Kanye West’s ‘The Life of Pablo’ Was One of the Most Edited Articles on Wikipedia
Though Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo is considered one of the best albums of the year, its highly anticipated release was, quite frankly, kind of a mess. So it should come as no surprise that the project’s Wikipedia page was one of the most modified in 2016.
According to a data compiled by Wikimedia, the article for Kanye’s eighth solo studio album was altered 3,574 times, landing at No. 19 on the list of most-edited pages this year. Why? Well, let’s rewind back to February. Shortly after the record was “released” exclusively on Tidal, a number of subscribers noticed that the tracklist was missing songs and/or included duplicates. The streaming service responded to the complaints via e-mail, writing “a partial version of the album is available for streaming on Tidal.com, but the download is currently not available […] The final version of the album will be released in the next several days.”
Contrary to Kanye’s previous statements, TLOP dropped on other streaming services nearly two months later. At that time, Def Jam sent a statement to the New York Times announcing more alterations were on the way: “In the months to come, Kanye will release new updates, new versions, and new iterations of the album. An innovative, continuous process, the album will be a living, evolving art project.”
Yeah, an often confusing—and sometimes frustrating—“art project.” Thankfully, though, Wikipedia kept tabs on the constant alterations.
The article titled “Deaths in 2016” took the No. 1 spot on the most-edited list with 18,230 revisions, which isn’t too surprising. “Donald Trump” came in at No. 2 with 8,933 edits, and was followed by several entries related to the 2016 presidential election.
You can check out the full list below.
1. Deaths in 2016: 18,230
2. Donald Trump: 8,933
3. List of Hillary Clinton presidential campaign endorsements: 6,527
4. United States presidential election: 6,162
5. Republican Party presidential primaries: 5,715
6. 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting: 5,540
7. Bailando 2015: 5,342
8. List of Donald Trump presidential campaign endorsements: 5,328
9. 2016 in sports: 5,277
10. 2016 in South Korean music: 5,074
11. Beverly Gray: 4,957
12. Statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election: 4,743
13. Panama Papers: 4,659
14. 2016 in Philippine television: 4,600
15. 2016 Pacific typhoon season: 4,244
16. 2016 Atlantic hurricane season: 3,874
17. Democratic Party presidential primaries: 3,736
18. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: 3,593
19. The Life of Pablo: 3,574
20. Vincent van Gogh: 3,551