Now that Kanye West is back on his grind, the LV Don appears determined to push harder than ever to produce unique music. Case in point: Over the past five days, in addition to performing at an intimate club show on Thursday, where he covered songs by Rihanna and Billy Joel and was joined by Estelle, Yeezy hit the studio to work on a remix of “Power” with an all-star cast.
Given his new status as the Titan of Twitter, he, of course, tweeted about the progress of the sessions. “Scheduled studio visits 2day, Nikki [Minaj], John Legend, Mos Def, Swizz Beatz, Pusha T, Phillip Lim,” he wrote of a remix session that roped in everyone from the newlywed producer he has called one of the greatest of all time (Beatz), to Clipse member T and piano man Legend, who tickled the ivories for ‘Ye at Thursday night’s show.
He likened the sessions to the all-star power summits of the early jazz era, writing, “remember jazz musicians used to collab and do 4 song albums or James Brown used to just keep dropping sh– back to back.” In that spirit, West added, “I might have to put out 5 albums this year … My spirit is full … My heart is open … People want new music … I can’t hold it back.”
And that wasn’t all. He uploaded a photo from the studio that featured him with Beatz and Def, as well as another pal who knows a thing or two about harnessing the power: Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. “Kobe helped me finish my #POWER remix verse … Just building on the concept of #POWE… and Mos helped me find the ‘old me’ lyrically,” he explained early Sunday morning.
After a “super late” night in the lab with Mos that lasted early into Sunday morning, West said he was feeling so inspired that he actually had to unplug himself before he laid down the longest verse in rap history. “I had to cut my POWER remix verse short to not over do it with the million bar verse like the 2nd verse of ‘See Me Now,’ ” he wrote. “There’s so many ways to break down the subject of power … me and Kobe went in on it… Perfect person to help out on that.”
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