Kanye West - Kanye West Breaks His Silence Over ‘Cruel Summer’ Mixtape

Kanye West has finally broken his silence over his new mixtape, Cruel Summer. The notoriously media-shy West has, until now, left it up to some of the other stars on the compilation to spread the world about this week’ album release. Now, though, Kanye himself is appearing in a black and white interview clip, hosted on YouTube. Cruel Summer features not only Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music crew, but also the likes of Jay-Z, R. Kelly, 2 Chainz, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah. “This isn't the beginning of the conversation; this isn't the end of the conversation, explains West. It's our offering as a collective of a sonic snapshot of what's happening right now 2012, this Cruel Summer.”

Explaining how the album came together, he explained “we started out getting everyone in the lab together… one track might have thirty people’s opinions on it. It’s not just about a tracklist and a name. It’s about the communal style of work.” He also explained that the artwork to Cruel Summer played a vital part in shaping its sound, He would have the artwork in front of him whilst he recorded the tracks and would ask himself “does this album sound like the artwork looks?”

A few snippets of Cruel Summer had already been leaked before it was even released. And much had been made of some of Kanye’s lyrics, especially those that are about his new girlfriend Kim Kardashian. One choice rhyme from Kanye references Kim’s notorious sex tape: “Eat breakfast at Gucci. My girl a superstar all from a home movie.” Stay classy, yeah Kanye?