Why Hasn't Kanye Released 'T.L.O.P.' Yet?

Update: As of 1:43 a.m. ET on Feb. 14, The Life of Pablo appears to be streaming on TIDAL. Those wishing to download the album can purchase it from TIDAL for $20. The album is, so far, unavailable on iTunes. Earlier: It's 2016, and we live in a culture of instant gratification. With today's advanced technologies, why shouldn't we have everything we want immediately, as soon as we even think to want it (or better yet, even before we realize we do)? After Kanye west premiered his new album, The Life Of Pablo, at the Yeezy 3 event at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Thursday, we all pretty much thought that T.L.O.P.'s official release was just around the corner. So we waited. And we waited. And we waited. As of Saturday morning, there's still no sign of the actual album being available for purchase. So why hasn't Kanye West released The Life Of Pablo already? What could possibly be the hold-up? The answer may surprise you.

According to West, the reason the new album isn't out yet is because it's not actually finished. Say what? Yeah. While the fact that he played what appeared to be a full, completed record to the millions of fans tuned into the Yeezy 3 show's Tidal live stream (not to mention the 20,000 people actually in attendance), apparently — and this is according to West — West's collaborators want to add more songs to the tracklist, so they've headed back to the studio. This, according to a message the rapper posted to his Twitter page early Saturday morning, pointing the finger specifically at Chance the Rapper.

While hardcore West fans will be thrilled by the idea of having more songs on the album — after all, the ten-song tracklist we heard seemed far too brief, especially for such a loquacious star — it goes without saying that we're all feeling a little impatient to get the real deal in our hands, or at the very least, onto our speakers. While it's hard to believe that Chance the Rapper's insistence that "Waves" be on T.L.O.P. is the reason the album release has been delayed — why not just release the track as a B-Side later or as a standalone, non-album single? — that's West's explanation, so that's what we've got to go with.

Hopefully, West appreciates that fans don't like to be kept waiting too long. There's something to be said for building suspense and making people want it, but we also have short attention spans and will start to become more annoyed than intrigued if this is dragged on too long (you only need to look at the welcoming of Rihanna's Anti to see that). For now, we'll just have to hit up TIDAL to rewatch the Yeezy 3 event broadcast. Oh yeah, and blame Chance.