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Yeezus Stops… Where is ‘SWISH,’ and what can we expect?

Photo courtesy of Roc-A-Fella Records
Henry St. Pierre

Connector Staff

Even when attempting to be an objective writer, there is no other way to put it; Kanye West is a legend. It could be argued that no other figure in popular culture is as influential as Mr. West, in part because feelings towards him are as polar as the ice caps, and partly because his contributions to music and popular culture as a whole are unlike any other artist’s.

West has released six solo albums – all to critical acclaim. West’s music always generates unprecedented levels of buzz and criticism since his launch to stardom with 2004’s “The College Dropout.” His six albums and many production and collaborative efforts, not to mention 21 Grammys, have cemented his status as one of music’s greatest-ever.

He was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2015 because of his talent, ego and star power that transcends music. When West speaks, people listen, even if it is not what they want to hear.  However, when he is not busy influencing the world, he makes music, and at the beginning of 2015 rumors began to swirl of a new album entitled “So Help Me God.”

On May 3, West tweeted “I’m changing my album name to ‘SWISH.’” This simple tweet racked up 64,000 retweets. There have been singles to hold the populace over, such as “All Day,” “Only One” and “Wolves,” yet they had their time and flamed out unspectacularly. People want the complete album. Now it is four months later and news on the album has been stagnant. So, my question is, where is “SWISH?” Here are some possible answers.

1. West’s recent 2020 presidential bid has completely changed his mind about even releasing an album. Instead of listening to brilliant new music, we will listen to him giving speeches in swing states and at universities (come to UMass Lowell!) Can the nation’s young people please unite and make sure that Trump versus West really happens in 2020?

2. He is known to be a perfectionist; perhaps the short-lived hype of his recent singles (“All Day,” “Only One,” etc.) have caused him to work tirelessly in the studio, demanding the highest forms of art humans can achieve, whilst demanding his collaborators to do the same.

3. The high-profile life of his family has made Kanye West Kanye Stressed. Being the husband of Kim Kardashian is hard work. Being a father is also hard work. Maybe the album is actually complete and West is sitting back and relaxing, waiting for the perfect time to release.

4. 2015 has been an outstanding year for hip-hop. Artists like Drake, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar have all dominated the genre. Perhaps West is letting these younger artists have 2015 as their year, and Yeezus will wait until 2016 to strike.

5. With news and updates on the album being relatively nonexistent, maybe West is plotting on dropping a single soon. Maybe he will even go the new, trendy way of other artists and release the album without advanced notice. Waking up one morning to see “SWISH” on iTunes would set the Internet on fire.

Whatever the reason is that “SWISH” has no release date, the album will be released at some point. But the real question is, what should listeners expect from the album? Many media members and people close to Kanye say that it will likely play off the darker aura of his Yeezus album, yet still retain the soul and jazzy vibes that defined his early career.

Will the album include socio-political lyrics like on “Late Registration?” Lines sprinkled across that album included “We can’t cop cars without seeing cop cars, I guess they want us all behind bars,” “I ain’t in the Klan, but I brought my hood wit’ me” and “Crack raised the murder rate in D.C. and Maryland, we invested in that, it’s like we got Merrill lynched.”

Or will the lyrics reflect West’s more bombastic side? “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is packed full of examples of this, an excellent example being “Hood phenomenon, the LeBron of rhyme, hard to be humble when you’re stuntin’ on a Jumbo Tron.” You cannot get any more Kanye West-ish than that.

West is at the stage of his career where he could post a six-second file of him coughing on iTunes and it would jump to number-one within an hour. Of course, that would never happen, and maybe we are all going to have to wait a while for the seventh album. However, one thing is for certain – when “SWISH” finally drops, it will be bought, listened to, and be the subject of scholarly criticism whether it is an air ball or hits nothing but net.

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