Do you live in Japan and worship the lord Yeezus but find yourself unable to access his latest contribution to the musical world?
Well, have we found the right guy for you!
Since it’s release on February 14th, up until recently, the only place that it has been possible to access Kanye West‘s latest album The Life of Pablo has been through the infamous TIDAL streaming service.
It seemed like things would be forever that way too, with Yeezy promising that the streaming service was forever going to be the only way fans would get to hear his latest work, prompting thousands of people to sign up for the service in order to download the album.
My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale… You can only get it on Tidal.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016
While rap fans worldwide rejoiced at the chance of being able to hear Kanye’s new record in high-resolution sound, things weren’t so simple in Japan, with the country not included on the list of 43 nations that have access to the streaming service. Enter TOYOMU, Japanese producer and disenchanted Kanye lover.
Not content with waiting for the official release date, the producer set about bringing TLOP to his fellow countrymen on his own terms. According to Pigeons and Planes , the Kyoto-based artist pulled lyrics from Genius and samples from WhoSampled in order to bring to the world his own imagined version of TLOP, appropriately titled Imagining “The Life of Pablo.”
The issue? As suggested in the title, he has never heard anything from the record.
“In Japan, we couldn’t listen to TLOP officially because of TIDAL….subscription services are too slow and most people are still using iTunes and buying CD’s.”
“I thought it might be a good idea to make the album without actually listening to it….maybe it’s reverse thinking.”
Perhaps. However, this reverse thinking hasn’t stopped the producer from blessing us with a wildly entertaining take on the works of Kanye.
Whilst the songs are obviously far removed from the originals, TOYOMU still produces some killer tracks, with the imaginary beats and lyrical rhythms standing strong in their own right, even despite the monotonous nature of some of the sampling.
In response to last Friday’s announcement that TLOP would be available on other streaming services, including Apple Music and Spotify, TOYOMU was adamant that he felt he had made the right call playing musical lottery with the album.
“I haven’t listened to it yet, this is no reason and meanings. It’s just a kind of feeling.”
The Life of Pablo is now available from basic online streaming services.
IMAGE: The New Vinyl Villain