Singer Ye, formerly known as Kanye West and his wife Kim Kardashian
“…Uh, live from the Mercer
Run up on Yeezy the wrong way, I might murk ya….”
You could be a Kanye West and Jay-Z fan and yet, you listened to the above line on Otis, off their collaborational 2010 album Watch The Throne and did not really understand what Jay exactly meant.
Well, Kanye West is one of those artistes that have done music that stayed out of the box and true to his status, even the process of creating this music is out of the box.
For instance, the reason why Jay-Z says the line “live from the Mercer” was because that particular song Otis was indeed recorded in a suite of Mercer Hotel in New York.
And so was the whole album!
Ok, the entire Watch The Throne was not recorded in Mercer but in various hotel rooms in three continents.
Yet this was not the first time Kanye West was putting out an album recorded in unorthodox places, for instance, Watch The Throne was simply a follow up to his most respected piece of work to date, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The rap gem was in the post Kanye West/Taylor Swift VMA saga, then, the rapper imposed on himself an exile in Oahu, Hawaii. There he had vowed to leave music alone and yet his subconscious created music and before it was too long, he was having potential collaborators like Pusha T, Bon Iver and Kid Cudi flown to Oahu.
Like the future projects he got to do in the same manner, the commandments were simple, no phones, no tweeting, no pictures and apparently some rules like, ‘no hipster hats.’
Earlier this year, Kanye West revealed he was going to release another album, for an act who took headlines by storm when he released Ye at the beginning of June, such a revelation was surprising and one an ardent follower took with a leap of faith.
It was not the first time Kanye West was promising followers an album only months after releasing one, and of course, the last promise did not even come to pass.
This was after the release of his The Life of Pablo in 2016, in an excited mode, he announced he was releasing a follow up to what sounded like an abstract incomplete body of work, though even when he promised the album title was Turbo Grafx 16, it was and may never get released.
It was in the same faith one took when Yandhi, was announced as the next Kanye west album.
It had been set to drop on September 29, but on the D-day, Kanye West revealed it was not ready, in fact, he noted he was going to Africa to finish it.
In the past, Kanye has worked on 808s & Heartbreaks in Honolulu, Hawaii, Yeezus, in a hotel that has never been named in Paris, The Life of Pablo in Casa Aramara, a plush residence in Punta Minta, Mexico and Florence in Italy.
In one of the interviews producer 88 Keys, who worked with Kanye and Jay on Watch The Throne says that the first time he was invited to the hotel room, he thought it was a fresh idea but never imagined he was there to record; “I thought cats were gonna lay ideas down here and eventually take it to a professional recording studio… but nah, that was it. What they recorded in that room was [the finished product].”
His 2018 album Ye was famously recorded alongside four other albums of Pusha T, Nas, Teyana Taylor and Kids See Ghosts in Wyoming mountains.
But of course, this is the first time Kanye had talked about doing the album in Africa and did not even throw any details.
In a true Kanye West sense, he leaves a storm to keep the media in the US busy as he strolls to the next airport to go record in seclusion. Just last week, when the rumor mill started making rounds that Kanye was actually headed to Uganda, the man was busy meeting Trump and stealing his thunder in his own Oval office.
But as you read this, there are more than one reason to believe Kanye West is in Uganda and particularly Chobe Safaris Lodge to record what will become Yandhi, and his tenth album.
A picture of a badge of a crew member leaked and it had Swangz Avenue’s logo on it, shortly thereafter, it was rumored that Swangz Avenue would be working closely with the rapper/producer on helping set up things like the studio.
Then Swangz Avenue closed their offices for what they called a ‘10 day temporary closure’ almost the same number of days Kanye is thought to stay in ‘Africa’ recording.
And of course a fact that Chobe Safaris Lodge is apparently closed to the public for the same next 10 days.
According to TMZ, the rapper is in Uganda with his family as well as collaborators like Big Sean and the website also reveals that much as the stay is meant to be a ten days one, Kim wants it extended.
Well, many reports are coming out about the rapper’s presence, it is said he has his studios in a dome created in an open space.
It is not known whether Swangz will directly be part of the production process, neither do we know if actual songs will be recorded in Uganda, but if he does, we can only pray he gives the motherland a mention, you know that is something he is really good at.
Like the New York Mercer, does anyone smell a; “..I made Jesus walk on the Nile…….”?