Kanye West Premieres "Closest Thing to Einstein" With Sampha, Goes on Rant at Yo Gotti Release Party

At this point, it's likely cliche to comment that Yeezy Season continues on, but to Kanye West's credit he has a seemingly bottomless bag of new and unreleased music that continues to spill out online. The latest entry comes from Tuesday night's (Feb. 24) Yo Gotti release party at 1OAK in Los Angeles, where Kanye played a new track featuring Sampha titled "Closest Thing to Einstein."

While many marveled that the lyrics on The Life of Pablo referenced hyper-recent events such as Rob Kardashian's relationship with Blac Chyna, "Closest Thing to Einstein" is the first post-Pablo song to reference the conversation that has been surrounding the album, namely Kanye's at-times erratic tweets. On the track, he raps, "People trying to say I’m going crazy on Twitter / My friend's best advice was to stay low / I guess it’s hard to decipher all of the bills / Especially when you got family members on payroll." And later: "I know I’m the most influential, that Time cover was just confirmation / This generation’s closest thing to Einstein, and don’t worry about me, I’m fine." Some in the media have drawn conclusions about Kanye's mental health based on recent music and quotes, but the rapper seems at least partially in control and self-aware on the new track.

And yet, whatever calm reflection Kanye is able to achieve in the studio is lost once he starts speaking in public. Either before or after the impromptu song premiere, Kanye went on another of his infamous rants, commenting once again on the Taylor Swift line that opens up "Famous." "I said 'Taylor, I talked to my wife about it, how you feel about this line? I was like Taylor I feel like me and you might still have sex.' She said, 'Ooh, Kanye, I like that line.'" The rant goes on to cover Jay Z's Tidal, a proposed deal with Louis Vuitton and Kanye's recent admission that he's $53 million in debt. Listen to his entire rant below as well as an audio-only version of "Closest Thing to Einstein" which is also included above.

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