Harsh rhythms crash, dance beats drop out, soul samples grate, voices warp. Is West's dementedly contrary album the sound of a music star just doing his job?
On 14 June, the
website buzzfeed.com published a list titled Eight Reasons You Won't Hear Yeezus Early, detailing the remarkable security measures installed to prevent Kanye West's sixth studio album from leaking on to the internet before its release date. These included not working in recording studios, lest one of their employees make a copy of the music; declining to communicate with engineers or producers via email and keeping all work in progress not on a computer, but on a hard drive locked in an airtight, watertight case, that can, according to its manufacturers, withstand everything from plane crashes to being blown up by insurgents. "Kanye West," it announced, "is basically the only major star who's worked out how to keep his music from leaking." A grand total of four hours after this compelling argument appeared online, buzzfeed.com was obliged to issue a Tweet. "So much for all that," it read. "Yeezus has leaked."
