Earlier this month, Kanye West announced the postponement of his May tour dates, citing “unexpected timing requirements” to finish his next studio album, which is scheduled for release later this year. Now one of the album’s producers, Evian Christ, has shared details of the LP.
While it must be noted that the notoriously perfectionist West may end up scrapping the beat or indeed song in question, in a recent profile for self-titled, Christ, a recent signee to West’s GOOD Music label, said that the rapper recently emailed him to request an “Otis Redding-style beat.”
While discussing the various distractions interfering with his own musical output, the producer explained, “I’ve got to get home and write an Otis Redding–style beat for [Kanye West],” adding, “He e-mailed last night. He wants something that sounds a bit like Otis Redding, a bit like Mobb Deep.”
Though even Christ, aka Josh Leary, admits that’s cryptic. “Kanye is the one dude who’s like, ‘This is not experimental enough. This is too poppy. Make something else.’ The other guys are like, ‘We don’t get it.’ Kanye is a dream to work with. No one else gives you that level of creative freedom.”
“When he wants you to work to a blueprint, the blueprint is: ‘Don’t make a rap beat. Anything but a rap beat,’” he said. We’ll have to wait until later in the year to find out what comes of this Otis-Mobb Deep beat when West drops his new album, which he’s described as his Born in the USA.
Listen: Evian Christ – Salt Carousel
Watch: Jay-Z & Kanye West – Otis
