Most interestingly, West uses K.T.S.E. to blow up the R&B template. Hip-hop has been, historically, crafted on the back of samples from soul and R&B songs. To take that idea and flip it, crafting an R&B record where the melodies are sampled, recalls how the actual Pablo Picasso treated the work of the old masters. West notably uses Ben E. King’s “Spanish Rose” to build the lyrical backbone on “A Rose in Harlem” while the music is crafted from a sample of the Stylistics’ track “Because I Love You Girl.” Ye goes deep across the album, pulling out samples from Sly & the Family Stone to Sisqo. All the elements of a classically beautiful work of art are there, but chopped up and rearranged in a Cubist framework until they are unrecognisable and became a new form of art. That’s the trip West is on with Taylor. It’s a smart move for an artist like Taylor, who is as much a brand andas she is a singer and dancer.