Toyomu ¡ª ¡°Imagining ¡®The Life Of Pablo¡¯¡± (Self-released)

Up until the first week of April, U.S. rapper Kanye West¡¯s latest full-length, ¡°The Life of Pablo,¡± could only be heard on the streaming service Tidal ¡ª a platform unavailable in Japan. Kyoto electronic producer Toyomu decided that, instead of hitting the torrents, he¡¯d just create his own version of the album.

Enter ¡°Imagining ¡®The Life of Pablo,¡¯ ¡± a collection pieced together from the same samples and lyrics of West¡¯s original, but one that sounds nothing like it, primarily because Toyomu himself didn¡¯t hear any of it while creating his work. It gained attention from overseas, but a lot of that is due to anything with ¡°Kanye¡± in the headline turning into a click bonanza.

Although plenty have focused on its genesis, few have written about how ¡°Imagining¡± sounds ¡ª beyond labeling it ¡°weird.¡± To be fair, Toyomu¡¯s creation is certainly strange at points, especially when he uses the text-to-speech capabilities on his computer to recite West¡¯s rhymes. Yet these more left-of-center interpretations also end up as highlights, whether Toyomu slows the tempo of ¡°Real Friends¡± into vaporwave territory or uses 8-bit noises as a backdrop for his digital voices. One of the catchiest tracks is a loop of West saying ¡°Yeezy.¡±

For the most part, ¡°Imagining¡± highlights Toyomu¡¯s skill as a beatmaker, with many of these songs flipping the same soul samples used on the real ¡°Pablo¡± to different effect. They range from textbook boom-bap to spacier sounds that would be at home on the Brainfeeder label ¡ª it¡¯s fun imagining what a human rapping over them would sound like.

Most of the attention for ¡°Imagining¡± has come about because of West¡¯s celebrity, but given how solid the production work here is, Toyomu deserves his moment in the spotlight, too.

Toyomu¡¯s ¡°Imagining ¡®The Life of Pablo¡¯ ¡± is available via .