Yeezus

. It is indexed in the Base Mérimée, a database of architectural heritage maintained by the French Ministry of Culture, under the reference PA00085992|West first began work on Yeezus at his personal loft in Paris, and on numerous occasions visited the Louvre (pictured)'' for inspiration. In July 2012, producer No I.D. revealed that he had been working on West's sixth solo studio album (and seventh overall) and that it would be released after Cruel Summer (2012), a collaborative compilation album between members of West's record label GOOD Music. For Yeezus, West enlisted several collaborators, including Kid Cudi, Charlie Wilson, S1, the Heatmakerz, Mike Dean, Hudson Mohawke, Skrillex, Young Chop, Chief Keef, Frank Ocean, Odd Future, Travis Scott, The-Dream, Cyhi the Prynce, Malik Yusef, King L, John Legend, James Blake, RZA, Mase, and Pusha T. The album features additional vocals by Justin Vernon, Frank Ocean, Kid Cudi, Chief Keef, King L, Assassin, and Charlie Wilson. West was influenced primarily by minimalist design and architecture during the production of Yeezus, and visited a furniture exhibit in the Louvre five times. The album was originally titled Thank God for Drugs. ==Recording and production==

co-founder Rick Rubin to executive produce the album. In 2012, West began recording his sixth studio album with collaborators, including No I.D. and DJ Khaled. The first recordings were held in January 2013, in the living room of his personal loft at a Paris hotel, referred to in the album's credits as the "No Name Hotel". West kept compositions simple in order to hear the tracks more clearly; too much bass or complexity would simply overpower the room's poor acoustics. The beats emanating from the loft space, which sometimes lasted through the night, provoked complaints from neighbors. The atmosphere in the studio was described by contributor Evian Christ as "very focused", and West once again brought in several close collaborators. Producer Hudson Mohawke noted the inclusive "group" atmosphere of the sessions, in which multiple contributors would work on similar pieces, with different elements ultimately selected from each. All involved were given a song to work on and return the next day to sit and critique, a process Anthony Kilhoffer compared to an art class. Producer Arca described being initially asked to send West music, noting that she purposefully sent perhaps the strangest material she had, with West happening to be excited by it. Describing West's collaborative style, Arca stated: It was a lot of coming up with design, like solving riddles. If the song called for something aggressive, it was up to three or four people to design what in their head was the best solution for that aggression in that moment. Everyone would approach it in completely different ways, and ultimately, it would all be edited by Kanye himself. While previous albums, particularly Dark Fantasy, took considerable time in the studio, Yeezus was described by Kilhoffer as "the fastest record we ever made". American musician Travis Scott opined that the snippets he'd heard of Yeezus were from the year 3000 and recalled "crazy memories" from being around West during the recording of it. W writer Christopher Bagley reports that West's creative process often bordered on perfectionist. In March 2013, West described the album to Bagley as near completion, only to revise this statement one month later to the album being "only 30 percent complete". West made several last-minute alterations to Yeezus, enlisting the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, Rick Rubin, as an executive producer for additional recording mere days before its release; changes included re-recording whole songs and rewriting entire verses. The rough cut West played Rubin ran nearly three and a half hours long. West's orders to Rubin were to take the music in a "stripped-down minimal direction", often removing elements already recorded. Rubin gave as example "Bound", which was "a more middle of the road R&B song, done in an adult contemporary style" before West decided to replace the musical backing with a minimalistic sample, "a single note bassline in the hook which we processed to have a punk edge in the Suicide tradition". Two days before the album had to be delivered to the label, West wrote and sang the lyrics to two songs while also recording the vocals to three others in just two hours. ==Music and composition==

work, the album is driven by abrasive electronics while drawing from an array of industrial, punk and hip-hop subgenres. According to Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot, Yeezus is a "hostile, abrasive and intentionally off-putting" album that combines "the worlds of" 1980s Chicago acid-house, 2013 Chicago drill music, 1990s industrial music, and the "avant-rap" of Saul Williams, Death Grips, and Odd Future. The Independent, Mass Appeal, and The Village Voice described it as an experimental release, while Meagan Garvey of The Outline described it as West's "industrial album". Rolling Stone described it as "an extravagantly abrasive album full of grinding electro, pummeling minimalist hip-hop, drone-y wooz and industrial gear-grind", and Rolling Stone called it an "industrial-rap opus". Slant Magazine critic Ted Scheinman described the album as "built on alien, angular beats, slowly morphing drones and sirens, abrupt periods of silence, and a pulse-quickening style of delivery from Yeezy himself", writing that West reconceives the "notion of what kind of music (or noise) can underpin hip-hop". According to Charles Aaron of Spin, Yeezus is "a hip-hop album, not a rap album", because of how its sounds and subject matter are assembled together, and although listeners can hear "'punk' or 'post-punk' or industrial'" throughout, "hip-hop has always been about noise and dissonance and dance music as agitation". The album also incorporates elements of industrial and trap music. The record "most closely resembles" 1990s industrial rock, during which the genre had a significant pop culture impact, with artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Marilyn Manson gaining success. The industrial scene created a "vast global underground community", and Esquire notes that one of its epicenters was in Chicago, where West was raised. Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club characterized its opening series of songs as electro and industrial hip-hop. At the same time, he viewed himself as artistically being "here to crack the pavement and break new ground, sonically". Yeezus is primarily electronic in nature, and boasts distorted drum machines and synthesizers that sound like they're malfunctioning, low-resolution samplers that add a pixelated digital aura to the most analog sounds. "Bound", a 1971 song by American soul group Ponderosa Twins Plus One from their album 2 + 2 + 1 = Ponderosa Twins Plus One, serves as the primary sample used in West's track. The album's second track "Black Skinhead" has alternately been called an industrial hip-hop song ==Promotion and release==

On May 1, 2013, West used Twitter to post a single message reading "June Eighteen", leading several media outlets to speculate that the post referred to the release date of West's upcoming album. On May 17, he began promotion of the album by unveiling the previously unreleased song "New Slaves" through video projections in 66 assorted locations. The following day, West appeared on the American late-night live television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live and performed the songs "New Slaves" and "Black Skinhead". West subsequently revealed the album's cover and title, Yeezus, on his official website. Fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar offered his opinion on the title in an interview that same month, stating: "That's crazy, I want to hear that. That's that creative Kanye genius stuff out the box". He also claimed that the album's "whole marketing scheme is crazy" and "very inspiring". On May 29, A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou unveiled an advertisement for Yeezus which stated that the album would not be available for pre-order. Speaking about the album's minimal promotion, West stated: "With this album, we ain't drop no single to radio. We ain't got no NBA campaign, nothing like that. Shit, we ain't even got no cover. We just made some real music". He explained releasing his second studio album Born Sinner on the same day as Yeezus during an interview that same month, saying: "I'm not going to sit [here]... I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album. It'd be like, 'Oh and J.Cole dropped too, a week later.' Nah. I'm going to go see him on that date. He's the greatest". The next month, J. Cole gave further context, claiming for the coinciding release to be "more about the statement" than the sales. A lyrical reference to releasing on the same date as West is included in the track "Forbidden Fruit" from Born Sinner. The Source pointed out a resemblance between the Yeezus CD packaging and a packaging concept designed for the single "Crystal" by the English band New Order in 2001. In a 2016 BBC interview with Annie Mac, West explained the album cover; "The whole concept for the Yeezus album is that we're not going to be using CDs in the future and since this is the last time we're going to see it, this is an open casket for the CD." . Def Jam confirmed in late June 2013 that "Black Skinhead" would be serviced to American radio as the album's first single on July 2, 2013, and that a music video for the track was being produced. It was officially released to radio in the United Kingdom on June 19. The song peaked at number 69 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and 34 on the UK Singles Chart. In August 2013, it was revealed that "Bound 2" would be released as the second single from Yeezus. "Bound 2" features vocals from American soul singer Charlie Wilson and incorporates numerous samples into its production, including prominent elements of the song "Bound" (1971) by soul group Ponderosa Twins Plus One. The song has since peaked at number 55 on the UK Singles Chart. In November 2013, producer Hudson Mohawke revealed that "Blood on the Leaves" would serve as the album's third single. West subsequently made the announcement in an interview on New York's 92.3 NOW. On September 6, 2013, West announced The Yeezus Tour, a North American tour to take place between October 19 through December 7, 2013; two months prior to West's announcement, Yeezus co-producer Mike Dean had announced a tour for the album. The tour was marketed as his "first solo tour in 5 years", and featured Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T, A Tribe Called Quest, and Travis Scott as the supporting acts. On October 30, 2013, while on the road to Vancouver, a truck carrying custom-made video screens and equipment for the show was involved in a car accident, the crash damaged the equipment beyond repair. The tour resumed on November 16, 2013, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The missed Chicago and Detroit shows were rescheduled however, the rest of the missed dates were cancelled, Def Jam cited routing logistics as the reason. ==Critical reception==

Yeezus was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 84, based on 46 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.2 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. and Evan Rytlewski from The A.V. Club said it was his most uninhibited record: "Even by the standards of an artist who reinvents himself with each release, it's a drastic departure". Rock artist Lou Reed reviewed Yeezus in July 2013 shortly before his death, describing it as majestic and inspiring. "He's really trying to raise the bar. No one's near doing what he's doing, it's not even on the same planet". Some reviewers expressed reservations. In The New York Times, Jon Pareles said West's innovative transfiguration of his music—with unrefined electronica and drill elements—was undermined by his distasteful lyrics and appropriation of 1960s civil rights slogans "to his own celebrity or to bedroom exploits". In Robert Christgau's opinion, the combination of harsh rock and hip-hop sounds on Yeezus was as bold as Public Enemy's music during the 1980s, but West's lyrics were grotesquely off-putting. "He's wordsmith enough to insure that his sexist imagery is very hard to take", Christgau wrote in The Barnes & Noble Review, looking at the album as an "alt-rap also-ran". Chris Richards from The Washington Post found West's lyricism perhaps "his least compelling" yet and "drunk on bitterness", though viewed the album as "West at his most wasted, stumbling through rubble". Alex Griffin of Tiny Mix Tapes expressed similar feelings, describing it as "a nebulous, dense, paranoid web of utterly unfiltered expression that's utterly or negligibly fascinating depending on how much you care about Yeezy". In The Times, Will Hodgkinson surmised that Yeezus could have been West's masterpiece had he not become "so hopelessly self-important". Accolades Based on 146 individual year-end top ten lists compiled by Metacritic, Yeezus was the most critically acclaimed album of 2013, appearing on 61 lists and being named first on 18 of them. In October 2013, Complex named Yeezus the sixth best hip-hop album of the last five years. Yeezus was rated as album of the year by nine publications. Spin named it the best album of 2013, writing, "Yeezus was a thorny tangram puzzle of boxy headbanger blats that exemplified a year of equally stripped-down, basal pleasures". The A.V. Club named it the best album of 2013 saying "It's magnificent, and it sounds like absolutely nothing else". Rolling Stone named it the second best album of 2013, comparing it in concept to Reed's polarizing 1975 album Metal Machine Music: "No wonder the late, great Lou Reed embraced Yeezus, since it's basically the Metal Machine Music concept translated into futuristic hip-hop, all industrial overload and hypertense egomania and hostile vibes". Exclaim! also named it the hip-hop album of the year. NME named it the second best album of the year calling it "his most sonically challenging album to date". Stereogum, Time, and Complex were also among the publications that named Yeezus the best album of 2013. Yeezus was also nominated in two categories at the 2014 Grammy Awards including for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song for "New Slaves". West responded unfavorably to this due to not receiving more nominations. He then addressed the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences at one of his concerts and referred to it as patronizing. The album received nominations for Foreign Rap Album of the Year at the Hungarian Music Awards, International Album of the Year at the Danish Music Awards, World's Best Album at the 2014 World Music Awards, and Best Album at the 2014 NME Awards. In January 2014, Yeezus was named the best album of 2013 by The Village Voices Pazz & Jop annual critics' poll. On the same poll for singles, "Bound 2", "New Slaves", and "Black Skinhead" were ranked in the top 10. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Yeezus as the 269th album on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. In 2025, Resident Advisor ranked it at number 16 in their list of "The Best Electronic Records 2000–25"; contributor Kieran Press-Reynolds credited West for introducing a wider audience to uncommercial sounds, saying he "smuggled industrial beats into more homes than surely any other record this century, converting an unquantifiably large number of casuals." ==Commercial performance==

Yeezus debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, becoming West's sixth chart-topping studio album and selling 327,000 copies in the United States in its first week. The album failed to reach the 500,000 sales projections, and marked West's lowest solo opening week sales in the US. Simultaneously, Born Sinner entered at number two on the Billboard 200 with sales of 297,000 copies, selling 30,000 less than Yeezus. That same week, Born Sinner remained at number two on the Billboard 200, outselling Yeezus by nearly 20,000 units with sales of 84,000 copies. The following week, Born Sinner climbed to number one on the chart, tying the peak position attained by Yeezus previously. On August 12, 2013, Yeezus was certified gold in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 copies. J. Cole responded to this by commenting that he doesn't "live for the accolades" and claiming: "I'm more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings". Yeezus was ranked as the 37th most popular album of 2013 on the Billboard 200. The album stood as West's first chart topper in Australia. Yeezus reached number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, becoming West's fifth chart-topping album in Canada. In the United Kingdom, the album experienced a chart-topping performance, with it debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart and giving West his first number one on the chart since Graduation in 2007, as well as his fourth top ten album in the UK. The following week, Yeezus descended five places to number six on the UK Albums Chart. The album was ultimately certified gold in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on February 20, 2015, for sales of 100,000 units. Public reaction , where he performed several tracks from Yeezus publicly for the first time. Public reaction to Yeezus, including its unorthodox and deliberate lack of promotion as well as its brash and aggressive sound, was mixed. Yeezus was noted as one of the most anticipated releases of 2013 by major publications, but the lack of a major radio single was regarded as a risky move. Regardless, radio stations still played tracks from Yeezus on air, despite it being a departure from the normal playlists found on hip-hop stations. "When I listen to radio, that ain't where I wanna be no more", stated West at his headlining June 9, 2013 Governor's Ball performance, where he unveiled several tracks from the record for the first time. Rolling Stone summarized the audience's response: "Half the crowd cheered, half almost audibly rolled their eyes". West's June 11 interview with Jon Caramanica of The New York Times was similarly viewed with a mixed reaction, with many outlets mocking West's seemingly vain statements. Within four days prior to the release, Yeezus was leaked online. The New York Times wrote that the leak "stirred up a Twitter frenzy" and received widespread media coverage. The New Yorkers Sasha Frere-Jones suggests that Yeezus may be preferred over any of West's previous works in coming decades by a new generation due to the "lean vibrancy" of the album. "One of the most fascinating aspects of Yeezus' arrival is the discursive crisis it's caused, produced by a fast-react culture colliding with a work of art so confounding", wrote The Atlantic columnist Jack Hamilton. Oasis lead member Liam Gallagher criticized Yeezus over its title, saying of West: "He's a fucking idiot. You'll never see Jesus banging his head". American rapper Hopsin dissed West over the album within the lyrics of his single "Hop Is Back" in October 2013, while the music video included Hopsin reenacting one of West's numerous encounters with the paparazzi. That same month, Hopsin went on to explain the diss, admitting that he is a fan of West who likes a lot of his older music and viewing Yeezus as West "on some straight up [bullshit]". Jay-Z described Yeezus as "polarizing", though claimed "that's what great art is" and that West "pushes the genre forward" with his experimentation. Expressing his thoughts on the mixed reception of the album in October 2013, fellow rapper Lupe Fiasco viewed himself as not facing the same difficult struggle. In February 2014, English singer Lily Allen announced that she would title her third studio album Sheezus. In an interview with Australian radio station Nova, Allen stated that she is terrified that West would think it's "a diss rather than a tribute". She said that she thinks West is brilliant and praised him for speaking his mind all the time. That same month, Jack White, a vocal advocate of analog recording, remarked that Yeezus "is obviously recorded on Pro Tools but sounds unbelievable, because it is very simple and there aren't a lot of components going on, and this really allows the songs to shine. Plus he mixed using analogue components". West went on to make the claim in October 2015 that despite many people rating My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as his best album, Yeezus is "so much stronger" in comparison. In 2013, Yeezus was voted as both the year's "Most Overrated Album" and "Most Underrated Album" by Pitchfork readers. == Track listing ==

Notes • signifies a co-producer • signifies an additional producer • "I Am a God" credits God as a featured artist and features additional vocals by Justin Vernon • "New Slaves" features additional vocals by Frank Ocean • "Hold My Liquor" features vocals by Chief Keef and Justin Vernon • "I'm in It" features vocals by Justin Vernon and Assassin • "Guilt Trip" features uncredited vocals by Kid Cudi • "Send it Up" features vocals by King L • "Bound 2" features additional vocals by Charlie Wilson Sample credits • "On Sight" contains an interpolation of "Sermon (He'll Give Us What We Really Need)", written by Keith Carter Sr. • "I Am a God" contains samples of "Forward Inna Dem Clothes", written by Clifton Bailey III and H. Hart, performed by Capleton; and samples of "Are Zindagi Hai Khel", written by Anand Bakshi and Rahul Burman, performed by Burman, Manna Dey and Asha Bhosle. • "New Slaves" contains samples of "Gyöngyhajú lány", written by Gábor Presser and Anna Adamis, performed by Omega. • "I'm in It" contains samples of "Lately", written by Vidal Davis, Carvin Haggins, Andre Harris, Kenny Lattimore and Jill Scott, performed by Lattimore. • "Blood on the Leaves" contains a sample of "Strange Fruit", written by Lewis Allan, performed by Nina Simone • "Guilt Trip" contains interpolations of "Chief Rocka", written by Keith Elam, Kevin Hansford, Dupre Kelly, Christopher Martin, Alterick Wardrick and Marlon Williams, performed by Lords of the Underground; and a sample of "Blocka (Ackeejuice Rockers Remix)", written by Terrence Thornton and Tyree Pittman, performed by Pusha T featuring Travis Scott and Popcaan. • "Send It Up" contains a sample of "Memories", written by Anthony Moses Davis, Collin York and Lowell Dunbar, performed by Beenie Man. • "Bound 2" contains interpolations of "Aeroplane (Reprise)", written by Norman Whiteside, performed by Wee; samples of "Bound", written by Bobby Massey and Robert Dukes, performed by Ponderosa Twins Plus One; a sample of "Sweet Nothin's", written by Ronnie Self, performed by Brenda Lee. == Personnel ==

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Technical • Noah Goldstein – associate production, additional programming (3; SFX on 8), engineering (all), mixing (1, 6–8) • Hudson Mohawke – production consultancy, additional programming (4) • Arca – production consultancy, additional programming (4) • Young Chop – production consultancy • Ken Lewis – noises and vocal sounds creation and engineering (4), "oh" vocals creation (6), choir production (1) • Tammy Infusino – "oh" vocals creation (6) • Che Pope – additional programming (3) • Travis Scott – additional programming (3) • Anthony Kilhoffer – engineering (1–8, 10), mixing (4, 9) • Mike Dean – engineering (1–6, 8) • Andrew Dawson – engineering (1, 9) • Brent Kolatalo – engineering (6) • Marc Portheau – engineering assistance (all) • Khoï Huynh – engineering assistance (all) • Raoul Le Pennec – engineering assistance (all) • Nabil Essemlani – engineering assistance (all) • Keith Parry – engineering assistance (all) • Kenta Yonesaka – engineering assistance (1–5, 7, 8) • David Rowland – engineering assistance (1–5, 7, 8) • Sean Oakley – engineering assistance (1, 2, 4–8), mixing assistance (1, 4, 6–9) • Eric Lynn – engineering assistance (1, 2, 4–8), mixing assistance (1, 4, 6–9) • Dave "Squirrel" Covell – engineering assistance (1, 2, 4–8), mixing assistance (1, 4, 6–9) • Josh Smith – engineering assistance (1, 2, 4–8), mixing assistance (1, 4, 6–9) • Kevin Matela – engineering assistance (4) • Mat Arnold – engineering assistance (6, 8) • Dale – engineering assistance (6) • Damien Prost – engineering assistance (7) • Manny Marroquin – mixing (2, 3, 5, 10) • Delbert Bowers – mixing assistance (2, 3, 5, 10) • Chris Galland – mixing assistance (2, 3, 5, 10) • Kyle Ross – mixing assistance (4) • Uri Djemal – choir engineering (1) • Vlado Meller – mastering • Mark Santangelo – assistant mastering engineering • Chris Gehringer – mastering (2) Musicians • Mike Dean – additional instrumentation (guitar solo on 5; bass, guitar on 10) • Chris "Hitchcock" Chorney – additional instrumentation (cellos on 8) • Dylan Wissing – drums (1) • Matt Teitelman – percussion (1) • Alvin Fields – choir direction (1) • Carmen Roman – choir (1) • K. Nita – choir (1) • John Morgan – choir (1) • Jessenia Pena – choir (1) • Ronnie Artis – choir (1) • Crystal Brun – choir (1) • Sean Drew – choir (1) • Natalis Ruby Rubero – choir (1) • Lorraine Berry – choir (1) • Gloria Ryann – choir (1) • Timeka Lee – choir (1) • Matthew Williams – music consultancy • Benji B – Donda music consultancy Artwork • Kanye West – creative direction, art direction • Virgil Abloh – art direction • Matthew Williams – art direction • Justin Saunders – Donda art direction • Joe Perez – Donda graphic design • Jim Joe 13 – illustration and type treatment for Donda • Todd Russell – art production • Kristen Yiengst – art production • Alex Haldi – art production • Andrew Zaeh – art production • Meredith Truax – art production • Tai Linzie – art production • The DGS Team – art production ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==

Notes References ==External links==