Perhaps Kanye West’s most hyped album to date, “The Life of Pablo” also underwent a number of name changes.

When the album initially began production, it began under the title “So Help Me God.” Kanye went on to change the name to “SWISH” and then changed again to “Waves.”

Obviously still not satisfied, Kanye proceeded to decide on “The Life of Pablo” just six days before the album’s release.

Kanye also tweeted a release date of Feb. 11 but did not actually deliver the album until Feb. 16. The constant changing of the album title and the delayed release had Yeezy fans everywhere biting their nails with anticipation of his seventh studio album.    

So, the question is: Does “The Life of Pablo” live up to all the hype?   The answer is yes.

The album’s features are absolutely incredible. Kanye brought out both big names and lesser-known artists to complement his style on TLOP. Well-known artists in the hip hop scene like Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, Young Thug, Kid Cudi, The Weeknd, and Frank Ocean all made valuable contributions.

Kanye also brought on the deep, heavy voice of Desiigner to contribute a hard-hitting verse in “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2.” This star-studded lineup makes the album fresh and exciting.

Desiigner was basically a nobody in the hip pop scene before appearing on TLOP. Kanye sampled two verses from Desiigner’s song “Panda” and inserted them into “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2.”

Desiigner’s deep voice and fast rapping, combined with hard-hitting 808s and hi hats, will have you bobbing your head.

Trinity senior Braden Barnett’s favorite part of the album belongs to Chance the Rapper.

Barnett said, “I really love Chance’s feature on ‘Ultralight Beam.’ In fact, it’s probably the best verse on the entire album. Chance is at the top of his game right now, and you can tell he’s dreamed of being on a Kanye album the second he starts rapping. It’s Chicago’s two best rappers right now in one song.”

TLOP is perhaps the first successful rap album with a heavy influence from gospel music. In fact, Kanye was quoted as saying that TLOP would be a gospel album with “a lot of curse words.”

This is not the first time that Kanye has rapped about his faith. He recorded critically acclaimed “Jesus Walks” on “The College Dropout” in 2004 but strayed from mentioning his religious beliefs until the release of TLOP.

The most gospel-sounding song on TLOP is “Ultralight Beam,” the first song. The song begins with what can be assumed is a young girl and her mother professing their faith. The young girl can be heard saying “Hallelujah, God / We don’t want no devils in this house, God / We want the Lord.”

This serves as a preface for the lyrics that follow as Kanye makes calls up to Jesus: “Deliver us serenity / Deliver us peace / Deliver us loving / We know we need it / You know we need it (x2) / That’s why we need you, oh.”

“Ultralight Beam’s” refrain features The-Dream as well as a choir. The gospel aspect of TLOP is yet another progressive step in the rap industry. Most rap centers around things like drugs, women, and gun violence so the fact that this album has a heavy focus on faith is different and refreshing.

Kanye’s loud mouth and eccentric ego certainly draw many critics and haters. One might think Kanye is oblivious to his ego. But based on the song “I Love Kanye,” he is aware that his actions have affected his reputation. “I Love Kanye” is the ninth song on the album and features no music.

It is 44 seconds of Kanye free styling about other people’s perceptions of how he has changed.

Kanye raps, “I hate the new Kanye, the bad mood Kanye / The always rude Kanye, spaz in the news Kanye / I miss the sweet Kanye, chop up the beats Kanye / I gotta say, at that time I’d like to meet Kanye.”

I like this song because it sheds light on Kanye’s transformation from his first studio album, “The College Dropout,” to “The Life of Pablo.” He makes it clear he knows he has changed, but to be frank, he simply does not care.

Though the media and his fans get on his case all the time because of his arrogance, he says he says he still loves fans just as much as he loves himself.

The song ends with the lyric “And I love you like Kanye loves Kanye.” I can’t help but laugh at this because of how egocentric he is but, nonetheless, the song is brilliant.

The song that stands out the most is “Real Friends,” with a very mellow tone. Kanye raps about how he has lost friends while getting caught up in his own pursuits as an artist. Kanye spends the song confessing the guilt he feels towards his friends and family, whom he knows he has alienated.

He says there is no one to blame but himself for his selfish actions — “I guess I get what I deserve, don’t I.”

This song is my favorite because of how open and real Kanye is. He doesn’t hold anything back. This song shows a vulnerable, less arrogant Kanye. It shows that Kanye actually cares about peers and family and not just himself.

Trinity senior Matt Hess’ favorite song on the album is also “Real Friends.” Hess said, “(In this song) he basically talks all about how he really can’t trust anyone in his life because people have taken him for granted and used him for their own benefit, and it really shows what he’s been through in life.”

“The Life of Pablo” is one of Kanye’s best works, second only to “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.”  Parts of “The Life of Pablo” lack Kanye’s ingenious lyrics.

Barnett echoed this opinion, saying, “Kanye’s lyrics range from absolute brilliance down to total stupidity. But on ‘The Life of Pablo,’ it’s mostly stupid. We went from ‘I just needed time alone with my own thoughts / Got treasures in my mind but couldn’t open up my own vault’ on ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ to ‘You left your fridge open, somebody just took a sandwich’ on ‘The Life of Pablo.’ Usually I love Kanye’s clever and over-the-top lyrics, but ‘The Life of Pablo’ is pretty bad in that regard.”

Trinity freshman Chris Kolibab prefers some of Kanye’s earlier works as well. He said, “The songs in this album were somewhat lacking energy in comparison to other albums. I am personally more of a fan of the upbeat music in Kanye’s ‘Late Registration’ and ‘Graduation.’”

Kanye continues to revolutionize the rap industry and forces other rappers to step up their game with each of his releases. TLOP is no exception.