Photo: WENN.com
Kanye West has given an insight into his working process and his forthcoming album at the iHeart Music Summit.
The rapper (who could be dropping his new album any day now), emerged following a speech from Def Jam CEO Steve Bartels on new records from Big Sean, Alesso and Axwell.
According to Billboard West spoke for 45 minutes, in the usual stream of consciousness style that many have witnessed at his live shows.
The general theme of his speech was his "responsibility to innovate", seeing him talking about the use of soul samples in his early records when gangster rap was popular. He also added that he never wanted to repeat the same thing and traced his evolution through discovering Daft Punk and the electronic influences on 808's and Heartbreaks.
He also discussed working with Paul McCartney, praising The Beatles' 'Come Together' as a sexy song and how amazed he was to see McCartney play the riff live. He also told the crowd he jokily asked Paul "What pussy was like in the 60s?" He then proceeded to sing their duet 'Only One' to the crowd, in full and acapella.
To close out he whipped out his laptop and played the crowd a Rihanna collaboration from his new album. According to Billboard it features an acoustic backing track and an epic chorus. Afterwards West left the stage to a standing ovation.
As previously reported, West and McCartney released their new single 'Only One' on New Year's Eve. Work on the track began in 2014 in Los Angeles originating from "a simple brainstorming session between the two, with McCartney improvising on the keyboards and Kanye vocally sketching and shaping ideas in a stream-of-consciousness riff. Kanye sat there with his family, holding his daughter North on his lap, and listened to his vocals, singing, 'Hello, my only one... And in that moment, not only could he not recall having sung those words, but he realized that perhaps the words had never really come from him. The process of artistic creation is one that does not involve thinking, but often channeling. And he understood in that moment that his late mother, Dr. Donda West, who was also his mentor, confidante, and best friend, had spoken through him that day."
The two have been fans for some time. In 2013 McCartney told Radio One's Zane Lowe that although he didn't fancy 'getting a rapper in' on his last album he'd like to collaborate with "Oh, Jay-Z, Kanye,". McCartney also told this writer in GQ back in 2012: "With Kanye, I'm always so excited that he knows who I am and he's come up. I'm a fan of his. I met him and "Jay Zed", as we call him, at the Met Ball that Stella was being honoured at. I never know what to say. They were just saying "Hey man, you're really a Knight!" Their perspective on that, as Americans, as ex-Project guys - for them a knight is like Sir Lancelot. It's always funny as I'm just Paul, one of the guys."
