The Life of Pablo: all the news on Kanye West’s latest album – The Verge

Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo is the first album to go platinum entirely from streams

2017-04-04T15:02:05-04:00

The Life of Pablo, released in February of last year, has been streamed over 3 billion times worldwide, and has just hit 1.5 billion streams in the US - making it the first album to be RIAA-certified platinum from streaming alone. The album was also available for sale on West's website, but downloads contributed only 0.7 percent of its first-week units, according to Billboard and TLOP meets the "platinum" condition without those numbers.

The certification was first reported by Pitchfork, and confirmed to The Verge in an email from Kanye West's management.

The Life of Pablo continues to make history for streaming, though its tiny number of …

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Kanye West just released a music video for Wolves

2016-07-29T12:38:53-04:00

Kanye West unexpectedly dropped a video for "Wolves" featuring Sia and Vic Mensa from his album The Life of Pablo. The seven-minute clip is directed by Steven Klein and is essentially an extensive Balmain commercial with the fashion house's boss and Kardashian family friend Olivier Rousteing acting as creative director. Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, and a slew of fashion models also make appearances in the clip. It's safe to say this will be far less controversial than West's last music video.

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What really happened between Taylor Swift and Kanye West?

2016-07-18T12:28:36-04:00

The internet has been totally devoured by the latest chapter in the long-running feud between Taylor Swift and Kanye West, an interpersonal conflict that stretches back all the way to the halcyon days of 2009. When West's wife Kim Kardashian posted a series of Snapchat videos capturing a recorded conversation between Swift and West about his controversial song "Famous," it spawned more questions than any piece of video this side of the Game of Thrones finale. Is there any part of the conversation between Swift and West we're not seeing? How much did she know about the song before it was released? When did she find out the recording existed? …

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Kim Kardashian used Snapchat to prove Taylor Swift was lying about Kanye West’s Famous

2016-07-17T23:43:25-04:00

Kim Kardashian West hopped onto Snapchat to defend her husband Kanye West's honor tonight, posting a series of videos that prove Taylor Swift gave West permission to rap about her on infamous The Life of Pablo single "Famous." (The line in question: "For all my Southside niggas that know me best / I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous.") Kardashian teased the reveal on Twitter earlier in the evening, and West's feud with Swift was the basis for one of the major plotlines on tonight's episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

In the footage posted on Snapchat, West asks Swift for permission to use a vers …

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Kanye West is premiering his video for Famous with a live stream tonight

2016-06-24T13:57:16-04:00

Kanye West's live-streamed premiere of The Life of Pablo at Madison Square Garden was a phenomenal success back in February, and he's trying to recapture that magic by hosting a similar event for the premiere of his "Famous" music video tonight in Los Angeles. (I guess Aziz Ansari's magical West-approved fan video just wasn't cutting it anymore.) West is going to play the video for the first time at The Forum tonight at 7PM PT - that's 10PM ET for you East Coast viewers - and he's live-streaming the premiere through Tidal for subscribers and non-subscribers alike. (We'll update this post with the embedded version of the stream when it's read …

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Kanye West approves of Aziz Ansari’s makeshift Famous music video

2016-04-28T10:06:51-04:00

Earlier this month we squealed and clapped our hands right under our chins while watching Master of None costars Eric Wareheim and Aziz Ansari dance it out and eat fancy Italian pasta to the tune of Kanye West's extremely polarizing (but irresistible) new song, "Famous."

Consequence of Sound reported this morning that this incredible frivolity had been dubbed the official music video for the song, by order of Kanye West. This report turned out to be false, but Kanye's team later reached out to Vulture and emphasized that Kanye "thinks it's great." In light of The Life of Pablo's bizarre, months-long rollout, the choice wouldn't have seemed …

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Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo is the first album to top the charts through mostly streaming

2016-04-11T09:51:21-04:00

Kanye West's The Life of Pablo is the first album to top the Billboard charts with the majority of its "sales" derived from streaming, an achievement you can chalk up to the album's unorthodox release. According to Billboard, West's new album earned 94,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April 7th, enough to beat out Chris Stapleton's Traveller for the top spot. 66,000 of those units - or just over 70 percent of West's total - came from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, and the remainder came from sales on West's personal website and Tidal, its exclusive streaming home for its first six weeks of availability. The Lif …

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Thank Yeezus for this mashup of I Love Kanye and John Tesh’s Roundball Rock

2016-04-04T11:37:36-04:00

You can't ask for much better mashup fodder than Kanye West's "I Love Kanye": it's short, spare, rhythmically precise, and unmistakable no matter the context. That's a long way of saying it's "good." John Tesh's baroque, absurd "Roundball Rock" was the theme song for NBC's NBA coverage for over a decade, and it's impossible to hear it without seeing Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen dunking on haters in your mind's eye. It's one of the greatest sports themes of all time. That's a long way of saying it's "also good."

I'm happy to report the combination of "I Love Kanye" and "Roundball Rock" - for which you can thank SBNation's Mark Hinog, wh …

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Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo is now on Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play

2016-04-01T00:12:02-04:00

Kanye West's latest album, The Life of Pablo, has arrived on Spotify, Google Play Music, and Apple Music. It was reported yesterday that West's still-changing album would soon appear on the services, despite the self-proclaimed greatest artist ever saying it would remain a Tidal exclusive forever, and would "never never never be on Apple." He might be half true to his word, however - at present, The Life of Pablo has yet to turn up on iTunes.

The arrival of the whole album on competing services comes less than a week after one song from The Life of Pablo - "Famous," featuring Rihanna - appeared on Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music …

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Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo should arrive on major streaming services tomorrow

2016-03-31T11:28:39-04:00

Kanye West's new album The Life of Pablo should land on major streaming services tomorrow, a change that's taking place despite West's February promise the album would remain a permanent Tidal exclusive. Sources tell The Verge the album should be available on Spotify tomorrow, and Re/code and Mashable are both reporting The Life of Pablo will also be available on competitors like Apple Music and Google Play Music. The album's full exclusivity was punctured earlier this week when singles "Famous" and "I Love Kanye" were made available on Spotify and Apple Music. West tweeted The Life of Pablo would "never never never be on Apple" on February …

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