Kanye West, Brandon Flowers and Jared Leto Record “Hurricane”

In mid-April, Kanye West posted a photo to his blog, picturing him with Brandon Flowers of the Killers and Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars. He offered few details about the photo, writing only that he “was working on this dope ass song with Jared and Brandon stopped by.” The trio continued recording the track with Flowers on keyboard and West on a MPC drum sampler. Days later, Jared Leto posted the name of the track’s title, “Hurricane” on his blog, but otherwise tendered few details. Meanwhile, some began to question the legitimacy of the story, many hoping it was a joke.

MTV has confirmed, however, that “Hurricane” is a real song. In fact, Leto wrote the composition in early 2007, while in Berlin. Leto described the song’s message as either “incredibly comforting or incredibly depressing,” a theme he believed to be well suited to the sentiment in West’s 808s and Heartbreak. With that in mind, Leto apparently approached West with the idea of collaborating on “Hurricane.”

When asked about the joint artistic venture, Leto responded that West “came by here, he was here in the studio, and we did some initial kind of listening, and he did some singing,” before ending his comments by commenting, “It’s pretty unbelievable that it actually happened.”

More surprising, though, is that “Hurricane” features Kanye singing without the aid of auto-tune, an apparent decision made by Leto. Current plans are for the track to be included on an upcoming 30 Seconds to Mars album scheduled for release later this year.