarah Hyland, left, model Tyra Banks, television personality Kim Kardashian, rapper Kanye West, actress Stacy Keibler and television personality Olivia Palermo attend the Marchesa show during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 12, 2012. (Chelsea Lauren / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West leave the Valentino haute-couture show during Paris Fashion Week at Hotel Salomon de Rothschild on July 4, 2012. (Julien M. Hekimian / Getty Images)
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Singer Beyonce, rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West and television personality Kim Kardashian attend the 2012 BET Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on July 1, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Christopher Polk / Getty Images For BET)
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Kanye West and Kim Kardashian at the 2012 BET Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Christopher Polk / Getty Images)
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Reality TV star Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West attend the 2012 BET Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on July 1, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Christopher Polk / Getty Images For BET)
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Singer Kanye West and his girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, arrive for the screening of “Cruel Summer” at the Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2012. (Francois Mori / Associated Press)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West attend the Lakers-Denver Nuggets game on May 12, 2012, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Noel Vasquez / Getty Images)
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West talk in their courtside seats before the Lakers take on the Denver Nuggets on May 12, 2012, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Noel Vasquez / Getty Images)
Days later, during his stint as musical guest on “Saturday Night Live,” West announced digital copies of the album were for sale via his personal website and streaming on Tidal. But that went poorly as well.
Shortly after making the announcement, West pulled down the commercial version of “The Life of Pablo,” and those who had already shelled out $20 for the 18-track album complained on Twitter that the album had a glitch that excluded the record’s final track and instead repeated the song right before it.
On Monday, Tidal emailed customers saying, “A partial version of the album is available for streaming … but the download is currently not available.
“The final version of the album will be released in the next several days,” the message continued. To its credit, Tidal also offered refunds to those who didn’t want to wait.
After the Tidal snafu — the second time the service owned by Jay Z and a number of A-list musicians flubbed an exclusive album release after Rihanna’s disastrous roll-out — West again took to Twitter to announce he decided not to sell the album for one more week.
He also urged his more than 19 million followers to subscribe to the service and revealed he never intends to release the album to Apple.
“And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal,” he wrote.
Despite, and likely because of, its exclusivity to one streaming site, people are still acquiring West’s latest album in great numbers -- even if they refused to sign up for Tidal.
More than 500,000 people have downloaded pirated versions of the album since it was released on Tidal, according to TorrentFreak.com. “The Life of Pablo” is leading the popular Pirate Bay’s list of most shared music with nearly 10,000 people actively sharing the album as of this story’s writing.
And yet, somehow, that’s just scratching the surface of Kanye’s week.
West has been a fixture on gossip and music blogs becauseof his near daily Twitter outbursts.
One day he’s defending his Swift lyric, another day he’s proclaiming he’s $52 million in debt and venting about the state of American’s education system while requesting Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg help him become this generation’s Walt Disney and “make the world a better place.” He also issued a series of introspective tweets about his ego and announced he has collaborative records with Drake and Future coming soon.
Chicago-based artist Rhymefest, a longtime friend of West’s who has written on most of his albums, made waves when he tweeted his belief that West needed “spiritual and mental” counseling and suggested he step away from the public and “heal.”
He later clarified his comments on the red carpet of the Grammys, where he won for his contribution to Common and John Legend’s “Glory.”
“A lot of media wants to use me to tear him down and that’s not who I am,” the rapper-songwriter said. “I want Kanye to be healthy, and I want Kanye to be happy and successful, and I’m very proud of his new album. I want my friend to be healthy, and healthiness is happiness.
“I want him to be happy, and if he’s not happy, I’m concerned. ... I think sometimes we get concerned with entertaining the public when we should be concerned with being happy.”
Though West’s social media messages have grown increasingly exhausting to track, his words have gotten him skewered and scolded in recent days.
First, Swift used her Grammy acceptance speech for album of the year to offer a terse rebuttal to West’s tawdry lyric and cut down the rapper’s assertions without naming any names.
“I want to say to all the young women out there: There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame, but if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you are going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there and that will be the greatest feeling in the world,” Swift said to cheers.
The Recording Academy also poked fun at West on Grammy night after he tweeted he wouldn’t attend unless they promised him an album of the year win. “Is your Recording Academy membership still active?” the Grammys official account tweeted in response, along with a link for West to apply for membership.
The Philadelphia Police Department got in on the action, doctoring a photo to put West’s face on top of an image of two officers and telling him they were hiring. “Starting salary of $47,920; u could be debt-free by the year 3122!” the tweet read, poking fun at West’s announcement that he was in debt.
There were also reports that West had a meltdown ahead of his “SNL” appearance, threatening to walk off the set. Shortly after those reports, an expletive-filled audio of the rapper venting leaked.
“Look at that ... they took my... stage off ‘SNL’ without asking me,” West said in the recording, leaked to Page Six on Wednesday.
In the one-minute audio clip — reportedly taken from a private moment with his team and not from a meeting with production staff as initially reported — West also makes a remark about Swift, calling her fake in response to her team’s assertion that she never approved of the controversial lyric (he’s said otherwise) and compares himself, favorably, to a number of historical figures.
“Are they ... crazy? Whoa by 50% [I am more influential than] Stanley Kubrick, Picasso, apostle Paul, ... Picasso and Escobar. By 50% more influential than any other human being,” West continued. “Don’t ... with me. Don’t ... with me. Don’t ... with me.
“By 50% dead or alive, by 50% for the next 1,000 years. Stanley Kubrick, ‘Ye.”
Amid all this noise, those paying attention only to the whereabouts of West’s album received a massive bounty early Thursday in the form of a folder that leaked to a hip-hop thread on Reddit. It included numerous never-before-tracks and alternate takes widely presumed to be from “The Life of Pablo” sessions.
Among the tracks: a collaboration with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon called “Fall Out of Heaven,” an uptempo song featuring Swizz Beatz called “The Mind Is Powerful,” a track called “New Angels” and a remix of pre-album single “All Day” that features Kendrick Lamar and Paul McCartney.
There’s also alternate versions of “The Life of Pablo” tracks “FML,” “Fade,” “Waves,” “I Miss the Old Kanye” and “Highlights” along with a previously leaked take of “Wolves” that features vocals from Vic Mensa and Sia alongside Frank Ocean.
Will those ever officially see the light of day? Will “The Life of Pablo”? As always is the case with West, you’ll have to stay tuned. He’ll let you know -- when he feels like it. He knows you’re paying attention.
For more music news follow me on Twitter: @gerrickkennedy
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