(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
As we reflect on the two-year anniversary of The Life of Pablo (TLOP), let’s highlight the train wreck release of the album, as well as the last great twitter moment from Kanye West. Three years ago, West announced the name of his 7th solo studio album, So Help Me God. A year later, he changed the name to SWISH and finally, weeks before the release date, he changed the name to WAVES. In hindsight, the constant revision of the album name, coinciding with the irrational nature of West’s tweets, would serve as glimpse into his thoughts ultimately ending in a fury of tweets directed at another rapper.
What Quincy Jones is to the interview, Kanye West is to twitter. The amalgamation of unpredictability, sporadic unrelated thoughts, and an imprudent tone inaugurate indelible moments.
Similar to how the WWE resurrects fleeting careers for one last defense of a frivolous belt dipped in gold leaf, twitter has become a metphorical ring for artists to air out their grievances. The challenger, Wiz Khalifa, stepped in to the ring to critique West’s album name.
ROUND 1:
Khalifa misses his first blow, but follows with a couple of jabs:
West, eluding the contact, takes round 1 without throwing a punch:
ROUND 2:
The bell rings and round 2 begins. The “Ass Drop,” rapper carrying the momentum now has Max B trending on twitter. For the time being the crowd is on his side.
This two-piece Khalifa presumed to be harmless served as the motivation for West to kick his legs and break before the 3 count.
West, free from Khalifa’s pin, begins that suspense building routine where you run back and forth bouncing off the ropes. Hand clapping and lip smacking included.
A smoke cloud errupts. Cutting through the smoke stands Vince McMahon wearing a suit and carrying a megaphone. He places the megaphone to his lips, takes a deep inhale and shouts, “Ladies and gentleman, Mr. West is in the building!” Subsequently, a roar from the crowd follows.
West continues with McHahon and Stone Cold shotgunning beers ringside
West says, “First of all.” He is officially in counter mode. He is establishing a list. A series of tweets intended to defend his title.
During the second swing West attacks his artistry.
Khalifa, realizing the potential harm, signals to end the match. In these following tweets he motions towards his corner of the ring. The staged slow crawl where you know his leg is going to get snagged and pulled back into the heart of the ring.
the crawl continues…
Unfortunately for Khalifa, West was able to get a hold of his foot and drag him back in to the ring.
The tweets that follow percolated in West for years. They derive from the same vein as, “I JUST WANT TO BE A DOPER PERSON,” “FUCK YOUR COLORING BOOK” and “LITERALLY….JUST KIDDING…SORT OF! HAHAAAHAA!” which are the names of posts from his former blog, KanyeUniverseCity.com
Seemingly out of nowhere, Kim Kardashian enters the ring. West, belittling another one of Khalifa’s singles, uses his wife’s most effective meme to clown Khalifa.
Frustrated, West knows he has bigger battles to win. Perhaps this was a sign at him taking it in to the next round.
Kanye’s compliment brings round 2 to an unexpected close. Khalifa’s attempt to call truce, albeit inadequate, did push him through another round.
ROUND 3:
Here, West has officially hit the “Ye” button. Round 3 begins with the list he deviated from at the end of round 2. The break was completely justified as West needed to take time to compliment Khalifa’s pants and establish the one time hashtag #Wizwearscoolpants.
West, who previously dated the same stripper, is using the child Khalifa had with her against him. West is alluding to the fact that he was smart enough not to get baby trapped.
Adding insult to injury, West squeezes a tweet explaining the legal system. He establishes the timeline of Khalifa’s commitment to said stripper and their son.
Something that probably should have been sooner than counter attack number 6, West tells Khalifa if he’s going to challenge this is not the way to execute an attack.
West asserting his legacy, demands respect. This is like when a wrestler magically gets their hands on a microphone and spews out their resume to the crowd boasting their significance to the sport.
We find ourselves once again referring to round 2. Although that round ended with a compliment directed at Khalifa’s pants, West wants him to understand the reason why he has cool pants is actually because of him. This is like a wrestler passing down their signature move to their protégé, but their protégé not giving them respect for gifting them the ability to do such an illustrious move.
KiD CuDi rose to popularity at the same time as Khalifa. West is using the 9th tweet to establish his loyalty to artists from the younger generation, but not paying any respect to Khalifa.
Khalifa has yet to respond, but these blows from West seem to be getting more intense. West’s self-motivation is something unmatched.
Finding respect for an artist you shared a lover with may be difficult, however, here West sees the good in Khalifa.
In tweet 5 West accurately explained how child support works. Here, seven and eight tweets later, he claims he owns Khalifa’s child. This would mean Kanye should be paying for those 18 years. Side note, if you couldn’t tell the root of the argument has completely disappeared, along with Khalifa. Although Khalifa doesn’t clarify tweet 13 (or any of these tweets), I will for him. Khalifa said Max B owns the waves moniker. Khalifa never once claimed it.
Back with the second hastag of the rant. Kanye refocuses his argument attacking Khalifa’s music again. We haven’t seen this done since the kimoji tweet (see above).
Perhaps this feud should have ended many tweets ago. Fortunate for us, Khalifa changed his number and they remained in the ring.
1. Khalifa never mentioned his family or wife
2. Kanye introduced his wife via the kimoji
3. Kanye previously referred to himself as OG in tweet 7
17 tweets in even West is tired of the “fight.” We are now dishing compliments beyond pants and giving additional compliments on Khalifa’s body frame.
This is the equivalent to a Randy Orton slither. Watching from the crowd you know something is coming, however the opponent remains unaware. The attack is seemingly undetected because West is no longer numbering the tweets.
The RKO! West refers to Khalifa as Mr. Waves. Although Khalifa has never referred to himself as the wave creator or Mr. Waves, the repetition of “ever” and grammatical carelessness shows how West has no more gas left in the tank, thus declaring himself victor.
CELEBRATION BITCHES:
West, hoisting the corroded belt, stands on the ropes regaining his focus that the first tweet had many hours ago. Ultimately, WAVES was not the title used for the album. Although these tweets never reciprocated a response from Khalifa, he could be responsible for the sudden name change.