Kanye West - Yandhi (2018)

'Yandhi' was to be Kanye West's ninth album, with an original release date of 29 September 2018, but the album was never released, eventually morphing into 'Jesus Is King', which came out in October 2019. Three tracks from 'Yandhi' appeared on 'Jesus Is King', and one later turned up on 'Donda', but the rest remain unreleased, and the album is probably the one that fans most want to hear after 'So Help Me God'. He enjoyed success with his "Wyoming albums", a streak of releases from 2018 where he served as producer, including 'Daytona' by Pusha T, 'Kids See Ghosts' with Kid Cudi as the title duo 'Kids See Ghosts', 'Nasir' by Nas, 'K.T.S.E.' by Teyana Taylor, and of course his own 'Ye' album. Later in 2018, he released the singles 'XTCY' and 'I Love It', the latter of which featured Lil Pump, and he also announced 'Watch The Throne 2' would come soon, as well as 'Good Ass Job' with Chance The Rapper. On 27 September 2018 he posted a tweet which announced 'Yandhi' would come out two days later on September 29, to coincide with him being a musical guest on 'Saturday Night Live', but it didn't appear as promised, and Kim Kardashian later tweeted that it would come out on 23 November instead. West eventually went to Uganda and worked on the album there, only to return in November and announce that the release was delayed indefinitely. In October 2019 he released 'Jesus Is King', which contained three tracks from 'Yandhi' ('Chakras', 'The Storm' and 'Law Of Attraction') that were reworked into the tracks 'Selah', 'Everything We Need', and 'Use This Gospel', and so it seemed that 'Yahndhi' would join the long list of West's unreleased albums. Although an official tracklist from West himself was never released, multiple potential listings have been spotted in the background of pictures, with one on a whiteboard at the Saturday Night Live studio which has been taken as one of the most accurate. In 2018 the album had seven tracks, but this changed every time a new picture emerged, with some listings having up to ten tracks. One of the songs did make an appearance, with 'We Got Love' showing up on the Teyana Taylor album, and a couple of them were released as singles, but there are rumours that up to 30 tracks were recorded. Luckily at least 20 of them have leaked online, and so we are able to reconstruct the album from these, and although it's possible that not all of them would have made the cut, as they make for a record that's over an hour long, having listened to them a few times now, there aren't really any that I want to leave off so that's how long it's going to be. The title 'Yandhi' is a portmanteau of Ye and Mahatma Gandhi, similar to Yeezus, and the album's artwork was officially released, being a continuation of the minimalistic sleeve design of the 'Yeezus' album, this time featuring a picture of a Sony Mini-disc, but I thought that was so boring that I've used (I think) a much better fan-made cover that I found online. As with the 'So Help Me God' album, it's given me a new appreciation for West's later work, and 'Yandhi' is swiftly becoming another favourite.      

 

Track listing

01 Chakras (ft. The-Dream, Ant Clemons)
02 Calm Interlude (ft. Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons)
03 XXX (The Storm) (ft. Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons, Kid Cudi, XXXTentacion)
04 New Body (ft. Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla $ign)
05 Hurricane (ft. Ant Clemons)
06 Alien Interlude
07 Alien (ft. Kid Cudi, Young Thug, Quavo, Ant Clemons)
08 Home (ft. Ant Clemons)
09 City In The Sky (ft. Desiigner, 070 Shake, Ty Dolla $ign, Kid Cudi, Jeremih, The-Dream)
10 No Problem (ft. Smokepurpp)
11 Spread Your Wings
12 Cash To Burn (ft. Kenny G, Ant Clemons)
13 We Got Love (ft. Teyana Taylor, Ms Lauryn Hill)
14 The Garden (ft. Teyana Taylor, Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons)
15 Don't Get 2 Excited
16 House Party (ft. Ant Clemons)
17 All Dreams Real
18 Last Name (ft. Ant Clemons)
19 Law Of Attraction (ft. Dua Lipa, Clipse, Kenny G, Ant Clemons)
20 End Of It