Here’s What People Have Been Saying About Kanye West’s Imminent Seventh Album, ‘Waves’

Since Kanye West started working on his seventh studio album – alternately named ‘So Help Me God’, ‘Swish’ and ‘Waves’ – a number of collaborators and big-name listeners have given their take on what it’s going to sound like. We already know the tracklisting, so we know it’s not going to include any of Kanye’s 2015 singles – ‘Only One’, ‘FourFiveSeconds’ or ‘All Day’. But it will include ‘Wolves‘ and ‘Fade‘, both of which were premiered at Kanye’s Adidas clothing line launches – Yeezy Seasons 1 and 2. And at Yeezy Season 3 on February 11, he’s announced he’ll perform ‘Waves’ in its entirety. Ahead of that, though, here’s what we know about the album.

1. Evian Christ

In April 2014, one of Kanye’s producers says, “I’ve got to get home and write an Otis Redding-style beat for him. He emailed last night. He wants something that sounds a bit like Otis Redding, a bit like Mobb Deep.”

2. Mysterious sources

In May 2014 a source tells Billboard the new album is “Mostly a mixture of soul samples and tamed ‘Yeezus’-esque darkness… nothing abrasive.” ‘No More Parties In LA’ fits that mould.

3. Theophilus London

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Theophilus London features on Kanye’s 2015 track ‘All Day’. In September 2014, at Paris fashion week, he says, “I remember Kanye playing his new album three times in a dark room of 20 people last night and moshing drunk with mad babes.”

4. Malik Yusef

Another of Kanye’s producers, Yusef says in October 2014, “This album is different. It’s like a pair of Timberlands; like how Timberlands are not quite leather and not quite suede. It’s not the smooth, slick Chicago music sound we have right now and it’s not the ruggedness of just ‘hip-hop hip-hop hip-hop’. We’re still working like a motherfucker. We’ve been all around the world.”

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5. Seth Rogen

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The Pineapple Express and Knocked Up actor ran into Kanye soon after releasing his version of Kanye’s ‘Bound 2’ video with James Franco. Kanye took him and his wife into his limo and played everything he was working on at the time to him. Although Rogen doesn’t give much away, he explained that Kanye hadn’t recorded lyrics yet, so he performed the whole thing to him live. “There’s no lyrics, only beats, so he raps the whole album, and after each song, he stops it, like, ‘So what do you think?’ We were in the van for two hours!”

6. P Diddy

“I’m definitely producing on his album,” Diddy said in May 2015, “but I don’t know how it’s going to end up.”

7. Travis Scott

Another of Kanye’s collaborators, Scott said in October 2015, “That Ye album is nothing to sleep on. That Ye album is coming very soon. It’s lit.”

8. Pusha T

Kanye produced five tracks on Pusha T’s debut album. The rapper says of the record, then known as ‘Swish’, “I haven’t worked on it at all, but everything I’ve heard is phenomenal and it has nothing to do with any of the other records that were released before. That’s all I can really say about it. He’s super meticulous about the messaging about his album but you guys are in for a treat.”

9. Lamar Odom

Kanye’s brother-in-law had been hospitalised and when Kim and Kanye went to see him, they played him Kanye’s album. “We did visit Lamar today,” Kim said, “and we played him [Kanye’s] new album, and when it was done I said, ‘Did you like the music?’ And he said, ‘I loved it.'”

10. Kanye West

On January 26 Kanye tweets, “This is not album of the year. This is album of the life.” A week later, he tweets again, “Out of respect for Q-Tip, Puff, Hov, Lauren, Pharcyde, Mary, Stevie, Michael, Hendrix, James, Pete Rock, Pac, Marvin, this new album is ONE of the greatest albums not the greatest just one of. So many musicians touch my life and made me who I am/ I want to make something great to honor my idols.”

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