The Life of Pablo

Untitled

The Life of Pablo is the seventh studio album by American rapper Kanye West. It is due to be released on February 11, 2016 by GOOD Music, Roc-A-Fella Records, and Def Jam Recordings.

Background

On February 4, West confirmed on Big Boy's Neighborhood radio show that he still didn't have a final album title. On February 9, West tweeted that the acronym of the album title was T.L.O.P. It was revealed the next day via Twitter that the final album title was The Life of Pablo.

Recording and production

In February 2015, while West was continuing the work on this album, he confirmed that the album was at about 80% completion. He went on to say: "I'm trying to get it finished. I'm trying to get it to the people… Release dates is played out. So the surprise is going to be a surprise. There go the surprise... [It’s] cookout music that just feels good. My last album was protest music. I was like, 'I'm going to take my ball and go home.'"

Singer Ty Dolla $ign is featured on "Fade" and "Real Friends".

Multiple reports cited the album was written and recorded in Los Angeles, Mexico and Florence, Italy. During West's recording time in Los Angeles, it was rumored to be at Shangri-La Studios, which is the home base of Yeezus executive producer Rick Rubin. Ty Dolla $ign reported his recording experience with West and McCartney, saying they were "...in Mexico, at this big house. The back of the house had no walls and no doors; it was just open [and facing] the ocean. You would think he would want the mic enclosed and all that but we just had the doors open, and it came out perfect." The production in Mexico, were occurred with Paul McCartney and frequent-collaborator Rihanna. Rappers Pusha T and Consequence confirmed that they had ended their "beef", in order to work with West on T.L.O.P., with Consequence saying in an interview: "Pusha [T] and I deaded everything and we creatively vibed with Kanye for this new LP."

In an interview with Self-Titled, GOOD Music's producer Evian Christ was quoted by saying, “Kanye wants something that sounds a bit like Otis Redding, a bit like Mobb Deep.” Christ explained while that West isn’t always musically clear, he just seems "...interested in pushing aesthetic boundaries as far into the Avant as possible. Kanye is the one dude who’s like, ‘This is not experimental enough. This is too poppy. Make something else.’ The other guys are like, ‘We don’t get it.'” Christ, admitted that Kanye’s "a dream to work with", adding that "...no one else gives you that level of creative freedom. When he wants you to work to a blueprint, the blueprint is: ‘Don’t make a rap beat. Anything but a rap beat.'"

In October 2015, a fellow rapper and record producer Daz Dillinger confirmed that he and West were in the studio and have recorded a plethora of songs. Daz states "Me and West knew each other for a long time, and he always beena huge fan of the Dogg Pound and how he used to look up to me as a producer. He called me one day and asked me to go to fly to his studio in Amsterdam and when I got their we was coming up with some bomb ass shit. Y'all gonna be surprise with all the songs we made".

In an interview with MTV, Big Sean spoke about the multiple recording locations involved this album, whilst promoting his own third studio album, Dark Sky Paradise: "...We done did a couple, to like Mexico, like how we did Hawaii before and stuff like that. We work as unit for sure, that’s all I’m gonna say I’m not gonna drop nothing else."

In an interview with Billboard, James Fauntleroy of Cocaine 80s spoke of his recording sessions with West and said, "I went in there and did some stuff on that shit. I sang shit on there and left. We'll see how it turns out, when I went in it was early, [during] the early stages. I know there will be a lot more other people, a lot of interjections." Producer Mike Will Made It has been quoted saying "Kanye has been trying new ideas and has been reaching out to me for new ideas, Whether or not it's the "Black Skinhead Remix", we don't know, but it's definitely dope what we have so far, [We’re] just working, period. It depends on where the music is lands, but hopefully we do something on his next album."

Post Malone, 2015

On January 27, 2016, West revealed an update of the final track listing on his official Twitter account, which revealed that the album's opening track, titled "Nina Chop" has been replaced by a new song, titled "Famous". The update to the tracklist also revealed a number of potential collaborators, which includes Earl Sweatshirt, Chance the Rapper, The-Dream, Tyler, the Creator, OFWGK†Δ, The World Famous Tony Williams, Diddy, A$AP Rocky, KiD CuDi and French Montana, as well as a returning of his previous production collaborators, such as Mike Dean, Hudson Mohawke and Noah Goldstein, as well as new production collaborators Plain Pat and Vicious.

In an interview with The Fader, Post Malone, whom (along with Ty Dolla $ign) was featured on the track, titled "Fade", discussing his experiences with West: “I met Kanye at Kylie Jenner’s party and Kanye was like, ‘Let’s make something.’ So I went over to Ye’s and we just started working and then we just started talking. And we just kept on going. I went in the studio with Kanye and we just recorded the scratch vocals and then I wrote over it… He was just a normal guy, like me, and super cool. He was wearing all camo, just all camo. He was very quiet and he was very, very humble.”

Track listing

Track listing adapted from West's Twitter account.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Ultra Light Beams"
2.	"Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2"
3.	"Freestyle 4"
4.	"Famous"
5.	"Highlights"
6.	"Feed Back"
7.	"Fade" (featuring Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign)	West Austin Post Tyrone Griffin, Jr. Norman Whitfield Eddie Holland Cornelius Grant Larry Heard Robert Owens Ron Wilson	West Post Malone
8.	"FML"
9.	"Real Friends" (featuring Ty Dolla $ign)	West Griffin, Jr. Adam Feeney Kejuan Muchita Matthew Samuels Jalil Hutchins John Fletcher Michael Whiting Drew Carter	West Boi-1da Frank Dukes Havoc
10.	"Wolves" (featuring Sia and Vic Mensa)	West Magnus Høiberg Alan Brinsmead Sia Furler Victor Mensah	West Cashmere Cat Sinjin Hawke

Sample credits

• "Fade" contains samples of "Mystery of Love" performed by Mr. Fingers from the album Mystery of Love, "Deep Inside" performed by Hardrive from the album Deep Inside, and the 1966's song "(I Know) I'm Losing You" performed by Rare Earth from the album Ecology (1970).
• "Real Friends" contains samples of "Friends" performed by Whodini from the album Escape (1984).