The Life of Pablo may very well turn out to be one of the most extended and calculated April Fool’s pranks that there ever was.
Firstly, from being released to unreleased to being released again on Friday 1 April, Kanye West‘s half-anticipated, half-distastefully unwanted eighth album is now going to have a general release when previously it was to be only streamed on Tidal.
Sources have told The Verge that far from being a Tidal exclusive, The Life of Pablo will now also find a home on Spotify, Google Play Music as well as Apple Music. Funnily enough, Kanye rather brashly singled Apple Music out in a tweet a couple of weeks ago stating that “My album will never never never be on Apple”.
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
The cracks in The Life of Pablo‘s release strategy had already started to appear when Spotify was recently given permission to stream two tracks from the album: Famous and the hilariously-titled I Love Kanye.
While The Life of Pablo was ostensibly released about six weeks ago, to mixed reviews, Kanye has been updating/tinkering with the music therein ever since. Scheduled for a sort-of re-release today, The Life of Pablo is currently challenging Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy for the title of most protracted record release ever.
Given that it’s April Fools today, let’s hope that Kanye hasn’t hoodwinked us all as his outlandish behaviour and ability to attract headlines sometimes suggests.
Listen: Kanye West – The Life of Pablo
