There is nothing really left to be said about the cultural character that is Kanye West. His infamous return to Twitter, comments on slavery being ‘a choice’ and the surprise release of the bizarre ‘Lift Yourself’ have caused outrage and confusion in much of his audience. While I would be the first to question many of Kanye’s erratic actions in the recent months, I still stand by his past body of work and import as an artist. Having said that, I admit that when his new album ‘Ye’ was released, I held my breath in anticipation, begging for it not to be more ‘poopidy-scoop’.

It is clear from the outset that this album is one of Kanye’s most personal works, exploring his experiences with mental health issues. Even the album artwork is on theme:  a beautiful mountain scene with the words ‘I hate being Bipolar it’s awesome’. The opening song ‘I Thought About Killing You’ further draws on this theme, with lyrics like “Today I thought about killing you… And I think about killing myself, And I love myself way more than I love you.” There is no clarification as to who the “you” refers to in these lyrics, however one could speculate that Kanye is referring to himself, or at least part of himself that he wants to kill. The song that follows, titled ‘Yikes,’ further explores dark themes of mental illness as Kanye raps about medicine and how he scares himself sometimes. The final song to the album, ‘Violent Crimes’ is a heart-warming song as Kanye opens up about the fears he has for his daughters as they grow up and ‘face monsters, pimps and players.’

The whole style of the album is fairly low key, with songs like ‘Wouldn’t Leave’ providing chill, lazy beats. Kanye’s use of samples are effective in this album, particularly the use of Dave Edmunds ‘Take Me for a Little While’ in the song ‘Ghost Town’. However, this album, created in just a month, has some noticeable flaws and sloppy moments, with Kid Cudi’s feature in ‘Ghost Town’ sounding rushed and incomplete.

Overall, I applaud Kanye for this album. It is his most personal album since 2004’s ‘College Dropout’: his candid take on mental health and other personal issues is brave and important. With much more in the pipeline, including another collaboration with Kid Cudi which just dropped (‘Kids See Ghosts’), I hope that we’ll be seeing more thought-provoking and honest work from Kanye West.