6 Kanye West Albums That Got Delayed (And Why)

Kanye then went through prolonged success of releasing three solo album's on their actual release dates in a row. He even released 808s and heartbreak one day earlier. The Life of Pablo however, redefined ways in which Kanye could release an album, not on time. The project began production under the title So Help Me God, with promise of a 2014 release, the Brit Awards saw a fiery rendition of All Day. Seven months passed with radio silence on the album, other than the 1st of many name changes, this time to SWISH.

Kanye followed up this seemingly quiet stretch, with one of the most turbulent releases in music history. With the single 'Facts' released on New Year's Eve, a week later saw Kanye announce the 11th of February 2016 as the new release date. Kanye would tweet a different tracklist regularly over the month, adding new songs, changing titles, and removing songs previously thought to be on the album.

The album title was also changed again to Waves, which promoted a Twitter feud with Wiz Khalifa. He suggested that Kanye stole the title from Max B. Kanye defended this claim with the 'Siiiiiiiiiilver Surffffeeeeer Intermission' on TLOP, in which Max B permits him to use the title. Despite this, the title was then changed again, to its final incarnation of The Life of Pablo.

On the 11th of February, the supposed release date, Kanye premiered The Life of Pablo at a Madison Square Garden listening party; he also did not officially release the album on that day. For once, this was not down to Kanye, as Chance the Rapper demanded that 'Waves' got polished and put on the track-list. This lead to Kanye tweeting out an altered version of his album cover, with the utterance 'Blame Chance' in the place of The Life of Pablo.

A Saturday Night Live performance of 'Ultralight Beam' and 'Highlights' finally saw the album released after the performance. However, if you think that's it, you haven't been paying attention. The album was only available on Tidal and was intentionally not finished. Kanye suggested that he wanted the project to be a "living breathing organism".

What followed was months of changes and tweaks to the songs already on the tracklist, even adding songs like 'Saint Pablo'. A few of the many changes included lyric changes in songs like 'Famous', the re-addition of Sia and Vic Mensa on 'Wolves', and a complete revamp of the production on 'Feedback'. The album finally got released on all platforms on the 1st of April 2016.