Kanye West has finally released his new album The Life of Pablo after a slight delay and rapped parts of it on NBC’s SNL, including what has become one of the record’s breakout lyrics.
This marked his sixth appearance on the show. Melissa McCarthy was the host. Kanye announced on the program The Life of Pablo was released. He performed the new tracks “Highlights” and “Ultra Light Beams,” which also featured the likes of The-Dream, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin and Chance the Rapper, who he jokingly blamed on the delay of his album.
During the show, Kanye also took part in a freestyle rap battle with cast member Kyle Mooney in a video titled “Kyle vs. Kanye,” in which he rapped part of his song “I Love Kanye,” including the lyric, “I love you like Kanye loves Kanye.”
“Kanye West, you need a mint for your Kanye breath,” Mooney said.
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The Life of Pablo, which had gone through several title changes, was supposed to drop Friday. Production time was extended to allow Chance to perfect a track, “Waves,” which was also one of the previous names of the album, one Wiz Khalifa did not like, which spurred a Twitter rant from Kanye.
The rapper had previewed tracks from The Life of Pablo at his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show Thursday before a massive crowd at Madison Square Garden, which included wife Kim Kardashian, their 2-year-old daughter North West and other members of her family.
Among the songs he played was “Famous,” in which he appears to diss Taylor Swift , who he famously interrupted at the 2009 MTV VMAs. She and her friends were not amused.
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