Supplied“Toronto, I got one question for you, is you all ready for this album? I’m not talking about Pablo. I’m not talking about Views. I want to ask, y’all ready for this album?”
“What my brother was asking before was, are you ready if we make an album? That’s what he was asking.” – Kanye West & Drake, OVO Fest 2016
On August 27th, a green billboard appeared in Los Angeles, bearing the words “Calabasas is the new Abu Dhabi,” along with the insignias for Drake and Kanye West’s respective record labels, OVO and GOOD Music. Without further explanation, many took this to be a cryptic hint at a potential collaboration between the two hip-hop giants and in a recent interview with Vogue magazine, West confirmed the rumours.
“We’re just working on music,” West said while promoting his Yeezy Season 4 fashion line. “We’re working on an album, so there’s some exciting things coming up soon.”
In the interview, Kanye didn’t elaborate on a possible title or release date for the project, so the news should still be taken with a grain of salt. Doing so is all the wiser considering release date pushbacks and bait-and-switches have been trending in hip-hop recently. Examples range from the year-long delay of Drake’s divisive Views, to the fiasco that was the release of Yeezy’s most recent artistic tour-de-force, and the seemingly endless wait for Frank Ocean’s sophomore record – which proved definitively that, when it comes to the denial of new music in the age of instant gratification, boys do cry.
The news of an official collab seems to be the pay-off of years of hints and teases from both rappers. After debuting the song “Wolves,” on the New York radio show The Breakfast Club, West said the song originated from a hypothetical LP of the same name he was planning with the So Far Gone superstar.
It’s still unclear whether the forthcoming effort between the two will be called Wolves — but given Kanye’s track record of commitment issues with titles, don’t count on it.
With the exception of a few mega-hits, Drake and Kanye collaborations have been few and far between, especially when it comes to songs featuring the vocalists trading verses à la 2011’s Watch the Throne or 2015’s What a Time to be Alive. Production and writing credits aside, neither rapper has featured as a credited vocalist on any of the others’ major releases: Drake was unceremoniously cut from Kanye’s group anthem, “All of the Lights” and similarly, Kanye was decidedly dropped from the early Views single, “Pop Style.”
Was it revenge? (Insert 808 drumroll here). Not likely. Drake has cited West as a major influence many times over the years. “(Kanye) shaped a lot of what I do, as far as music goes,” the Canadian crooner said in an interview with MTV News in 2009; a comment most evidenced in Drake’s debut EP So Far Gone, which features a similar sonic palette as the chilly soundscapes of Ye’s 808’s and Heartbreak.
Both artists will be making tour stops in Edmonton this fall and only time will tell if either make any announcements regarding the mystery album during the concerts. In the mean time, keep an eye on your public billboards; the 6 God seems to prefer them over Twitter nowadays.
