Kid Cudi reveals upcoming Kanye collaboration 'Kids See Ghosts' cover art by Takashi Murakami
So far, out of the five albums that he was supposed to produce and release via his G.O.O.D Music label, Kanye West has managed to release two. First up was Pusha-T's 'DAYTONA', which dropped on May 25. Then came Yeezy's very own minimally-titled 'ye' on June 1. Both albums were received well by fans and critics alike, with Pitchfork even declaring Pusha's album the Best New Album.
The third in the series comes in the form of 'Kids See Ghosts', a collaborative album from Kanye and Kid Cudi that’s due for release this Friday, June 8. In anticipation, Cudi has shared the album’s artwork which he claims was designed by acclaimed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.
A listening party is planned to be held in Los Angeles for the album's release since Kanye's usual haunt, the Wyoming ranch, has taken the step to ban rappers after the extremely loud listening party for Kanye's latest album.
Check out the album art for 'Kids See Ghosts' below via Cudi's Twitter account.
Earlier this year, Kanye tweeted art concepts for his and Cudi’s new album. “Murakami vibes,” he tweeted at one point. Kanye fans, of course, will remember Murakami for his collaboration with the 'Life of Pablo' rapper during his 'Graduation' era.
It might be interesting to note here that Kanye has been paying very close attention to the album art of his fellow label signees. For Pusha's Daytona, Kanye scrapped the album art at the last moment to replace it with a licensed photo that cost $85,000. The same seems to be true for Cudi's album as well. But, in true Kanye style, for his own album 'ye', he chose to click a picture on his iPhone just moments before the album dropped and digitally scirbbled the words "I hate being bi-polar. It's awesome." on it!
Earlier this week, Kanye tweeted a new working tracklist for Kids See Ghosts. As usual, he let his whiteboard at the studio do the talking, leaving room for more speculation and discussions.
Prior to becoming the standout track on 'ye', 'Ghost Town' was slated to be track No. 4 on 'Kids See Ghosts'. As of Friday, that spot on the tracklist is blank, though a track called 'Extasy', which was previously tagged for 'ye', is a possibility. Or at least that's what one can safely deduce from Kanye's whiteboard.
'Kids See Ghosts' follows the release of Pusha-T’s 'DAYTONA' and Kanye’s 'ye', and will be followed-up in the next two weeks by new solo albums from Nas and Teyana Taylor, both will also be produced by Kanye and released via his G.O.O.D Music label.
Cudi’s last solo album 'Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’' was released in 2016, and received much critical acclaim, so it'll be interesting to see if Kanye can make this album a hat-trick for his label.