Washington (CNN) Kanye West released his new album, Ye, at a live-streamed listening event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Thursday night. The seven-track mini-album is no My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or The Life of Pablo, but it's good, a worthy addition to the Kanye canon. Missing from the album, though, is any trace of MAGA.

West's embrace of President Donald Trump defined the lead-up to his eighth studio album. He called Trump his dragon-energy brother, and got a Twitter shoutout from @realDonaldTrump himself ("Thank you Kanye, very cool!"). But the closest Ye comes to Trump is a line about Stormy Daniels, and even then, it's used not as a comment on or about the 45th president, but because it rhymes ("If I pull up with a Kerry Washington that's gonna be an enormous scandal / I could have a Naomi Campbell and still might want me a Stormy Daniels" he raps on "All Mine").

Like a good pop star, West has evolved both his sound and his style over the years, using fashion to mark album cycles. There was the pink polo of The College Dropout and the shutter shades of Graduation. Latter-day Yeezy is oversized, torn clothing in neutral colors, and graphics in Pablo Gothic font.

For his latest evolution, West tried on a signed, red MAGA hat. It's turned out to be less a political statement than a fashion one, meant by West as something punk rock, and not an endorsement of Trump's stance on things like anthem protests or trade wars.

we got love pic.twitter.com/Edk0WGscp6 — KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

During his pro-Trump tweetstorm in April, West said his wife called to make sure he let everyone know he doesn't agree with everything Trump does. But he likes how Trump represents "the ability to do what no one said you can do, to do the impossible," he told T.I

Read More