AI developer Robert Nickson has recorded a track AI has produced replicating Kanye West's voice in order to diss the rapper. Nickson recorded a verse and had a trained AI model of Kanye replace his vocals. The results are quite impressive, or frightening, depending on how you take it.
Hardware company Kano made a name for themselves last year through a partnership with Kanye West who helped them design a Stem Player which contained his album 'Donda 2'. They have in the meantime severed ties with West, although its cofounder and CEO Alex Klein is gallant enough to admit that some days he feels “blessed” to have gotten West's eye on a player's new video cut or color combination. This year, Kano is launching a new product—a Stem Player with music by Ghostface Killah. The unique album by the former Wu-Tang Clan member will be released on custom white and black Ghostface Stems, and will run $240 and $360, respectively. “This is music for these people who care about me... It’s nothing for me to go in the studio and cook something up and just give it to [fans]. I don’t care about that. If you want it, you’re going to go get it” - Ghostface Killah says to Fast Company.
Adidas has ended its partnership with Kanye West after his recent “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” comments, Reuters reports. German sports company said it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” and therefore it would “terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products, and stop all payments to Ye and his companies”. His products will be pulled from sale with immediate effect. Adidas estimated a short-term cost of this termination at €250 million. Adidas Yeezy partnership is said to be a billion-dollar-plus pillar of West’s net worth.
"Among Kanye’s West’s defenders, the thinking goes like this: He is a genius, a freethinker, an elevated conscience" - The New York Times' opinion piece goes. However - "Kanye is just a Black man who discovered Black conservatism and thinks it’s enlightenment. There is nothing complex or mysterious about it. He’s a Black man parroting white supremacy, while far too many brush it off, continue dancing to his music, and wear his clothes. West is a Black man sampling vintage anti-Black racism, remixing and releasing it under a new label: the tortured Black genius".
Roxy Music's guitarist Phil Manzanera talked to The Telegraph about how much he makes from music: "Luckily, Roxy have continued to be popular, so it’s like having a pension. I don’t have any other pensions... I was also lucky to have my guitar riff from my 1978 second solo album 'K-Scope' sampled in 2011 by Jay-Z and Kanye West, who built a whole song around it. The track, 'No Church in the Wild' on the 'Watch the Throne' album, won a Grammy and was hugely successful and used in films and lots of ads. It was like winning the lottery out of the blue. I get more than they get for it: a six-figure sum over 10 years. And they continue to pay me multiples of six figures because they’re so successful and I partly own my share. It’s probably more than I ever earned in Roxy: we had all the gold albums but no gold!".
"Indie artists like Roc Marciano, R.A.P. Ferreira, and more have incorporated DSP-sidestepping, direct-to-consumer models for years. But now, some mainstream artists like Kanye West, who is selling 'Donda 2' on his $200 Stem Player, are divesting from DSPs, and the reaction to it has been a mixed bag" - Complex goes on to question the motives of artists pulling their music from the big three streaming platforms.
Kanye West claims that he had generated over $2 million in sales from his Stem Player device. He would be releasing his new album, 'Donda 2', exclusively via his Stem Player. A handheld circular device allows users to split the star’s music (or their own music) into stems, i.e. isolating drums, vocals, bass, samples etc. It also enables users to manipulate these stems / samples, and create loops from them – meaning that West's fans can use his recordings as the basis to create fresh tracks. Costing $200, it can be purchased through KanyeWest.com.
Pitchfork shares a lovely introductory text about part 1 of 'Jeen-Yuhs', a new, 3-part Kanye West documentary, 21 years in the making: "Much of what Donda West says in 'Act 1 (Vision)' feels like ancestral wisdom, words from a loving parent that serve to humble and uplift her child. One passage in particular stands out, and Coodie even repeats it in his own narration of the film: 'You can stay on the ground and be in the air at the same time', she says, a paradox that West made true until the day Donda died".
Ahead of the February 2nd premiere of the 25th season, 'South Park' creators have released an orchestral performance of the 'SP' original 'Gay Fish'. This iconic tune from Season 13, Episode 5 was sung by a character named Kanye West, who, after a full episode of not understanding a joke about fishsticks, had just discovered, to his great relief, that not only was he an aquatic vertebrate, but he was a homosexual one at that.
A reminder to Dan Runcie's earlier essay: "Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye West are on the top shelf of rap’s new-money class. They became world-famous millionaires through the music industry, but realized they would have to sell more than music to become billionaires. The 'Run This Town' trio used music as the gateway, then capitalized on their influence at the height of their fame. Jay-Z made bank from selling Ace of Spades champagne and investing in startups. Rihanna built her Fenty empire into multiple brands. And Ye has sold so many Yeezys he’s probably lost count. The bottom line? Star power gets you in the door, but to maximize your platform, you need to sell something authentic that customers want to keep buying".
