After a Messy Album Rollout, Kanye Takes Us to Church With 'The Life of Pablo'

It's fair to say that Beyonce and Kanye West are on the level both in celebrity and quality of their music.

A week ago, about 24-hours before her Super Bowl 50 halftime performance, Beyonce released a new song and music video called "Formation." It was one of those rare moments where you can feel the entire world taking a pause and a deep breath. Unsurprisingly, Queen B's new song was a hit, lauded for its nod to the Black Lives Matter movement and her empowering lyrics for (black) women. Also unsurprisingly, the halftime show, which was headlined by Coldplay, turned into The Beyonce Show, using her own "Formation" lyric as its theme: "Cause I slay, cause I slay."

And while Beyonce does indeed slay, everything from the release of her new single, down to the post-Super Bowl announcement that she's going on a worldwide tour this year (and the likelihood a new album is on the horizon), is fully planned, precise and calculated - the way a normal pop star of her caliber works. While West is right up there with Beyonce, the rapper is the antithesis to the pop star in terms of control and public persona.

West let fans into his creative process during the year-and-a-half build-up to his seventh album. Throughout this journey, which was made possible thanks to Twitter, West changed the name of the LP four times, finally landing on "The Life of Pablo." That final album title announcement came after a number of singles in 2015 (none of which made his new record), reworkings of track listings, a failed attempt at resurrecting his iconic 2010 G.O.O.D. Fridays events, and Twitter rants/hot takes that we will all try and forget.

For big Ye fans, getting a look behind the curtain was stressful: After West announced "TLOP" would be revealed on Feb. 11, during his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show at Madison Square Garden, it felt like the rapper was a sophomore college student, rushing to finish his English project in the 11th hour.

Skepticism came from both West lovers and West haters, doubting his genius and that "TLOP" would be any good, brushing off the wonderful buzz tracks "No Real Friends" and "No More Parties in L.A." he released in January.

On the day of the album listening party, West once again took to Twitter, posting the album's final tracklisting, the album art, as well as lyrics to one of his new songs, which only increasing the anticipation for "TLOP." The event was streamed via Tidal (the music service owned by Jay Z), which added to the skepticism that West's album and his fashion show would be a mess - just two weeks ago, Tidal fumbled Rihanna's long awaited album "Anti" by accidentally releasing it early.

But there was an indefinable buzz in the air (even through a 240kpbs stream) soon as Yeezy Season 3 started at 4 p.m. and West, who looked casual wearing a burgundy sweater and baseball cap, walked on stage after the Kardashian/Jenner clan made their appearance.

"If y'all like any of the songs feel free to dance, move," West told the crowd as he plugged in an aux cable into his computer to play his freshly "finished" album, that he likely worked on until 3:58 p.m. "If y'all like it afterwards feel free to cheer."

During a recent radio interview with host Big Boy, West described his album, which was called "Waves" at the time, as "a gospel album with a whole lot of cursing on it." And, for the most part, that holds true. The opener, "Ultra Light Beams," is a stunningly beautiful track, which features up-and-coming rapper Chance the Rapper, R&B producer The-Dream and singer Kelly Price. There's a choir and an organ, and West prays for the victims of the Paris bombings before he raps, "We on an ultra light beam / This is a God dream." He's hardly on the song but it sets up what the rest of the album/event would feel like: a religious experience with West playing pastor.

I cannot comment much about "TLOP" - I've only listened to the Tidal stream twice. The vibe of the record is pretty much what West described earlier this year, but it's also injected with a heavy dose of the Travis Scott-inspired, hard Nine Inch Nails edge that made his 2013 album "Yeezus" one of his best albums. Parts of "TLOP," which features everyone from Rihanna to the Weekend, were dark and moody, balancing out the lighter backyard BBQ party jams.

Not only is "TLOP" another musical achievement for West, but, like Beyonce, the anarchic release of the record is a game-changer. Beyonce had one of the best-kept secrets in music history, successfully surprise-releasing her brilliant self-titled album at the end of 2013. On the flip side of Beyonce: no other artist has released an album like West did with "TLOP." In a sense, its hectic rollout makes perfect sense for West's newly adopted zine/DYI aesthetic. It also makes sense for today's current sharing-obsessed selfie landscape.

With the album's progress documented on social media, "TLOP" feels like "Snapchat: The Album." (One of the new songs from the album features a reference to Robert Kardiashan and his girlfriend, Instagram model Blac Chyna, which suggests the song was made within the last few weeks.) It's incredibly of the moment, and like he raps on the "Yeezus" track "I'm In It," West popped another wheelie on the zeitgeist.

As of this writing, "TLOP" is still not commercially available. West took to Twitter Friday morning, posting another handwritten tracklist, which included five new songs that were not shared during the MSG event, and a message that the album was still being mastered but would be out the same day. He also shared one of the new songs, a wonderfully smooth, Amber Rose diss track called "30 Horus."

While the Thursday version of "TLOP" was certainly a stellar listening experience, it's likely the proper record will be a bit different. West is probably still tinkering and tweaking the LP until it's time to share it with fans, proving at 38 years old, he still remains one of the most relevant and interesting musicians of our time: West knows how to put on a show and deliver the goods. And though Beyonce can make pop culture freeze for a day, West sends seismic waves, shaking things up and disrupting the moment.