Kanye West is no stranger to landing on pretty much every music publication’s top ten lists at some point, although they aren’t always for good reasons (especially as of late). Moreover, Rolling Stone recently released their 50 Worst Album Covers Of All Time list, and Ye’s 2016 effort The Life Of Pablo landed at number seven. It’s kind of a wild choice considering that he has a literally blank and completely black album cover in 2021’s Donda, which coincidentally is facing a new copyright infringement lawsuit. Whether you love or hate this Pablo cover, though, you can’t deny the massive influence that it had and the divisive but compelling conversations that it inspired in graphic design and other artistic circles.
“The Kanye Conundrum: Does he mean it?” the publication wrote of Kanye West’s TLOP cover. “In this case, does he actually believe that this is a compelling album cover, or is he trying to push an eyesore aesthetic so far that it goes around the bend and becomes art, or is he just too distracted by the squirrels inside his head to care? The answer: It doesn’t matter! Just like Ye said actual antisemitic things, and you don’t have to waste your time parsing whether he was being ‘ironic,’ you can say that whatever his intentions were, this album got hit by the ugly stick and then move on.”
Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo Is One Of The Worst Album Covers Of All Time?
Speaking of unknown intentions, a lot of folks believe that Kanye West may have played a role in leaking Big Sean‘s new album. This is because the leaker in question is a big Ye fan who claimed that he told him to do so. Sean doesn’t believe that theory, although we can’t really say for sure at press time. All we do know is that it seems pretty unlikely.
Meanwhile, Rich The Kid recently dropped his new album Life’s A Gamble, which Kanye West executive-produced. We don’t know if this indicates that Ye will move into a more backseat role with music or if his retirement announcement was just a random but ultimately false statement. It’s probably the latter, but who knows? Maybe one of the next VULTURES projects will have a modest cover, too.
About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output.
Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond.
Before working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C.
His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.
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