Ye (album)

On February 24, 2016, Kanye West tweeted that his eighth studio album would be released during the summer of that year under the title of Turbo Grafx 16, naming it after the video game console of the same name. West associate Ibn Jasper posted a photo on Instagram showing West with longtime collaborators Mike Dean, Plain Pat, and Kid Cudi in a recording studio working on the album. In March 2016, Quavo posted an image on his Instagram of him in a studio with West, with "TURBO GRAFX 16" written on the wall behind them. A number of other artists were present in the image, including Lil Yachty, Big Sean, and Tyler, the Creator. The expected release of the album in the summer of 2016 was not met, while West began his Saint Pablo Tour in August that year, in support of his seventh studio album The Life of Pablo that had been released in February. In May 2017, news began to surface that West was working on his new album "on top of a mountain in Wyoming" in seclusion. In March 2018, similar reports had emerged through various artists, including West himself, who was being spotted in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with a release date being expected for either 2018 or 2019 at the time. A number of other artists were pictured or rumored, including Kid Cudi, Nas, King Louie, Pi'erre Bourne, ASAP Bari, Wheezy, The-Dream, Travis Scott and the World Famous Tony Williams. In April 2018, West met with Rick Rubin, who had executive produced West's previous two studio albums, Yeezus (2013) and The Life of Pablo (2016). The meeting occurred at West's office in Calabasas, following on from him recording in Wyoming, having bought a property in the latter named Monster Lake Ranch for recording and renamed it West Lake Ranch. That same month, West previewed the album for radio host Charlamagne tha God. West announced the album's planned release date of June 1, 2018, on April 19, simultaneously revealing it to include seven tracks. On April 28, 2018, West tweeted out a text conversation between him and Wes Lang. The text conversation included West showing the initial cover for the album, and an explanation of its concept, followed by him asking for help naming the album. Within the texts, West explained that he wanted to "forgive and stop hating". On April 30, Adams responded to the news of the cover in the form of an open letter, asking West to "cease and desist using my photo or any image of me to promote your album or any of your work" while noting his willingness to sit down with West for a face to face conversation. West responded to the letter on his Twitter saying, "This is amazing. Thank you so much for this connection brother. I can't wait to sit with you and start healing". West returned to Wyoming in May 2018 for the recording of then-upcoming albums, which were later referred to as the "Wyoming Sessions". Outside of his own albums, West also executive produced and provided guest vocals for all of the albums by other artists that came out of the sessions, with him having announced taking on the role of producer beforehand. American rapper Pusha T released his third studio album, Daytona, on May 25, 2018, as the first album from the recordings. West released Ye on June 1 as the second album of the sessions. A sequel to Ye track "Ghost Town", entitled "Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)", is included on the album, with the sequel featuring vocals from American singer Ty Dolla Sign. West revealed via Twitter that the former was originally slated for release on Kids See Ghosts. On June 15, 2018, American rapper Nas released his eleventh studio album, Nasir, as the fourth album from the sessions. American singer Teyana Taylor released her second studio album, K.T.S.E. on June 23 as the fifth and final album of the "Wyoming Sessions". In an interview conducted during the listening party for Ye, West stated that he "redid the whole album after TMZ," referring to a controversial interview with the tabloid news website in May 2018, during which he made controversial comments about slavery, and suggested that the entire album was re-recorded in a month. Referencing the recording process, West claimed that initially: "Everything was going perfect. As soon as stuff stopped going so perfectly, I was like, 'I know what to do with this energy. I know exactly what to do with this.'" The following day, featured artist 070 Shake said in an interview that the album was still being worked on up until the day before it came out. She elaborated, revealing that West was "very calm" while completing recording sessions in a few hours. ==Music and composition==

Writing for Rolling Stone, Brendan Klinkenberg characterized Ye as a hip-hop album, though viewed it as the opposite "of a laser-focused statement album". Lindsay Zoladz of The Ringer noted the album's rushed sound, describing it as what "has a slapdash, unfinished quality about it, like a 10-page paper written in a shaky hand on the bumpy morning bus ride to school". For The Line of Best Fit, Ross Horton similarly stated that Ye "just sounds like it hasn't been finished", specifically noting the track "Wouldn't Leave". Clayton Purdom of The A.V. Club claimed that the old West is present on Ye "bringing plump, stirring soul samples". He elaborated, writing that "if you missed the new Kanye, there's plenty of abrasive, Yeezus-style abstraction, too", and noted the inclusion of multitudes on the album. Writing for The Observer, Kitty Empire viewed the work as "veering between sparse, hyper-modern styles and compositions which hark back to the soulful bent" of West's early career. Lucy Jones of The Daily Telegraph noted certain works as being reminiscent of West's third studio album Graduation (2007), viewing the piano chords and Slick Rick sample on the track "No Mistakes" as "old-school West," which she also pointed to certain vocals on "Ghost Town" as being. ==Themes and lyrics==

Ye gives a look into the psyche of West, with the character of the artist being focused on. Ye also includes West expressing his thoughts towards women. The album's opener, "I Thought About Killing You", sees West confess to thoughts of both suicide and homicide. West delivers spoken word over a backing vocal within the opener for a couple of minutes until the beat changes and he switches to rapping. "Yikes" includes West referencing his experiences with psychedelic drugs, as well as his struggle with mental health. Within "All Mine", West moves "into more explicit territory" and raps about having interest in multiple dating options. West uses "Wouldn't Leave" to reference his controversial comments about slavery, and his relationship with Kardashian. "No Mistakes" includes a series of self-righteous outbursts, coming from the perspective of a multi-millionaire in West. The mind of the rapper is presented as being in the process of unravelling within "Ghost Town", which is in reference to his mental health state. West raps about fears towards fathering his daughter within "Violent Crimes". ==Release and promotion==

On April 27, 2018, after West traveled to Wyoming and made subsequent album announcements, he announced the release of the track "Lift Yourself". That same day, the track was released on West's website, with it seeing West rap nonsensical words. West premiered a track two hours after "Lift Yourself" titled "Ye vs. the People", which features fellow rapper T.I. During an interview with The Breakfast Club in May 2018, Pusha T claimed that a version of "Lift Yourself" with actual lyrics exists and indicated that it could be released on the album. However, Ye was later released without the song included. Ye was released for digital download and streaming worldwide on June 1, 2018, through West's labels GOOD Music and Def Jam. West invited a variety of guests and contributors to the listening party, including Ty Dolla Sign, Kid Cudi, Nas, Pusha T, Desiigner, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, and Cyhi the Prynce, among others. Members of Def Jam's staff mobilized and organized people from various locations around the world for the party, though the number of people originally planned to fly out for it was 300 until it was ultimately halved. At the location of the listening party, the album's title was announced as being Ye by American comedian Chris Rock, shortly before the party began. Promotional videos By June 6, 2018, West's official website had been updated to include footage from the listening party for Ye. A promotional video of the listening party was played on the website, set to the album tracks "I Thought About Killing You" and "Ghost Town". Rock provided narration for the video. West's website was later updated on October 22, 2019, in promotion of his ninth studio album Jesus Is King. No music videos were released for Ye, but lyric videos for the tracks "All Mine" and "Violent Crimes" were officially released simultaneously on June 19, 2018. Both of the tracks were treated as singles from the album with the promotion, despite not having been released as such at the time. Three days later, it was revealed that West had to choose a lead single in the United States for promotion. It was serviced to US radio stations through West's labels as the lead single on June 11, 2018. Prior to release as a single, the song charted at number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100, standing as West's first solo track to enter the top 10 of the Hot 100 since the single "Heartless" in 2008 and becoming his 16th top 10 single on the chart. After having been released as a single, the song made its debut at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart, standing as West's 19th top 10 single on the chart. The song was later certified gold in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for selling 200,000 units. West went on to select "All Mine" for release as the second single from Ye on July 20, 2018, which features vocals by Ty Dolla Sign and Clemons. This decision was made by West due to his labels preparing a track for such a release to block a momentum loss for the album after "Yikes" experienced a lack of success on record charts. On July 24, 2018, the track was sent to US rhythmic contemporary radio stations through West's labels as the second single. The track entered at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, prior to being released as a single. "All Mine" was certified double platinum in the US by the RIAA for pushing 2,000,000 certified units on June 28, 2021. On March 6, 2020, the track was certified silver in the UK by the BPI for sales of 200,000 units. Both of the singles stood as West's first entries in the top 10 of the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart since "All Day" reached number six in 2015. "Yikes" and "All Mine" gave West his 25th and 26th tracks to attain top 10 positions on the chart, entering at number seven and nine, respectively. ==Artwork and title==

from the Jackson Hole valley, similar to the view depicted on the cover The artwork for Ye was revealed by Kardashian to have been taken by West on his iPhone on their way to the listening party on May 31, 2018, hours before the release of the album. It features a view of the Teton Range from Jackson Hole, the mountain range where the album was recorded and produced. The text on the artwork reads: "I hate being / Bi-Polar / its awesome," which is scribbled in neon green over the mountain range. With the inclusion of the phrase on the artwork, West confirmed his bipolar disorder. In an interview conducted with Big Boy during the listening party for the album, West explained the title, which is a diminutive of his own name commonly used in his songs, by stating: West went on to tweet in June 2018 that without his ego, he is "just Ye", a potential point of reference for the album title. In October 2022, CNN cited anonymous sources as saying that West originally suggested calling the album Hitler after the Nazi dictator, alleging that West had displayed a fascination with Hitler and his rise to power, would talk about the "great things he and the Nazi Party achieved for the German people", openly read Hitler's book Mein Kampf (1925), and expressed admiration for Hitler and the Nazis' use of propaganda. Years after the album's release, West would later draw international condemnation for publicly making comments that were and . ==Critical reception==

Ye was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 64, based on 34 reviews. Kyle Mullin from Exclaim! wrote that "if West had better delved into his emotional and psychological turmoil in Yes lyrics, instead of getting bogged down with click-baity asides, then this LP would've been a classic." Eric Brown was less enthusiastic in Billboard, stating: "It's tough to ignore Yes musical stasis; known for his forward motion, on this set, West remains mired in the past," also commenting that "It's a missed opportunity in the sense that it fails to measure up to his previous work and change the conversation around him." For AllMusic, Neil Z. Yeung expressed mixed feelings, writing that the album "can feel uneven, sometimes boring, and more indulgent than usual, but it's a fascinating peek into West's psyche." Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone described the album as "wildly uneven" with "enough sporadic flashes of brilliance to make you hungry for much, much more." Horton wrote negatively of the album, claiming that "there's no through-line. No concept. No consistency. There's certainly no quality control." Robert Christgau gave the album a one-star honorable mention in a capsule-review column for Vice, calling it a "half-assed attempt to make asshattery germane again." Accolades Ye appeared on year-end best album lists for 2018 by multiple publications. On the Pitchfork Readers' Poll: Top 50 Albums of 2018, the album was voted in at number 37. Ye was listed at number four on the website's polls for most underrated and most overrated album of the year, respectively. The Edge and Jon Caramanica of The New York Times both listed the album as the seventh best of the year. Ye was ranked by NME as the 34th best album of 2018, with the staff writing that "there's plenty in this experimental, weird little album that suggests Kanye has very much still got it." 411Mania named Ye the 42nd best album of the year, with David Hayter of the website claiming that despite the "serious faults" of the album, it is an "endlessly listenable collection," calling the music "too coherent and sonically satisfying to quibble over." Ye was ranked as the 30th best hip-hop album of 2018 by Rolling Stone even though the staff viewed it as West's worst album, writing that "West, at his worst, is still making more fascinating music than almost anyone else," and the staff elaborated, calling the album "a dense and, at times, brilliant piece of music." However, in February 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Ye at number one on their list of the 50 Genuinely Horrible Albums by Brilliant Artists, writing that the "chaotic, half-baked album" "marks the beginning of the most disastrous artistic and personal collapse in the history of popular music". In August 2022, Complex ranked Ye as the worst album of his discography up to that point. On April 25, 2018, West tweeted out: "I'm turn the Grammys into the Yammys," predicting success for himself at the 2019 Grammy Awards. West's work on Ye and other projects earned him a nomination for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical at the ceremony. However, the album marked West's first to not be nominated for Best Rap Album at the Grammys, with the lack of a nomination being viewed as a snub by multiple publications. In an article for Consequence, Lake Schatz was surprised by West being snubbed even though he called Ye "hardly the best in his catalog" and questioned "whether the lack of even a nomination has to do partially with the MC's especially divisive nature in 2018." ==Commercial performance==

Ye debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 208,000 album-equivalent units, of which 85,000 were pure album sales, becoming the fifth-largest weekly units for an album in 2018. Ye recorded the second largest per-track streaming average ever, receiving 25.7 million on-demand audio streams. The seventh-largest streaming debut week ever was experienced with 120,000 streaming equivalent albums, with the streams being counted at over 180 million. The album descended four places to number five in its second week on the Billboard 200 and dropped 65% in sales, moving 74,000 album-equivalent units. This became the second highest decrease in sales for an album's second week of 2018, standing behind the 73% decline of American musician J. Cole's fifth studio album KOD; however, the second week sales for KOD were higher than those of Ye, with 105,000 units having been pushed. In 2018, it was ranked as the 50th and 30th most popular album of the year on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, respectively. This made West the third major hip-hop act to have an album reach the top 10 of the chart in 2018, joining J. Cole with KOD and ASAP Rocky with his third studio album Testing. By reaching the same position on the New Zealand Albums chart, Ye became West's second number one album in the country. The album also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, with 16,000 total consumption units, though it reached the second highest album sales and on-demand streams of the week. This became West's sixth chart-topping album in Canada, while also standing as his first since Yeezus. However, the album was the most played album of the week on streaming services, and it was reported that 80% of sales came from streams. West topped the US Billboard Artist 100 for the first time in his career, partially as a result of the entries from the album, surpassing his previous peak position of number three that was attained as a result of The Life of Pablo. The two tracks "Ghost Town" and "All Mine" charted in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, along with "Yikes"; the latter of the three was the highest charting from Ye at number 10. ==Track listing==

Notes • signifies a co-producer • signifies an additional producer Sample credits • The original version of "I Thought About Killing You" contains an uncredited sample from "Fr3sh", as performed by Kareem Lotfy. • "Yikes" contains a sample from "Kothbiro", as performed by Black Savage. • "Wouldn't Leave" contains a sample from "Baptizing Scene", as performed by Reverend W.A. Donaldson. • "No Mistakes" contains a sample from "Children (Get Together)", as performed by Edwin Hawkins Singers; and "Hey Young World", as performed by Slick Rick. • "Ghost Town" contain a sample from "Take Me for a Little While", as performed by The Royal Jesters; and "Someday", as performed by Shirley Ann Lee. ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from Tidal and Qobuz. Vocals • Ty Dolla Sign – vocals (3, 4, 7) • Ant Clemons – vocals (3) • Jeremih – vocals (4) • Kid Cudi – vocals (5, 6) • Charlie Wilson – vocals (5) • Caroline Shaw – vocals (5) • 070 Shake – vocals (6, 7) • Nicki Minaj – voice (7) Technical • Jess Jackson – mixer • Mike Dean – mixer, engineer • Mike Malchicoff – engineer • Zack Djurich – engineer • Andrew Dawson – engineer, programming (2, 7) • Noah Goldstein – engineer (2, 6), recording engineer (4) • William J. Sullivan – engineer (5) • Mauricio Iragorri – recording engineer (6) • Sean Solymar – assistant recording engineer (1–5) • Mike Snell – assistant remix engineer (track 7) ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==