Soulja Boy is crediting a recent session with Kanye West for expanding his mind as a musician.
Last month, Soulja Boy visited New York City for media rounds and to shoot a cover for XXL magazine.
During his time there, Soulja worked with both 50 Cent and Kanye West.
While his work with 50 was released as a video, “Mean Mug”, Soulja Boy’s music with Kanye West has yet to be heard.
He revealed that Kid Cudi joined them, and they completed several verses for an undisclosed amount of tracks.
Working with Kanye, and hearing an advanced copy of ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’, helped Soulja Boy to different creative possibilities he can attempt with his own music.
“We got in the studio: me, Kanye and Kid Cudi. That was dope,” Soulja Boy told AllHipHop.com. “He played some dope beats and we worked around a couple of samples and got a couple verses in. I listened to the finished product that Kanye is on, and that really opened my mind. I don’t even want to say as a rapper, but as a musician. It really opens your mind to different sounds and drum kicks.”
With the music still in the vaults, and Kanye’s album tracklist confirmed, the next logical question is whether Kanye and Soulja’s work will be showcased in an upcoming G.O.O.D. Friday drop.
Kanye’s celebrated series runs until January, and has already featured artists ranging from Charlie Wilson and Keri Hilson, to Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj.
“We’ll have to see,” Soulja said with the laugh of someone caught red-handed. “There’s been some leaking going on. Kanye was kind of mad about that. Wait for those Fridays…”
Soulja Boy’s third solo album, ‘The DeAndre Way’, is set to be released on November 30.
Here goes the most anticipated remaining track, to Kanye West‘s “G.O.O.D. Fridays”, called “All Of The Lights” off of his upcoming album, ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ which is just a few weeks away from being released on November 22nd. YAY!!!
The song is created with the triumphant feel of the multiple horns, the melody, and the production. The song features the likes of, John Legend, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Tony Williams, Charlie Wilson, La Roux’s Elly Jackson, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Rihanna, and the legendary Elton John. West does all the verses and the guest stars are scattered throughout hooks and bridges. Kanye uses a combination of rapping, singing, repetition, and memorable lines. If that doesn’t keep you entertained enough, then the bridges sure will.
From the fellas to the female’s “we’re going all the way this time” breakdown, which is sick from beginning to end. The song is DOPE from start to finish. Kanye not only did his thing personally, but made it all work with the talent involved by creating such a unique sound from one to the next. Nothin’ but thumbs up for Kanye West, he definitely knows how to create some good tunes. The single is getting tons of buzz around the net, and is quite epic, so be sure to check it out below.
Download & Listen to the after the jump….Enjoy it, it’s DOPE!!
Kid Cudi peers out from the shadows on his album art for his upcoming sophomore album titled, ‘Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager’. Proceeded by his Kanye West assisted lead single “Erase Me”, Cudi’s new album is set to be released November 9th.
Check out the video for his single, “Erase Me” featuring Kanye West below….
Kanye West announced the official album title on Tuesday morning (October 5) via his Twitter. The name has been floating around for some time in various rumor reports and blog postings, but in the shorter iteration of ‘Dark Twisted Fantasy’.
“The first song on the album is called “Dark Fantasy” produced by the RZA, co-produced by me and No I.D.” West added. “I ain’t letting no leaks have any [effect] on my song choices… “All of the Lights” is the next single, but wait till y’all hear the final!”
On Monday, West also confirmed the album’s release date, November 22. The project will arrive a day before Nicki Minaj‘s debut, ‘Pink Friday,’ and a number of other albums getting a jumpstart on the holiday shopping season.
The first two singles from ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ have already been released, “Power” and “Runaway,” featuring Pusha T.
Another track scheduled to appear on the project, “Lost in the World,” leaked online last week, leading West to announce he was canceling his weekly free “G.O.O.D. Fridays” music offering. But by Friday night, he recanted and delivered the sartorial “Christian Dior Denim Flow,” featuring John Legend, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Lloyd Banks and Ryan Leslie.
On Tuesday, West also assured fans of the G.O.O.D offerings that some of those songs would be included on the album too.
In other news….
Kanye West’s ‘Runaway’ London Screening Was A ‘Mad Event’
After showing ‘surreal’ film, West stuck around for two hours of Q&A, MTV UK reporter says. Kanye West invited a very select group of about 100 journalists and bloggers to the Wednesday-night London screening of his 35-minute art film for the song “Runaway.” Among them was MTV UK reporter Tom Thorogood, who got on the phone on Thursday morning (October 7) to talk about the typically over-the-top audience with the Louis Vuitton Don.
“It was a mad event,” Thorogood said of the screening, which included a rambling two-hour Q&A session during which West took any and all questions about the film and his upcoming albums. “Halfway through, an American guy from his label asked for one last question and just as the person asked it, Kanye said, ‘Why is this the last question?’ and said he was happy to talk as long as people wanted him to.”
Thorogood said there are perhaps only two dozen words spoken in the “ambitious … great looking” 35-minute art movie, whose narrative he described as “very loose and abstract.” If anything, he suspected it could be chopped up into five separate mind-bending music videos, though it only uses heavily altered snippets of West‘s music that are quite different from the versions of such songs as “Monster,” “Runaway” and the Bon Iver-sampling “Lost in the World” that fans have heard so far.
“It opens with shots of Kanye in a sports car and slow motion shots of deer and then you see a huge explosion and you see he’s crashed into the Phoenix,” said Thorogood of the other star of the film, model Selita Ebanks, who plays the Phoenix and who has been seen on ‘Ye’s arm at events lately. “He picks her up in his arms and walks away from the car which explodes behind him.” The title of the film then flashes on the screen and the first voice you hear is a snippet of Nicki Minaj‘s English-accented rhyme from “Monster.”
In another scene, Thorogood said you hear a brief bit of “Power,” which Kanye taps out on the same kind of MPC drum machine he played on both the VMAs and on “Saturday Night Live.” The three- to four-minute bit features Ebanks silently dancing around West as the song plays. “It was quite clear that [the movie is about] what he said about this before being about his story … a representation of his career,” Thorogood said.
And in a setup cued to the new song “Lights” that is likely to be the most iconic of the film, Thorogood said Kanye (a.k.a. “Griffin”) and the Phoenix watch as a marching band stomps across the screen carrying a giant, somewhat flimsy-looking papier-mâché model of Michael Jackson‘s head.
“With the passing of Michael Jackson, I feel a responsibility to bring things to our generation that can inspire and bring real culture to pop culture,” West told the audience in London about the film shot over four grueling days in Prague last month. “I want to use my power in a proper way.”
In another pivotal scene, West and the Phoenix arrive for a formal dinner at a huge table and are given weird looks by their fellow diners, one of whom asks, “Why didn’t you leave the monkey in the zoo?”
Thorogood said the film had French subtitles for the sparse dialogue, which were likely a holdover from Tuesday night’s screening in Paris, since West said the version he showed in London was still a rough cut. Among the other new songs featured in the movie is one called “Blame Game,” which contains a healthy sample of the melancholy piano groove in cult electronic musician Aphex Twin‘s 2001 song “Avril 14th,” as well as vocals from frequent ‘Ye collaborator John Legend, which the rapper said may or may not make the final cut of the album.
West introduced the film to his London audience by saying, ” ‘Purple Rain,’ [Pink Floyd’s] ‘The Wall,’ Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ — I wanted to do a modern version of that.” He also said that about “90 percent” of the music featured in the film appears on his upcoming fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, due out on November 22.
Plus….
Kanye West Adds M.I.A., La Roux And Alicia Keys To Album, ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,’ which might also feature Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Mos Def and Santigold.
It was the court of the Crimson King (remember the red suit at the VMAs?) on Wednesday in London as Kanye West spoke to a select group of journalists and bloggers about his upcoming “Runaway” mini-movie and accompanying album, ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,’ due out November 22.
In addition to screening the nearly wordless, trippy fantasia on the high prices of fame and individuality, ‘Ye also dropped some information on a number of the collaborators he’s got lined up for the album. According to our colleague Tom Thorogood of MTV UK, during a rambling two-hour Q&A session, West mentioned that he’s been in the studio with everyone from Alicia Keys to M.I.A., Kid Cudi, Mos Def and Santigold working on tracks for Fantasy.
He also confirmed that Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is “all over” the album, a fact we already learned when a demo of “Lost in the World” recently leaked, which features re-recorded vocals from the BI track “Woods.” The pair reportedly recorded at least nine tracks together, and West has said Vernon is slated to appear on multiple songs.
Among the other new tracks featured in the movie is “Blame Game,” which contains a healthy sample of the melancholy piano groove in cult electronic musician Aphex Twin’s 2001 song “Avril 14th,” as well as vocals from frequent ‘Ye collaborator John Legend, which may or may not make the album’s final cut. Other collaborators who’ve dropped in on sessions include Wu-Tang mastermind RZA and hip-hop icon Pete Rock.
NME also reports that West said the album could feature vocals from La Roux‘s flame-haired frontwoman, Elly Jackson, as well as Chicago hip-hop don producer No ID.
‘Ye also said he’s traveling back to France soon — he debuted the film there Tuesday — to finish work on his mini-album with Jay-Z, ‘Watch the Throne’.
And, in typically epic Kanye fashion, the Chicago MC said he’s planning a spectacular live show for the “Fantasy tour”, which he wants to wind up in front of the Egyptian pyramids. Unfortunately, he told the crowd, they’re not available until April.
Which Kanye collabo are you most excited about?
Listen to Kanye West ft. Drake – “All Of The Lights (Ghetto University)” below….
All the models to the floor right now. Kanye West upgrades his swag on “Christian Dior Denim Flow,” another super-sized collaboration from G.O.O.D. Friday. After initially calling off this week’s freebie due to the leak of two unfinished records, Mr. West came through for his fans on Saturday morning.
“I’m in my Christian Dior with a Veronica Webb/ Noémie Lenoir, Chanel, Sessilee Lopez/ Arlenis Sosa, Selita Ebanks/ If you work with my beat, then speak that Jourdan Dunn language,” raps the Louis Vuitton Don.
Listen & download the nearly seven-minute track featuring Kid Cudi, Pusha T, John Legend, Lloyd Banks, and Ryan Leslie below and tell us how it fits.
Kanye West has been Non-Stop for the past few weeks as he will be featured in XXL Magazinenext month. In that feature it will include a featured profile of West‘s record label, G.O.O.D Music, which is flourishing almost as impressively as his career’s resurgence. There’s also a paragraph dedicated to each artist on the label’s current roster which include Common, John Legend, Kid Cudi who is his longtime friend, Big Sean, Consequence, GLC, Mr. Hudson, and CyHi Da Prynce, Pusha T of Clipse was also added to the fold, and now his most recent collaborator, Mos Def.
From XXL:
“Just as Kanye returned to his roots to scoop up Common, he recently recruited buddy Brooklyn rapper/singer/actor Mos Def into the G.O.O.D Music fold. Long regarded as a formidable talent by underground devotees and mainstream fans alike, Mos appeared on ‘Two Words’ (from Kanye’s 2005 The College Dropout) and ‘Drunk and Hot Girls’ (from KW’s 2007 Graduation). Since his 1999 solo debut, Black on Both Sides, Mos has increasingly been pushed — whether by generational choices or self-exile — to the fringes of indie, alternative hip hop. Maybe it will take Kanye to reign him in.”
West has picked up the rapper at an optimal time to foster Mos’ creativity. Their recent “Good Fridays” collaboration, “Lord, Lord, Lord” found the two working together comfortably in new ways. Details for now are to be determined, but we are sure that what West has planned for Mos Def is going to be DOPE.
They already have a recently released G.O.O.D. Friday track called, “Lord Lord Lord”, which you can listen to below.
Kid Cudi made headlines this past June after cops discovered a controlled substance on his person following an altercation with a woman at her New York City apartment. But after being charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the 7th degree, he’s getting off easy.
The Cleveland native pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge this past Friday, receiving a sentence of two days of community service, according to TMZ. Additionally, Cudi was ordered to steer clear of trouble over the next six months.
The ‘Day ‘N’ Nite’ rapper, who previously became a news fixture after he punched a fan during a Vancouver concert in December 2009, is gearing up for the release of his sophomore album ‘Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager’, due November 9. The sequel to his 2008 debut has already spawned the Kanye West-assisted single “Erase Me,” for which he shot the video last week.
Check out the track below….
Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West – “Erase Me”
LISTEN: (via therabble1)
It’s official: Complex has the fall on lock. On Friday they set the Internet ablaze with the infamous and oh so into depth cover story featuring none other than, Kid Cudi, and now it’s time to lace you with the other side of their October/November 2010 issue. For their first cover ever with Nicki Minaj, they stated:
“We wanted to do something different from her typical cartoonish caricatures—hence the sexy, understated black and white shoot”.
For the interview, Complex’s Toshitaka Kondo spoke with Nicki about questions surrounding her sexual orientation, her relationship with Drake, Wayne and on why she stopped saying “no homo” but still likes “pause.”
Check out some excerpts from the interview below after the jump….
About her success:
“Absolutely. A lot of people don’t know I wrote all the hooks on the album. I arranged the music, did the transitions. [Other female rappers] are told what to do, but I run my entire empire; I don’t think people would expect that.”
Talks Wayne:
“He really hasn’t had any involvement on it. But to be honest, the album doesn’t sound like Wayne. I mean, he’s my biggest influence, but it doesn’t sound like Wayne’s stuff. It sounds like Nicki.”
“I always keep Nicki Minaj separate from Young Money. I allow Wayne to call the shots when we do group albums, but when I do other things and have other choices, I don’t necessarily need everyone’s go-ahead. I write my own raps, I go in the studio by myself. There are some female rappers who can’t go in the studio unless they have a ghostwriter sitting right next to them. I’m the complete opposite—I’ll go in and ghostwrite for someone.”
“He’s definitely told me, “Yo, leave that bullshit alone. That’s for people who ain’t got shit else to do.” I’ve watched Wayne handle himself so well. I’ve seen people take shot after shot after shot at him and if it fazed him, I never saw it. People take shots because they’re hoping for a little bit of your energy. They need fuel.”
Talks Drake:
“He told me he said something about me on a verse, but I didn’t think it would be anything like that. He let me hear it for the first time when we did Jay’s show at Madison Square Garden, the day before Wayne had to go to jail—that night he let me hear it on the headphones. But you know what else he told me he wrote for me? The Alicia Keys song “I’m Ready.” I happen to love the song. I never told anyone that, I hope he won’t get mad that I said that.”
“You have no idea how much I love them. We joke around. That’s the thing about Young Money, we will say a lot of crazy shit in the press but we will get around each other and start cracking up laughing like brothers and sisters. Drake is a playboy. He probably told mad bitches he wrote them songs for ’em.”
“They always ask me to hook them up with something!”
“Well, no, Drake knows better. [Laughs.] Drake tries to be the suave dude and not seem pressed, but Wayne will straight-up ask: “Nick, you got something for me?”
About her sexuality:
“When I rap, it’s just an extension of how I speak, and that’s how I talk. If you don’t like it, don’t listen. I’m also not going to explain something just because I said it in a rap. Take what you want from it. [In the press] I didn’t say [I don’t like women]. I said I don’t have sex with women. I don’t have sex with men right now either. If [bisexual is] what they wanna call me, then fine.”
Talks “pause” and “no homo”:
“ [Laughs.] I stopped saying “no homo” because a gay person said I was perpetuating homophobia, so I accepted that. I was just so used to being around my boys and them saying, “no homo,” it’s like second nature. With “pause,” it just means no sexual connotation intended. A guy can say “pause” to a girl and vice versa.”
Kanye West will appear on the cover of XXL’s October issue, hitting newstands nationwide on September 28.
The Louis Vuitton Don penned the cover story on himself—his first article ever—and also served as the creative director of his own 40-page section in the special collector’s issue.
In his candid cover story, West speaks on the reaction he received from the infamous 2009 MTV Video Music Awards debacle.
“I stress that the incident wasn’t about Taylor personally,” he explains in the story. “And it definitely wasn’t about race. Where I messed up is, at the end of the day, it’s your show, Taylor. It’s your show, MTV.”
“The relationship with the public and with your fans is like the relationship with your girlfriend,” he adds. “How could I not, at a certain point, be like, ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been at the awards show. I’m sorry.’ Not that I don’t deserve to get beat up or change who I am inside, to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
Mr. West said that, following his VMA outburst, he immediately dedicated himself to the studio.
“I knew I wasn’t in a great spot publicly after the incident, but I would just block it out and work as hard as possible and let my work be my saving grace,” he shared. “In a way, I had thrown a Molotov cocktail at my own career, and it gave me an opportunity, for the first time, to go away and find out who I was. Because I felt very alone.”
In addition to Kanye’s cover story, XXL’s October issue features stories on Kid Cudi, West’s G.O.O.D. Music family, Wiz Khalifa and the top 10 producers turned rappers of all time.
This time last year Complex Magazine’s Joe La Puma interviewed Kid Cudi for their Aug/Sept cover story that took an in depth look into Cudi’s life and music. This time around they’re back for another cover and a follow up that leads to an even better story.
Complex Magazine revealed the first cover for their October/November issue, and it features Kid Cudi making his second return to the Complex‘s front. The cover story with Cudi was also released and features an interview with Joe La Puma. Cudi takes the gloves off so to speak, and opens up about his new album, “Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager”. Cudi says the album is “dark, and smart explicit.” It’s no surprise since Cudi‘s music is exceptionally personal and authentic. His debut LP, which Complex named album of the year, is also one of many fans favorite for the emotion and passion Cudi channels through his songs. His experiences shape the music, and since the release of the first record, Cudi‘s definitely had a lot of tough ones. He’s been to jail, had a child, been kicked off tour with Lady Gaga, and struggled with drug abuse. He addresses all those things, and has some choice words for Wale and Perez Hilton in the Complex interview.
Check out some excerpts from the interview below after the jump….
About Wale:
“Then people like Wale get mad that ‘Ye ain’t give him no beats—’Ye ain’t give you no beats because we ain’t fucking with your raps. It’s not a conspiracy theory. We don’t fuck with you musically, so we’re not going to provide music for you. The shit is a service, it’s a quality of a certain standard. Niggas are just so thirsty it’s ridiculous. I’ve been eating humble pie forever, and people still call me an asshole. These people don’t know my fucking life—now I’m going to give them something to talk about.”
About Perez Hilton:
“Even Perez Hilton said some shit about me. He might be a good person and have a good heart, but he does a lot of fuckhead shit. Who are you to talk about people? That’s not cool. That’s why the world is so fucked up, because of hate. And he’s gay? I just don’t get that. The gay people I know are about peace and love and coming together. That shit doesn’t register with me. He’s a chump and a coward, and it’s fucked up because I met dude so many times and he had nothing but love to show me. Then when that shit happened with Lady Gaga kicking me off her tour, he had to run his mouth and judge me on that shit.”
On his drug use:
“I started doing cocaine to get through interviews, ’cause people wanted to know a lot about my personal life and I wasn’t prepared for a 60 Minutes interview every time. Doing bumps I was able to get through the day, but then I would smoke weed to calm me down—it was the only way I could get through the day without people noticing I was doing it.”
“I never thought it was a problem, but I was definitely high-fiving death a couple of times. It took a lot for me to talk about shit like this on the album. I don’t feel like I need to explain myself to anyone besides the fans. My fans don’t believe shit until they hear me say it. And those are true Kid Cudi fans. I want them to know the story.”
About his daughter:
“There’s another thing people don’t know. I have a daughter, born March 26th of this year. Her name is Vada, and she’s fucking awesome. That was eating me up, and it was stressing me out that nobody knew about her. I was trying to escape from that, too. Just trying to figure it out and make everyone happy, it’s a lot for somebody my age to handle. I was manning up and dealing with it in what I thought was the right way, but it was the wrong way. I want to be around for her. I can honestly say she was the wake-up call. The reality that it’s bigger than just you now—you have a responsibility and there’s no more time for mistakes. It’s time to stop fucking around.”
About Lupe Fiasco:
“Besides the fam, and Yeezy and Don C, there’s one artist in this game who has always had my back and had nothing but love to show, and that’s Lupe Fiasco. Every time I see that man, it’s nothing but love—I saw him a little after it, and he was like “I’m worried about you, man, just checking in.” He’s somebody who I know really genuinely gives a fuck. Noreaga also checked in.”
On Kanye x Cudi:
“Can I be honest with you? I don’t think anybody is fucking with what we—me and Kanye—got. Creatively, there’s nobody. You can argue all day about who has the best album, there’s never going to be an answer. There are other artists who are hot for God knows what reason. But as far as creativity, pound for pound, track for track, video for video, hands down, there’s nobody fucking with me and ‘Ye.”
JNEL & J. Magazine 
