With Kanye having 4 ground-breaking albums under his belt, He was seen as one of the most talented musicians in the music industry in 2009.
Kanye briefly experienced a moment of controversy 4 years prior when he said his infamous line during A Concert for Hurricane Relief.
After what he had said on live TV, he was still relatively well-received in the public eye. However during the 2009 VMA when Taylor Swift came to collect her trophy a very drunk Kanye West went on stage and interrupted her acceptance speech saying “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!”. This would be the moment in his life that would change everything.
Following the incident, Kanye became public enemy No.1 and would go on various TV shows to apologise publicly for his actions following the hate he got from the general public and fellow musicians, many would even go as far as to send him death threats and even being called a “jackass” by President Obama and P!nk Tweeting “Kanye west is the biggest piece of sh*t on earth. Quote me.”
Years later Kanye talked about how much hate and the immense depression he suffered from following the 2009 VMA.
Kanye would have to leave the country because of negativity and the paparazzi/media following his every move. Kanye found solace in Japan and Italy. While not working on any music, instead he would shift into fashion and work undercover with the brand Fendi.
But before long Kanye would come up with ideas as to what his next album would sound like following his previous album 808’s and Heartbreaks. Kanye would stick with the melodies but infuse them with hip-hop drums after he had a conversation with Chris Martin as he got back into the studio in early 2010.
As people were following his every move Kanye knew how to redeem himself, So he set out to make the biggest and best album he had ever made. Kanye would make this album secretly in Hawaii and would fly out numerous collaborators including Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Nikki Minaj, Pusha T and many more to work on this album with him. These artists would have to join Kanye in self-exile, in isolation from the outside world.
Kanye would have a famous list of rules for his collaborators and others who were in the studio. Rules include “No Tweeting”, “No Pictures”, “No Acoustic Guitars In The Studio”, “No Hipster Hats” and many more. As well as having rules Kanye also made a dress code, Everyone who was working on the album had to wear black suits, white shirts and black ties.
Chris Rock during a podcast said, “He set up a mood, that when you walked in there you felt this mood”. Kanye from the rules and dress code created this mood that clearly showed that he wanted all of the focus on the album with zero distractions and had nothing in the studio that would damage the sound of the album because his career depended on it.