Pages tagged “kanye west”

The mutually beneficial faux-rivalry is not new to Stephen Colbert, nor to the object of his recent iTunes challenge, outspoken hip-hop icon Kanye West. Colbert has engaged in a long-running, friendly feud with billionaire playboy Richard Branson. And just last year, West planned the infamous same-day record release scheme with 50 Cent, leading to the irrepressible success of Kanye's third album, Graduation.

Last time around, Guilt by Association brought us such diverse nuggets as Will Oldham covering Mariah Carey, Devendra Banhart doing Oasis and indie rock updates of Destiny's Child's "Say My Name" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin." Since once is never enough—especially given the abundance of guilty pleasure pop gems—Engine Room Recordings has announced two new installments in the series.

When Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak dropped last week, so did Stephen Colbert's Christmas spirit (as well as his album's place on the iTunes chart). As West sits at #1, the Colbert Christmas soundtrack hangs tentatively at #16. But the Comedy Central pundit has a master plan to change the fate of his disc.

Just over a year ago, we got the opportunity to hang with Kanye West in an Atlanta recording studio. The resulting conversation led to our issue 35 cover story, which right about now is making us a little nostalgic. Mr. West is a busy man, and we have lots of other artists to cover, but still—it’d be fun to ask him about his brain-melting new album, 808s & Heartbreak. If we got the chance for a special reunion interview, here’s what we’d ask him this time around:

The world’s most ambitious rapper goes for broke

Kanye West long ago established himself as hip-hop’s most soulful producer, and then as one of its cleverest wordsmiths, and then as one of its savviest marketers. Along the way he almost single-handedly killed gangsta rap and replaced it with something resembling emo. With that as the backdrop, West—now an introspective 31 years old—has created 808s & Heartbreak, a hot mess of an album that’s simultaneously the most indulgent and most disciplined record he’s ever made.

808s & Heartbreak is still two weeks away, but Mr. West has decided to lay down an appetizer before the main course: a remix album available for free streaming on imeem. Titled Sky High, all of the tracks from Kanye's 2007 opus Graduation are given the remix treatment, as well as some classics from his first two albums.

Maybe your boyfriend wants to get his Rock Band on and see AC/DC at Allstate. Or maybe your girlfriend really, really, really wants to see Madonna at the United Center. Whatever the reason, you’ll eventually have to abandon the cozy confines of Schubas or the Empty Bottle for the dreaded venue of the indie rock faithful: a stadium show. But with the right mindset, you can make your arena experience survivable-- and maybe even enjoyable.

By now you've probably heard about Kanye West's bizarro listening party this week for his upcoming LP 808s & Heartbreaks . More than 700 guests showed up for the L.A. exhibition curated by artist Vanessa Beecroft, not to mention the 40 nude women in faux-lambswool masks that lined the walls.

They say it's not what you know, but who you know. It seems Fall Out Boy has taken this rule to heart on its upcoming record, Folie à Deux. In an e-mail exchange with MTV News, fab FOB frontman Pete Wentz confirmed that the band has scored guest spots from Lil Wayne and Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry for its upcoming record, set for release in November. Wentz also confirmed that workhorse producer Pharrell contributes a track to the album. We'd like to say this is Debbie Harry's strangest collaboration, but if you'll recall, she did that track with Mobb Deep and Coolio in 1999.

It's turning out to be quite the season for hip-hop lovers. T.I.'s Paper Trail was released Tuesday, Missy Elliott's much-delayed Block Party will (hopefully) finally hit Nov. 11, Kanye West has moved up his new album to "sometime in November," 50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct debuts Dec. 9, and now Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 record is rumored to drop Dec. 2.

Barack Obama has gotten plenty of love from the music industry. Did you notice all the acts that worked for him while on the campaign trail? Now, the Democratic presidential nominee has announced plans to release Yes We Can, a campaign soundtrack and ode to his slogan of change by empowering the people.

In between teasing fans with bit-by-bit information about his new album, 808's & Heartbreak (due Dec.16), or saving face after altercations with the police, Kanye West is trying out television. His deal for a reported reality show with HBO has been long-in-the-works, but it's been revealed today West will have a hand in Comedy Central's new Crank Yankers-inspired show. Tentatively dubbed Alligator Boots, the project is described as 'hip-hop meets the Muppets.' Because, you know, nothing screams hip-hop more than Muppets.

Maybe Kanye West wasn't joking about his plans to release his fourth album by the end of the year after all. Stereogum is reporting that 808's & Heartbreak will hit stores Dec. 16, just in time for Christmas. West has not confirmed the news, as of yet. (Then again, he did just reportedly get arrested, so perhaps he's a little busy at the moment.)

Starting ominously with publicists leaving "hot tips" about a last-minute performance in the inboxes of bloggers across the boroughs, Tuesday night witnessed two of the most iconic voices in hip-hop perform together as Kanye West and Q-Tip took the stage in the early hours of the morning for a secret-ish show at the packed Knitting Factory. 

The end of the year just got a whole lot more interesting. Surprising fans and critics alike, word has leaked that Kanye West is allegedly preparing to release his fourth album in December. In fact, a lead single, entitled "Love Lockdown," will supposedly hit iTunes sometime next week (perhaps as early as Monday).

[Above: The author celebrates an unlikely accomplishment to the sweet sounds of Fall Out Boy.]

On Sunday, 25 cities around the world participated in Nike+ Human Race. Billed as the “World’s Biggest One-Day Running Event,” the 10K jaunt culminated in music concerts held in each city: Chicago got locally-grown Fall Out Boy, while hometown boy Kanye West teamed up with Common in Los Angeles.

Joining close to 14,000 other Chicago runners, the largest turnout of any U.S. city participating in the global run, was one of the most exhilarating and intimidating things I’ve done in a long while. For a 30-something casual runner, who hadn’t run more than three miles at a time in a decade, this 10K (6.2 miles) was seemingly insurmountable challenge. But it was well worth the aches and pains that are still with me two days later.

The Democratic National Convention kicked off last night in Denver, Colo. with a tribute to Ted Kennedy and a heartwarming speech from Michelle Obama. All well and good, mind you, but it's the four-day bonanza of musicians set to perform that boggles the mind. While music has been prevalent in campaigns for the last few decades, Barack Obama and the DNC take the cake with a truckload of inspiring and interesting choices for this year's convention.

Read our issue 46 feature on Zach Galifianakis here.

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...Sean Penn:
"He called my cell phone and was like, 'Hey, it's Sean Penn.' And I'm like, 'Uh-huh...' He's like, 'What are you doing next week?' And I said, 'I'm going to Arby's.' Then I kinda realized it was him. I didn't audition [for Into the Wild]; I just showed up to South Dakota. It was me and him and Vince Vaughn and Emile Hirsch in a hunting lodge together for two weeks. But when I first got there, I said to Sean, 'How do you know me?' and he said he'd seen Out Cold about 17 times. His son is a snowboarder, it's not like he's studying the works of Lee Majors."

...Fiona Apple:
"I first met Fiona at a club in Los Angeles called Largo. It's a place where musicians and comedians perform together. There would always be musicians hanging out at a comedy show and vice versa. I remember going up to Fiona and saying something like, 'I have diarrhea.' Something I didn't think someone like Fiona Apple would ever care to hear with that persona she has, I guess. She giggled at it, and we always had these weird sentences in exchange. I handed her this music video I'd done for this Anita Baker song ['You Bring Me Joy'], and we were kinda friendly. Then we made her video [for 'Not About Love']."

Watch Zach in Fiona Apple's video for "Not About Love" here. Zach's version of Anita Baker's "You Bring Me Joy": 


...Kanye West:
"I met Kanye through Largo as well, and he had also seen the Anita Baker video. He came to see me do stand-up, and that night he asked me to do a music video. I said, 'If you don't tell me what to do, I'll do it.' I think some people would be intimidated that it's Kanye West, but that shit doesn't impress me, that cockiness. It never has and it never will. The more cocky people are, if you act cocky back to them, they respect it. But he was quite nice about it. I just shot [the video for 'Can't Tell Me Nothing'] at my farm. Will Oldham happened to be visiting me, so we drank some whiskey and shot it. That was basically it."

Zach and Will Oldham' video for Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothing":

[Above: Kanye West and Jay-Z at Miami's American Airlines Arena in March]

Since the most recent preview of Jay-Z's new post-"retirement" project came at a Kanye West concert last week, it's not too surprising that news comes today, via hip-hop producer Mick Boogie, that West has been confirmed as head producer for "most, if not all" of the tracks on the forthcoming Blueprint 3 album.

Above: Bang Camaro

Another Lollapalooza weekend has come and gone and music fans of all stripes left happy (unless, of course, they were fans of the Weakerthans, who had to cancel as a result of travel problems). Despite a record attendance of 225,000 fans, festivities and rock went on seamlessy under sun-filled skies each day. The festival's organizers outdid themselves this year with opening acts, starting the weekend out with a bang. Bang Camaro, that is. Other rising stars followed suit on days two and three with the Ting Tings belting out their infectious pop tunes (we overheard Love and Rockets' Daniel Ash mentioning that they were the only reason he was at Lollapalooza) while Austin's Octopus Project wowed us with a 500 balloon salutes and Yvonne Lambert's mesmerizing theremin skills.

OMG!!! KANYE WEST IS GETTING HIS OWN REALITY SHOW!!!!! WE'RE SO EXCITED WE MIGHT BREAK OUR FUCKING MAC BOOK AIRS TO CELEBRATE!!!!!

It's the worst-kept secret in politics these days that Barack Obama loves hip-hop. Whether he's name-checking Lil Wayne or getting that dirt off his shoulders, Obama has amassed an all-star cotérie of rappers willing to back the Democratic Party nominee. He even had Hova offering a voice of encouragement for voters in the Ohio primary, for cryin' out loud. The National can seem a little anemic in comparison to the C-E-O-of-the-R-O-C.

Update: Listen to the track here.

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“You’re letting me down,” sings Ben Sollee on “Dear Kanye,” a song released on his MySpace  page yesterday. Bringing the fire, Sollee reprimands the Great Ye for forgetting that “No one needs a light show/ Just good flows,” and further for wasting his potential to inspire youth by instead blogging “commercials / For stuff [they]’ll never need.”

Kanye West said it better than anyone ever could: "Wake up, Mr. West, Mr. West, Mr. Fresh, Mr. By-His-Self-He-So-Impressed." We already know 'Ye has a pretty good sense of humor, even if his ego soars to titanic levels at times. Now, Kanye is willing to share the secret to his success with you. What could it be? A magic bear-suit and pair of white sunglasses? Robotic augmentation by Daft Punk? No, the answer is much, much simpler and weirder: BeKanye.

“I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny. And what I do? Act more stupidly.”
Kanye West - “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”

Read any good blogs lately? Kanye has, and he's been writing some posts of his own as well.

Back from the land of six-dollar beer, port-o-potties and hippie folk, Paste editor-at-large Jay Sweet appeared this morning on Boston's Fox 25 to wrap up the highlights of  Bonnaroo 2008.

Apologies: I was unable to blog about Saturday at Bonnaroo because of Saturday at Bonnaroo. It's Sunday afternoon now, and with the festival still buzzing and thumping all around us (am currently at our tent in the Sonic Village, with a band called Harrybu McCage doing their thing on the stage next door) I'm just now getting around to processing everything from the past thirty-something hours.

We just finished putting together our August issue, which is our special International Issue. Our premise is that "world music" isn't a genre; musicians from around the world are contributing to every style of music and adding their local flavors. International influence certainly proved to be true the first part of the day yesterday at Bonnaroo. I started local with Augusta, Ga., native Sharon Jones and her Dap Kings. It was like watching Amy Winehouse if she was better and likable—and could dance. From there, I caught Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet. Abigail is from Tennessee, but her music is influenced by her many trips to China, where she'll be returning this summer for the Olympic Games. On the main stage, California-based multi-ethnic group Ozomatli was mixing rock and hip-hop with salsa and reggae for the pulsating masses. And then Gogol Bordello was adding their Eastern European touches to New York punk for a frenzied crowd.

Bonnaroo starts tonight! And I'm going! And I've never gone! And I'm pretty excited but also scared that I might pass out in the heat! Or get struck by lightning! Or just get really overwhelmed and curl up in a sweaty ball at the back of the Paste tent! I hope there's a falafel vendor! I love falafel! Oh my god! Bonnaroo! So excited!

Here's the worst pitfall o