![It's a lot of pressure being a successful musician. Sometimes, that pressure gets to be too much, and entire albums are discarded in a fit of self-doubt. From Beyonce to Kanye West to Neil Young, here are 12 albums that were scrapped before they saw the light of day.]()
It's a lot of pressure being a successful musician. Sometimes, that pressure gets to be too much, and entire albums are discarded in a fit of self-doubt. From Beyonce to Kanye West to Neil Young, here are 12 albums that were scrapped before they saw the light of day.
![Dr. Dre: Dre began working on his third album, Detox, back in 2001. Over the following years, its release was anticipated over and over again, with co-producer Scott Storch describing it as]()
Dr. Dre: Dre began working on his third album, Detox, back in 2001. Over the following years, its release was anticipated over and over again, with co-producer Scott Storch describing it as "the most advanced rap album we'll ever have the chance to listen to." Dre disagreed. This year, he finally scrapped the album, saying, "I didn't like it. It wasn't good."
![Iggy Azalea: Last month, a fan tweeted the Australian rapper asking if she could tell them something about new music.]()
Iggy Azalea: Last month, a fan tweeted the Australian rapper asking if she could tell them something about new music. "Not really," she replied, "other than that I scrapped an entire 6 months of work and started totally new." Given the extent of the backlash Azalea has endured from fans and critics alike, this crisis of confidence is not exactly surprising.
![Grimes: Grimes was pretty unhappy with how the reporting was handled over this one. When Pitchfork wrote that she had]()
Grimes: Grimes was pretty unhappy with how the reporting was handled over this one. When Pitchfork wrote that she had "scrapped recordings for her next album and begun again from scratch," she took to Twitter to write, "Pitchfork sucks. I scrapped that album like 7 months ago lol. 'music journalism' smdh... haha." She played down the 'scrapped album' narrative even more in a recent interview, saying, "I think all musicians have songs that don't make it onto records."
![Neil Young: It's never been entirely clear why Chrome Dreams, which The Guardian said]()
Neil Young: It's never been entirely clear why Chrome Dreams, which The Guardian said "could have been Young's strongest album of the 70s," was scrapped - but bootlegs of the album have ensured its popularity anyway. Young even released a sequel, Chrome Dreams II, in 2007.
![Jimi Hendrix: Hendrix recorded a 16-song autobiographical tape, comprising only his voice and an acoustic guitar, and handed it to his drummer for feedback. Months later, Hendrix had died, and Mitchell forgot about the tape, unaware that he had been given the only copy. 22 years later, a biographer discovered the tape's wherabouts - but they still haven't been released in any way.]()
Jimi Hendrix: Hendrix recorded a 16-song autobiographical tape, comprising only his voice and an acoustic guitar, and handed it to his drummer for feedback. Months later, Hendrix had died, and Mitchell forgot about the tape, unaware that he had been given the only copy. 22 years later, a biographer discovered the tape's wherabouts - but they still haven't been released in any way.
![Beyonce: According to producer and 'Single Ladies' co-writer The-Dream, Beyonce recorded an entire album inspired by afrobeat legend Fela Kuti.]()
Beyonce: According to producer and 'Single Ladies' co-writer The-Dream, Beyonce recorded an entire album inspired by afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. "It was right before we did 4," he explained, adding, "There's always multiple albums being made. We did a whole Fela album that didn't go up."
![Drake and Aaliyah: A posthumous Aaliyah album, helmed by Drake and Noah '40' Shebib, was originally teased with the single 'Enough Said', on which Drake contibuted vocals. The terrible response to it, though, caused Shebib to drop the whole project.]()
Drake and Aaliyah: A posthumous Aaliyah album, helmed by Drake and Noah '40' Shebib, was originally teased with the single 'Enough Said', on which Drake contibuted vocals. The terrible response to it, though, caused Shebib to drop the whole project. "That opportunity was mine," he explained. "Drake said, 'Can I do it with you?'... The world reacting to Drake's involvement so negatively, I just wanted nothing to do with this." When Aaliyah's mother told him, "I don't want this out," Shebib received the final push he needed to walk away. Quickly.
![Kanye West and Drake: Drake doesn't seem to have much luck when it comes to collaborative albums. Though he managed to make one song with Kanye West, which will appear on West's forthcoming album, they were originally supposed to do an entire album.]()
Kanye West and Drake: Drake doesn't seem to have much luck when it comes to collaborative albums. Though he managed to make one song with Kanye West, which will appear on West's forthcoming album, they were originally supposed to do an entire album. "It was supposed to be called Wolves," explained West. "We said we was gonna do it, he was sending beats back and forth."
![Wiley: After spending $42,000 on the recording process, Wiley decided to scrap his tenth album last year and start again.]()
Wiley: After spending $42,000 on the recording process, Wiley decided to scrap his tenth album last year and start again. "I ain't happy with it," he wrote on Twitter. "Needs to be epic or else there is no point. Start from scratch... I very rarely do this that's why I am gonna try it." The resulting replacement, Snakes & Ladders, proved his instincts right.
![Noel Gallagher + Amorphous Androgynous: Gallagher was supposed to release a collaborative album with the psychedelic producers in 2012. After announcing it, though, he told The Sun,]()
Noel Gallagher + Amorphous Androgynous: Gallagher was supposed to release a collaborative album with the psychedelic producers in 2012. After announcing it, though, he told The Sun, "I'm not happy with any of the mixes" and decided not to release it. Putting forward his side of the story to The Guardian, Garry Cobain said, "His rebuttal of it is a disgrace. He became too afraid to be weird."
![My Chemical Romance: The band's fourth and final studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, took two attempts to make. The first they cast aside. In an interview at the time, Frank Iero said,]()
My Chemical Romance: The band's fourth and final studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, took two attempts to make. The first they cast aside. In an interview at the time, Frank Iero said, "I said, 'I have this great idea that we should record two rtecords and release on and put the other in the vault so when the band breaks up it would be the last MCR record ever." Three years later, in 2013, the band did break up - and it was released as compilation Conventional Weapons.
![Green Day: Cigarettes and Valentines should have been the follow-up to 2000's Warning, but shortly before it was finished, the master recordings of 20 tracks were stolen from the studio. Instead of re-recording it, Billie Joe Armstrong et al decided to start again. The result? American Idiot. Talk about silver linings.]()
Green Day: Cigarettes and Valentines should have been the follow-up to 2000's Warning, but shortly before it was finished, the master recordings of 20 tracks were stolen from the studio. Instead of re-recording it, Billie Joe Armstrong et al decided to start again. The result? American Idiot. Talk about silver linings.
