Kanye doesn’t talk about his music much, but these guys do.
In all the madness that has been 2013 thus far, Kanye West‘s 2 month rollout of Yeezus reminded us of a sprinter joining the NYC Marathon at the 13-mile mark. While hundreds of athletes train for years just to have a chance of finishing the 26 mile race with all limbs intact, Kanye, with no conditioning and no warning, inserts himself into the competition and manages to finish first. Though its all speculation for now, Billboard will most likely announce tomorrow (barring a final day barrage of Born Sinner sales) that Kanye west has officially released his 6th number one album, and Yeezus was the most unlikely candidate to achieve such a feat.
Kanye’s notorious opposition to mainstream media became even more prominent this year, as “New Slaves” screenings were exclusive to buildings and museums, and all press request emails were likely replied to with a “return to sender” message. The only nationally syndicated exhibition of Yeezus prior to its June 18th release date was a screamy but scintillating Saturday Night Live performance, which featured Kanye’s “n*gga” lyrics leaking through NBC’s censorship screens, and the live debut of the controversial “Black Skinhead”, produced by French electro pop duo Daft Punk. While West’s entire camp, including Kim Kardashian, remained tight-lipped about the entire affair, allowing only small, subtle hints–Instagram photos and tweets were the only mildly accurate source of Yeezus information anyone could acquire–the array of producers who worked on the 10 track LP have come out of the woodwork to talk about the production of 2013’s most polarizing collection of music. WSJ had a chat with Rick Rubin, while The New York Times was able to hang out with ‘Ye for a few days, which helped open the public’s eyes up to the making of Yeezus, but what about Daft Punk? Travi$ Scott? Justin Vernon? Pitchfork was able to have an extended conversation with these guys, and similar to the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy exposes, we now have a chance to really go behind the scenes of the making of that June Eighteen album.
-Khari Nixon (@KingVanGogh)
