The anticipation for new music this year is crazy. I for one have never been so anxious to hear new material from soooo many different people and at the top of the list is Kanye West.
On Wednesday Ye stirred the pot some when he previewed new music from his seventh studio album at the iHeartMedia Music Summit at Burbank, Calif.’s iHeartRadio Theatre.
After Def Jam CEO Steve Bartels started his scheduled presentation — talking about upcoming records from Big Sean, Alesso and Axwell / Ingrosso — he suddenly announced: “I wanna stop this and turn it over to one of the great iconic rock stars of our time: Kanye West.”
So the story goes Ye walked out with his laptop to a stunned room and picked up the mic — then, noting the size of the room, put it down and asked if everyone could hear him and proceeded to speak for around 45 minutes without a mic.
A theme of his talk was his “responsibility to innovate” and not repeat what he’d done before. He spoke of bringing in soul beats on his early records at a time when gangsta rap was prevalent, and the dichotomy of being signed to Roc-a-Fella and wearing a backpack in 2004. Because he was addressing radio programmers, he spoke at length about how he’d brought unlikely songs and topics to urban radio via songs like “Jesus Walks” and “Through the Wire” from his first album, and then later in his career with 808s and Heartbreak and how he hears that album’s influence on a lot of urban radio today, even though it wasn’t his biggest-selling album.
“This little talk I’m giving is going good so far,” he said at one point, “so I have to risk being Kanye” — meaning he’d have to mess it up. (Sidebar: It’s funny that he’s aware of how he goes into these mini meltdowns. I always thought he blacked out.)
He surprisingly doubled back on a statement he made onstage at Governors Ball in 2013: that he didn’t want to be on the radio. “I was joking!” he laughed. “Of course I want to be on the radio!” He said “Black Skinhead” was another innovative record that he wished radio had embraced, and sang some of it a cappella.
He then supposedly talked at length about his experience of working with Paul McCartney on “Only One.”
He described how he was in complete disbelief when Paul stood across from him and played the bassline. He also recalled jokingly asking him, “What was pussy like in the ’60s?”
He then sang some of “Only One” a cappella, and you could hear a pin drop in the room.
He finished by playing one new song: a duet with Rihanna (title unknown) that featured acoustic guitar and a big, soaring chorus and melody with a massive hook. He then slammed his laptop shut and walked offstage to a standing ovation.
SMH … This dude always knows how to keep the people wanting more.
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