I thought this article was crazy interesting. Just further proof that 'Ye is crafting something especially layered and ill, once again blurring genres like there's no tomorrow. Frontman for a group I admittedly never heard of before, Justin Vernon talks exclusively to Pitchfork about three separate weeks with Kanye in Hawaii working on around 10 songs. Only one of the songs is a lock to appear on the album and it very well could be the next official single, "Lost in the World". Great fucking read, delve in.

After that first week he was like, "I want you to come back." So I came back a few weeks later and it was the same kind of thing, throwing ideas around-- there are a bunch of other songs I'd just throw down on, write a little hook, whatever. In the studio, he was referencing Trent Reznor, Al Green, the Roots-- the fucking awesomest shit. It made total sense to me.

I asked for a separate studio because I'd do so much overdubbing to get my ideas out. So I ended up recording in this tiny back room, and then Kanye would come back and listen to what I came up with, and then we'd work on changing the lyrics. We'd just sit there and collaborate. It was fucking fun, man. A-Trak was out there, Nicki Minaj. Just a bunch of über talented people and everyone was really nice and chill and just working on Kanye's record. I was literally in the back room rolling a spliff with Rick Ross talking about what to do on the next part of a song. It was astonishing. Kanye came back and was like, "Look at you two guys. This is the craziest studio in the Western world right now!"


continue reading here