Kanye’s New Album Features Uncredited Justin Vernon, Uncleared Kareem Lotfy Samples
Remember the notepad? Every Kanye west album is a party, featuring contributions and collaborations from all of the friends that Kanye can round up. Pretty much every famous person in existence was spotted at Kanye’s Wyoming retreat over the course of the past year, but the ones who actually seem to have made it onto his new album Ye, which finally came out yesterday, are Ty Dolla $ign, Jeremih, Kid Cudi, Charlie Wilson, 070 Shake, Valee, PARTYNEXTDOOR, John Legend, Dej Loaf, and Nicki Minaj, who shows up via voicemail. Benny Blanco, Francis And The Lights, Mike Dean, and Che Pope helped out with production, and Kothbiro, the Edwin Hawkins Singers, Slick Rick, Vanilla Fudge, and Dave Edmunds are all sampled.
Also featured on the album, apparently? Bon Iver mastermind Justin Vernon and his old DeYarmond Edison bandmate Phil Cook. Vernon revealed the news on Twitter, writing that the Ye track “Wouldn’t Leave” started off as a “jam of me and Phil … Phil on piano and Jupiter synths and me on some op-1 gospel samples.”
Oh man
Funny you say thatNew YE jam
‘Wouldn’t leave”
started off as a jam of me and Phil
Phil on piano and Jupiter synths and me on some op-1 gospel samplesCongrats to two good friends today on great music
Oh and @andthelights too!
=:) https://t.co/kZ0EPfWt5T— blobtower (@blobtower) June 1, 2018
As in
Thats our old Belarus piano and Jupiter and op-1 stuff on there
Havent been to Wyoming in a bit
But glad to see its still popping— blobtower (@blobtower) June 1, 2018
Less happy about being on the record? Berlin experimental label Pan, who claim that “I Thought About Killing You” samples Kareem Lotfy’s “Fr3sh,” a track from their compilation album mono no aware, without permission. “It’s sadly another case of an artist who capitalizes on culture without any original ideas and because culture trickles up, this means we are all basically working for him,” label head Bill Kouligas tells Pitchfork. “Everything leads to him, he’s the ultimate narcissist.” Pan is reportedly looking into pursuing legal action.
Kanye samples mono no aware smh
— PAN (@PAN_hq) June 1, 2018
I think the end of the first song on YE samples Kareem Lofty's Fr3sh from the Mono No Aware comp. All sped up, no? That's the same progression and sounds, right? Anyone else hear that? @sashageffen ? @CraigSJ ?
— Geoffrey Rickly (@GeoffRickly) June 1, 2018