Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, games, kanye west, video games

Kanye West Has A New Album, Fashion Line And … A Video Game?

Published Fri, 12 Feb 2016 05:41:50 -0600

Jonathan Rich writes for bleedingcool.com…

Love him, hate him, or just want a break from him, when Kanye West has something to say it becomes an event.

Thursday the pop culture tour de force invited 20,000 fans to join him at Madison Square Garden and millions more around the world to listen to songs from his 7th album The Life of Pablo and view items from his latest clothing line.

But why are you reading about it on BleedingCool.com?

There are two reasons:
1) The event was distributed live across the globe to paying ticketholders in digitally-equipped theaters and many more via the TIDAL music service
and
2) West announced he's making a video game.

That's right, the often-polarizing and more than occasionally-narcissistic rapper who is both a married member of the Kardashian clan and infamous for interrupting pop darling Taylor Swift's 2009 Grammy acceptance speech wants you to play with him, or more specifically, play a video game where the main character is his late mother.

"The concept is my mom traveling through the gates of heaven. No, you don't understand. Like, I got out and meet with everybody in San Fran and they dissed me," West told the live crowd after showing the game trailer for Only One-The Game which centered on the late Donda West both ascending to heaven and riding a winged horse before sprouting angel wings of her own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXU78LY6690

While the graphics on the game advertised as "Coming Soon" resembled something more akin to Sega Saturn-quality visuals as opposed to the faster frame-rates used by the most modern game engines, West was undaunted by his own progress he showed the game trailer twice during the 75 minute international listening party for his latest creation The Life of Pablo.

"That was hard to do," the much-maligned musician told the crowd. "Ya'll be acting like that is regular."

West's unexpected video game announcement came at the tail end of his event which was part album release party, part fashion show in the middle of a basketball arena.

After the Chicago-bred rapper arrived 10 minutes into the live digital stream of Kanye West Season 3, he greeted the crowd, plugged in his laptop, and began playing songs from his newest recording The Life of Pablo.

As the music played, two platforms of stoic models of various ethnicities and ages stood atop two bland white platforms. Many of the women one their platform were in unitards decked out for New York Fashion Week while most of the men on their separate riser seemed to have dressed for a cold winter's day.

The songs seemed like a return to form for the man who gained fame on such albums as Late Registration, The College Dropout and Graduation then radically change his sound with the release of 808s and Heartbreaks in 2008 to embrace a more auto-tuned aesthetic.

West became a critical darling and a certified cross-cultural icon with his 2010 masterpiece My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy, but 2013 saw his already-inflated ego explode with the none-to-humble release Yeezus.

What was previewed Thursday for the whole world to hear made "TLOP" seem like a victory lap celebrating what this outrageous artist has learned from his ride on the fame train.

"Ya'll know this album really is a gospel album," West said between miming along with his recorded vocals and dancing with his friends while models in his Hermes fashions remained still as the music played. "I really appreciate ya'll coming to support this event, support the shoes when they come out, supporting the albums and the frame of mind."

While dire-hard hip hop devotees will no doubt enjoy West's new sounds, he does still occasionally revert to juvenilia in order to grab attention, such as when he references his high-profile public fall from grace with Swift by singing "Me and Taylor might still have sex," or when he smirks to address his wife's infamous sex tape made with a former paramour ("Me and Ray-J would probably be friends if we didn't love the same bitch").

For the $35 dollar (35 Euro) price for a ticket which includes a download of "TLOP," Kanye West's fans probably got their money's worth.

Love him, or hate him, Kanye will not be ignored and the event was probably best summed up by the man himself talking to both his world-wide fans and detractors when he said "Name one genius who isn't crazy."

Jonathan Rich is a freelance journalist, high school educator, and professed comic book nerd working in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. He writes about entertainment and pop culture for various print and web publications, including bleedingcool.com.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!