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Last night, Kanye threw a massive party in New York City to celebrate the release of his new album, "The Life of Pablo," as well as the latest designs from his Yeezy fashion label.
The album's rollout has been plagued by Kanye's controversial comments on Twitter, which ranged from picking a profane fight with rapper Wiz Khalifa and ex-wife Amber Rose to proclaiming Bill Cosby's innocence in all caps.
That didn't stop fans and celebrities alike from packing Madison Square Garden, which seats more than 18,000 people, to revel in all things Kanye.
Simon Vozick-Levinson is a senior editor at Rolling Stone, and he had a prime seat right behind the Kardashians at Kanye's epic listening party. He talks about what it was like hearing Kanye's new album at the celeb-studded listening party.
So, what was it like at Madison Square Garden last night?
The best word for it is "overwhelming." It was just an incredible spectacle on this epic scale, with huge platforms and models standing there and hundreds of extras on the floor, all while Kanye played his new album from a laptop at max volume. It wasn't a live performance — it was just a playback of Kanye's album. He stood there on the floor, with his laptop plugged into the arena's sound system, and played the album from start to finish.
Kanye's newest album, "The Life of Pablo," has gone through many different names, guest artists and tracklists. But you've heard the final version — how did it sound? Any clue who the titular Pablo is?
I can say that it sounds fantastic when it's being played extremely loudly in an arena and you're sitting next to the Kardashian family. [laughs] I can't speak for how it will sound on headphones at home but, all kidding aside, it sounded great.
The production was as forward-thinking and exciting as we expect from Kanye. The lyrics were out there and provocative, at times great and at times dismaying, but always giving you something to think about. That's what Kanye does best. As for who Pablo is, if I had to guess I'd say he's comparing himself to the great Pablo Picasso, but it's hard to say.
It wouldn't be a Kanye event without some controversy, and now there might be some more bad blood between him and Taylor Swift. What's happening there, and what was the lyric that started this?
Unexpectedly, the third or fourth song on the album is called "Famous," and this isn't verbatim, but he has this line where he says, "I sometimes think that Taylor and I could still have sex." And then he says, "I made that b**ch famous."
This got an audible gasp from the audience at Madison Square Garden because it's a shocking, provocative line. It's not a great line, either — it exhibits some of the unfortunate, sexist overtones that Kanye sometimes does, but he likes provoking people, and he certainly went there with that.
This comes after he tweeted about Bill Cosby's innocence, as well as his profane feud with Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose, and it sounds like there's a bit of the homophobia and misogyny that he's known for on this new album. Does that complicate his music for you?
This is one of the most complicated questions surrounding Kanye West. Like a lot of talented artists — and that includes tons of my favorite rock musicians going back decades but also many of my favorite rappers — he's an incredible creative talent who also has this sexism and misogyny that's baked into his music. And it's hard to separate those things from what makes the music good. They're inseparable, wrapped around each other.
So it's something that every listener has to grapple with whenever there's a new Kanye West record. There are going to be moments that make you cringe, that are uncomfortable. But then there will be other moments that excite you and make your heart soar. Each listener has to reconcile those things on their own terms.