If albums could be shoes, then Kanye West's co-writer thinks Yeezy's new record is "like a pair of Timberlands."
Let's allow Malik Yusef a chance to explain.
"This album is different," Yusef, who worked with West on his 2011 hit "All of the Lights," told Rolling Stone about the new effort. "It's like a pair of Timberlands; like how Timberlands are not quite leather and not quite suede. It's not the smooth, slick Chicago music sound we have right now and it's not the ruggedness of just 'hip-hop hip-hop hip-hop.' We're still working like a m----------r. We've been all around the world [recording]."
Yusef said that from the start the rapper wanted his follow-up to last year's Yeezus to be a departure from the typical West recording.
"Kanye was very declarative in his statement of 'I don't want this to be a regular Kanye album. I don't want this to be what people are familiar with,'" Yusef said.
The collaborator, who is signed to Yeezy's label G.O.O.D. Music, confirmed that West has "20 finished songs."
News of the album being completed spread last month when Theophilus London revealed he had heard the record with 20 other lucky people at a special listening party hosted by West. London had to clarify the tweet a few days later with another tweet.
"Kanye west isn't finished for all you Hypebeast bloggers out there writing for your magazine blogs," London posted last week.
