The most cruel thing about summer 2012 was not Kanye West's forthcoming compilation, Cruel Summer, but waiting for it. Fans and critics alike have been stalled in anticipation since 'Ye announced the G.O.O.D. Music project last fall, but still, no album.
Kanye said that the record would be out this past spring, but as it turns out, spring and almost all of summer will pass before it hits shelves. It is now slated for September 18. Of course, this isn't the first time West has pushed back the release date of a project. Not even close.
Looking back, these creative delays have happened with just about every Kanye West album. Complex took a trip down not-so-happy memory lane and recalled all of the times that Yeezy kept us fiending for his crack music. It's never fun, but at least we know that the wait is always worth it.
Written by Brad Wete (@BradWete)
The most cruel thing about summer 2012 was not Kanye West's forthcoming compilation, Cruel Summer, but waiting for it. Fans and critics alike have been stalled in anticipation since 'Ye announced the G.O.O.D. Music project last fall, but still, no album.
Kanye said that the record would be out this past spring, but as it turns out, spring and almost all of summer will pass before it hits shelves. It is now slated for September 18. Of course, this isn't the first time West has pushed back the release date of a project. Not even close.
Looking back, these creative delays have happened with just about every Kanye West album. Complex took a trip down not-so-happy memory lane and recalled all of the times that Yeezy kept us fiending for his crack music. It's never fun, but at least we know that the wait is always worth it.
Written by Brad Wete (@BradWete)
The College Dropout
Release Date: February 10, 2004
Kanye’s debut was supposed to hit shelves on January 27, 2004. However, in the December prior, several tracks from the album leaked. Instead on freaking out, Kanye pushed the release date back, added verses, and redid instrumentation. The drums on “The New Workout Plan” were completely re-worked, for example.
"Kanye was like, 'Okay, I'm just going to make the album better. I'ma put strings on some shit, have choirs come in. I'ma switch up verses. I'ma make the drums sound stronger,'” album collaborator GLC told MTV. "He went in and refined his whole album. At that point, a person usually panics. Kanye just redid shit."
"He remixed and remastered the album several times," former manager John Monopoly said in the same article. "He's so meticulous. His ears work like he's on some daredevil super shit. He remixed his album like two or three times. He's really into his craft. He would [pay] out of his pocket for certain things, like orchestras."
Late Registration
Release Date: August 30, 2005
Kanye’s sophomore album had a few false starts. First, it was slated for July 12. Then August 16. No reasons were given for the delay, aside from the idea that Kanye simply was not finished yet. Throughout the summer, footage of Kanye crafting Registration with the likes on John Mayer or reciting lyrics from it on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam lit up the Internet. When the lengthy Jon Brion-assisted project arrived, 'Ye successfully avoided the sophomore slump, and scored the biggest hit of his career in the process ("Gold Digger").
Graduation
Release Date: September 11, 2007
This is one of the rare cases when people anticipating a Kanye album got it earlier than expected. In the spring on 2007, Kanye announced that his third album, Graduation, would come out in September. It was scheduled to hit stores on September 18, and then West pushed the release up one week to face-off in a sales battle against 50 Cent and his album Curtis. And yes, ‘Ye won.
808s & Heartbreak
Release Date: November 24, 2008
Inspired by a breakup with his ex-fiance Alexis Phifer and the untimely death of his mother Donda, Kanye West found solace in the studio and, in less than a month, cooked up the sullen Auto-Tuned album, 808s & Heartbreak. After debuting its lead single, "Love Lockdown," at the MTV VMAs in September, he planned on dropping the LP weeks later in October.
It was pushed back, and given a release date of December 17. Kanye previewed the album for press on October 14. Then, he took to his old blog, KanyeUniverseCity, and announced, "I changed my album to November something 'cause I finished the album and I felt like it. I want y'all to hear it as soon as possible."
It wound up hitting on November 24, the Monday before Thanksgiving.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Release Date: November 22, 2010
After releasing first single "Power" in May, Kanye made his first TV appearance since Swift-gate and performed it at the 2010 BET Awards in June. That summer, an often suited Kanye joined Twitter, visiting their headquarters and Facebook’s to recite rhymes from his then untitled album, slated for a September 14 release.
On July 29, he announced that its title would not follow the school theme of his previous efforts. “The album is no longer called 'Good Ass Job,'" Kanye tweeted. "I'm bouncing a couple of titles around now.” A few days later, the album was given an October 12 release date, but it wasn’t until October 5 that he revealed the set’s title.
MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY
— Kanye West (@kanyewest) October 5, 2010
The next release date announced was November 22, and it stuck. It was the second time he'd drop an album on the Monday before Thanksgiving.
Watch The Throne
Release Date: August 8, 2011
It began with a seemingly offhand Kanye West tweet. “Me and Jay ‘bout to drop a 5 song album called ‘Watch the Throne,’" he wrote in August of 2010, before even finishing his then forthcoming fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
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In an October 2011 interview with MTV, promoting Fantasy’s accompanying short film, Runaway, West confidently said cranking out Throne out would be light work. “We’ll probably be done with the album in, like, a day or whatever,” he said after informing host Sway that it would be a full album. He was wrong. It wasn’t until January 2011 that the two offered up “H.A.M,” the album's first single. It was met with heavy criticism, so the duo went back to the drawing board.
Though it was never confirmed, an Independence Day release date was highly rumored. On July 7, Jay-Z invited a select few journalists to hear the unfinished album at downtown NYC’s Mercer Hotel, where they recorded the majority of the project.
Weeks later, Funkmaster Flex debuted their new lead single “Otis” on Hot 97. Throne was then supposed to be available for iTunes download on August 1, with a physical release on August. 5. That didn’t happen, either.
Fortunately, the last delay was only a week. Watch The Throne hit iTunes on August 8, then Best Buy on August 12.
Cruel Summer
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Similar to the roll out of his previous two albums, West used Twitter to get the ball rolling on G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer album. “GOODMUSIC.THE ALBUM.SPRING2012,” he tweeted to his millions of followers last October.
GOODMUSIC.THE ALBUM.SPRING2012
— Kanye West (@kanyewest) October 19, 2011
In April of this year, West released the then untitled project's first single, “Mercy.” On May 23, he debuted his Qatar-shot film Cruel Summer at Cannes, which doubled as an announcement of the album’s title.
Earlier this month, Kanye reportedly played some Cruel tracks in an NYC club, including one called “Perfect Bitch,” dedicated to his girlfriend Kim Kardashian. "I wrote the song Perfect Bitch about Kim," West wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted. On August 2, West tweeted out the artsy album cover.
The album, originally due August 7 and then pushed to September 4, is now apparently slated to drop on September 18. Contributing producer Hit-Boy confirmed that the album is done and that they’re just putting the final touches on it.
If this was another artist, we wouldn’t hold our breath. But this isn't Detox. No matter how many delays an album sees, Yeezy's track record shows that he always comes around, eventually. September 18 should be a go.