If Kanye West’s new album ye sounds current, that’s because it was recorded only a month ago.
During his listening session in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the G.O.O.D. Music mogul revealed that he scrapped his entire album and re-recorded it following the backlash to his controversial comments about slavery on TMZ.
“I redid the whole album after TMZ,” he told Power 106’s J Cruz.
He decided he needed a shift in energy. “I was sitting in Calabasas, I’m working on my sweatpants and my shoes,” added Ye. “Everything was going perfect. As soon as stuff stopped going so perfectly, I was like, ‘I know what to do with this energy. I know exactly what to do with this.’”
He channeled that energy into 7 tracks, on which he addresses his infamous comments about slavery being a “choice.” “They said build your own, I said, ‘How, Sway?’” he raps on “Wouldn’t Leave.” “I said slavery’s a choice, they said, ‘How, Ye?’ / Just imagine if they caught me on a wild day.”
In a separate interview with Big Boy TV, also conducted in Wyoming, West explained his mindset. “I wanted something with the energy the universe was giving me,” he said. “I think it came from me just going against mass opinion and I was able to find my voice, my voice… I just had to stand in front that board every morning and ask myself, ‘Do these songs truly make me happy? Are these songs I want to play back? Do these songs make me cry?
He also revealed that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age 40, something which he addresses on ye. “I’m so blessed and so privileged because think about people that have mental issues that are not Kanye West, that can’t go and make that album] and make you feel like it’s all good,” he said ( Rolling Stone). “I’ve never been diagnosed with a mental condition] and I was like 39 years old… That’s why I said on the album, ‘It’s not a disability, it’s a superpower.’”
During J Cruz’s interview, DJ Felli Fel also brought up a rumored joint album between Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign, who appears on three tracks f ye including “All Mine,” “Wouldn’t Leave,” and “Violent Crimes.”
“It’s so crazy. That’s one the best combinations ever,” said Kanye. “Whenever we get on joints together, it be like, ‘Yo.’ I’m just trying to go week after week after week and just improve on the craft. Ty is one the strongest artists that we have living and anything that I can do to support, get around, produce, take my hands, chop up everything, I’m with it.”