8 Things We Know About Kanye West’s New Album

Love him or hate him, Kanye West is always 3 steps ahead of everyone else in game and his forthcoming record is surely one of the most anticipated albums of 2013. While we still don’t have a title yet, we do have enough pieces of the puzzle to start figuring out what Yeezy will be dropping. We’ve got that mysterious tweet of “June Eighteen” too, which could be a release date… or it could just be the due date of the Kanyaby – guess we’ll find out next month. For now, here’s what we do know about studio album number 6.


We know what it WON’T be called

rich black american edited

And it ain’t gonna be called Rich Black American. Or Black American Psycho, for that matter.

Back in September of last year, the site http://www.blackamericanpsycho.com cropped up with an image reading “Kanye West Presents Black American Psycho 10.23.2012″ but after some epic speculation, the owner of the site released a statement saying it had nothing to with either Kanye or Def Jam and was all fictitious.

The Rich Black American hoax was carried off with slightly better execution but turned out to be a hoax none the less: a screenshot of what appeared to be the new record’s tracklist from iTunes was anonymously posted to the fan forum KTT but the poster was eventually exposed as just some dude called Matt Closson.


We know the name of the first single

And it sounds a little something like this…

A source from West’s camp told Huffington Post that a forthcoming single would be called I Am A God, being sure to emphasise that the title says ‘A god’ rather than just ‘God’.

Yeezy then treated the celebrity A-listers at last week’s Met Gala to the first performance of the song, as well as another track described as ‘absolutely pumping’ and another that seems to about Kim Kardashian.


We know where it was recorded

hotel meurice

According to Rolling Stone, Mr West has been holed up at Hotel Meurice since January recording the follow-up to 2010’s My Dark Twisted Fantasy. The luxury hotel is so fancy it’s know as “the hotel of kings” (and now gods, apparently) and it’s the same place Niggas In Paris was recorded with Jay-Z. We’re sure that if you escaped what he escaped, you’d be in Paris getting fucked up too.

We also know that Yeeze skipped out on the GRAMMYs to head down to Brazil for some well-earned tropical studio time, though it’s not clear whether this was related to the new album or not. We know this because Ye was snapped in the studio with one of his potential collaborators…


We know who’s making guest appearances, and that Kanye doesn’t give a fuck

Will Smith Kanye

Yes, that’s ol’ Wingnut Will Smith himself, snapped with ‘Ye in the studio in Brazil.

Daft Punk have also eschewed their usual discretion by letting us know that they’ve just recently collaborated with Kanye, with the man himself deigning to join the duo du jour at their Paris studio, where he rapped on one of their beats. “It was very raw: he was rapping – kind of screaming primally, actually,” Thomas Bangalter says of the collab. “Kanye doesn’t give a fuck,” added Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. “He’s a good friend.”

Also expected is 2 Chainz, who’s been letting everybody who’ll listen know that that he’s been invited to the party. We can also expect some appearances from Skrillex, members of Odd Future, and the only person currently rivalling Kanye in the crazy department, Chief Keef.

Can I just say “Will Smith” again, please? WILL FUCKING SMITH. Are we going to see a resurgence of ’90s nostalgia for Will Smith? We really hope not. No-one ever needs to see or hear Wild Wild West again.

Oh, and recent G.O.O.D. Music signings TNGHT (featuring Hudson Mohawke) are also set for a credit. Not only that, but…


We know HudMo has premiered some of the new tracks already, and that Kanye would “rather be a dick than a swallower”



http://youtu.be/Axvsgqh19PE

Producer and DJ Hudson Mohawke dropped what’s believed to be a pair of tracks from the new album during a set in Poland – check out the video footage above. Glaswegian Mohawke is one half of TNGHT, who have just signed to West’s G.O.O.D. Music label, and he’s also rumoured to be a collaborator on Ye’s record.

One the lyrics reportedly goes, “You see there’s leaders and there’s followers / But I’d rather be a dick than a swallower”. Sounds about right.


Despite that lyric, we know it’s “dope”

2-Chainz-Promo-585x427

2 Chainz recently told Huffington Post that he had in fact been recording with K.West in Paris, saying, “You know I’m not going to tell you anything about that crazy ass boy! I know he got some hot shit and I can’t wait. It’s just time. Our conversations are always about making music better, about challenging each other. Just know that Mr. West has some dope shit on the way.”


We know it’s finished, and that the end result is “dark but really good”

That’s the word from American hip hop radio station Hot97, with presenter Peter Rosenberg also confirming that the album was complete, with Def Jam reportedly having had a listening party already. Rosenberg described the record as “dark but really good”.


Finally, we know Kanye will be closing this season of Saturday Night Live this weekend with new material, and you can expect the first single to drop a month after that

That’s the last thing remaining on Kanye’s Twitter account, after a recent mass purge that deleted all but one tweet. 18th June is exactly one month after K. Widdles is due to appear on the season closer of SNL, so with a completed album, a celebrity-filled single premiere and a bucketload of anticipation, you can be sure to expect something new from Mr West come 18th May.

Let’s just hope he steers clear of dem street signs for the next week.

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