In the days following his three-song medley for Saturday Night Live Kanye West dropped by a New York radio station for an extensive interview, where he revealed, rather counter-intuitively, that his new album will receive a “surprise” release.
Speaking to Power 105.1, via Rolling Stone, West said the new album is around “80 percent” done and added that release dates are “100% played out,” so the album will drop in a “surprise” fashion.
Speaking of the record’s sonic direction, West said it will be a different beast to his 2013 work Yeezus. “My last album was a protest of music,” he explains. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna take my ball and go home’. I didn’t even have no music. I just let y’all have a little music on Bound, but that was it. But this album is just embracing the music, embracing joy and just being a service to the people.”
He describes the record as, “bars, songs, [and] cookout music that just feels good”. Fans have already introduced to the album’s first confirmed track Wolves, featuring Sia and Vic Mensa, which Kanye premiered during his New York fashion show. He revealed the song was born out of an album he was supposed to make with Drake.
“I’m just gonna say it because maybe this will promote it happening, so I’m gonna go ahead and put it out in the real world. The Wolves song came from a conversation that me and Drake had where we was gonna do an album together, and the album was called Wolves,” West said.
“I just put it out in the ether, in the world. If y’all don’t like it, you can send it right back!” The two rappers recently appeared together onstage at an NBA All-Star Weekend pre-party in NYC.
Kanye also offered an update on his saga involving Beck, admitting that he hadn’t actually heard the Grammy Award-winning album of the year Morning Phases prior to his Grammy rant. Ironically, he finally heard it at a dinner with Taylor Swift, the first victim of a Kanye award show rant. Of the Beck album, Kanye said, “I was like, ‘Man, this is kind of good’. I ain’t gonna lie.”
Watch the full interview below.
