Kanye West Previews New Songs with James Blake

Kanye West recently previewed some new songs he’s worked on with megastar singer James Blake.

Videos by American Songwriter

While West has been making headlines with his thoughts about past grudges, Queen Elizabeth II’s recent passing, his feud with his ex-wife model and businesswoman Kim Kardashian and his high-profile split with the clothing company, The Gap, the award-winning musician is also making new songs with big artists.

These days, West is in London for Fashion Week. And while there, he hit the DJ booth for a set in which he played a couple of previews of new songs he’s done with Blake.

Blake, who has worked with big-name rappers, including Freddie Gibbs, has now added West to his resume. A few years ago, Blake told Pitchfork that he really wanted to work with Kanye, specifically on his song, “Timeless.” That song came out on Blake’s 2016 album, The Colour In Everything. But it never worked out.

Said Blake of that failure-to-launch collab, “Something was supposed to happen; I don’t really know how to describe how that didn’t work out. I wanted Kanye to be on the song “Timeless,” but the verse didn’t materialize. I think a huge swath of things happened in his life, and I just stayed out of it. Eventually, the mood of the album changed, and in the end, I don’t think it would have fit. But I didn’t say I was working with Kanye just so people would get interested—I really wanted him to be on it.”

While one of the new songs with Blake and Kanye seems to sample Blake’s song “Always,” which is also on Colour In Everything, Blake put that notion to rest on Twitter, saying “Always” was not sampled.

Blake also said he produced the new Kanye track and two more. He’s excited.

No word as of yet when or how the new songs will drop, but given the preview, it could be soon.

Check out the preview and comments from Blake via Twitter below.

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