‘I want y’all to hear it as soon as possible,’ he writes, avoiding a potential chart rematch with 50 Cent.
By Shaheem Reid
Kanye West
Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
The artist behind “Love Lockdown” is about to show the world what he’s been doing during his recent musical lockdown.
Kanye West says his 808s and Heartbreak album is done, and he’s not going to wait until right before Christmas to release it, as was originally planned. He announced Wednesday (September 24), via his KanyeUniverseCity.com blog, that his fourth LP is coming out a lot sooner.
“I changed my album to November something, ‘cause I finished the album and I felt like it,” he posted under a picture of him and Young Jeezy in the studio. “I want y’all to hear it as soon as possible.”
Kanye’s label, Roc-A-Fella/ Def Jam, has not yet released a statement on the date change. In fact, the label never released a statement on the original date, which was December 16. Fans and the media alike were alerted to West’s original plans by checking some of their favorite retail Web sites, such as Amazon.com and Target.com, which advertised the late-December release date.
West’s date change theoretically quashes another SoundScan showdown between him and 50 Cent. 50 had been playfully mocking Kanye and “Love Lockdown” during his shows. The G-Unit’s commander in chief has his album, Before I Self Destruct, slated for December 9 — a week before 808s and Heartbreak’s original release.
Besides imploring fans to download “Love Lockdown” and trumpeting that it’s already sold more than 200,000 on iTunes (the track is the #1 song on Apple’s music-download site, as of press time), Kanye promised that 50 will love his opus.
“I just woke up from a quick studio nap,” the Louis Vuitton Don wrote last week. “I’ve been workin’ on 808s and Heartbreak about 16 hours a day, and Superman passed out for a little bit. … I’m in Hawaii but I’m still on NY time, so I wake up mad early, do some business, blog, jog for an hour, play ball, eat and then hit the stu by noon. While approving the final cut for the ‘Love Lockdown’ vid, I marvel at the fact that it was written less than three weeks ago. I’m very excited about everything. … I guarantee this will be 50’s favorite album of mine. This will be gangster’s album of the year.”
In between working on his own album, Kanye has been producing Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 and working on other projects for artists such as T.I.
Related Artists
