S. Samuel
Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West's upcoming untitled solo effort is reportedly taking form and will have a noticeable black vibe to it, according to G.O.O.D. affiliate Malik Yusef.
While staying tight-lipped about the project as a whole, Yusef dished out a few details about the long-awaited project.
He’s not the only act to firm up recording plans with West to reporters at the Awards. Longtime collaborator Malik Yusef was also on hand, and he ended up describing his efforts with West akin to “work camps,” saying recording can be “tortuous.” “He is a perfectionist, obviously. It’s harsh,” he said, noting that whether they’re in Paris or Hawaii, it’s a labor. “[West] says no to a hundred things.” As to the specifics of sound and scope, Yusef said “I can’t talk too much about it. Just remember black music, the black experience. It’s a throwback to that era,” he said, but “a distillation of what’s happening in the modern world.” What it won’t have is a lot of West singing, or at least not as much singing as he did on 2008’s “808s & Heartbreak.” “I don’t know if we’d ever revisit that amount of singing,” Yusef said. (HitFix)
Atlanta singer/producer The-Dream revealed his involvement on the LP a few days ago.
“I’ve been told to zip it,” he said. However, he did reveal Kanye West is working on his next album — and he’ll be joining the hip-hop star in Paris to work on it in the coming weeks. And as for his much-talked-about hats? “[Jay-Z] was just digging on me, we do that,” he said, defending his on-stage headwear choice. “B had just said, she wanted both of these hats.” (Billboard)
Prior to being dismissed, reports claimed the solo effort would be titled Rich Black American.
Apparently, a user named XXXXXX started a thread in the forum of the Kanye West fansite KanyeToThe.com and posted the photo with the fake iTunes track listing. After some mathematical research, the site’s administrator, RatedK, was able to identify this person as a guy named Matt Closson, who tagged his final posts in the forum with @mvttclosson. Upon further inspection, we stumbled upon his Tumblr page, which is littered with photos of Yeezy and hip-hop’s “It” rapper A$AP Rocky. Nevertheless, we all feel duped but not necessarily upset. Here at PopCrush, we like to throw caution to the wind when things like unconfirmed photos or info goes viral on the web. (Pop Crush)
Over the weekend, Kanye won a Grammy for his “No Church in the Wild” anthem.
Jay-Z, Kanye West, The-Dream and Frank Ocean have all won Grammys on their own. However, the artists’ collaborative effort on ‘No Church in the Wild,’ off Hov and ‘Ye’s ‘Watch the Throne’ LP, earned them a gramophone for Best/Rap Sung Collaboration at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards Sunday night. “I didn’t think I was going to be the first to speak on this one,” Ocean said in shock — possibly from his win earlier this evening. Meanwhile, The-Dream wanted to make sure he got to show his appreciation by naming a few people who he didn’t have the opportunity to thank during a previous Grammy acceptance speech. “I’d like to thank Roc Nation and just everybody and last time I was cut off from my Grammy speech but I just want to thank my mom and grandfather,” he said graciously. (The Drop)
