G.O.O.D. Music is littered with some exceptional talent, but none as well known and respected as the leader of the crew Kanye West. Recently, he dropped a promo clip for their Cruel Summer LP discussing the creative process in not only developing the music, but the overall concept of the album. 'Ye also got illustrative when talking about not only their creative process, but the creativity he hopes this album will spawn for its listeners.
Known as somewhat of a perfectionist, Kanye talked about how he gets almost angry when he hears dope music from other artists, "I like when I get mad at music because it's so good. It's like, oh shit, why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do that?" On this project he looked outside even the wealth of talent they have at G.O.O.D. Music, to help expand the album's sound, "we reached out to other camps to do something new in hip hop...minus all the politics."
First and foremost West wanted Cruel Summer to have an overall vision, and it started with the cover art. He wanted everything from the cover art, to the album images, to match the music being produced, "We spend just as much time working on the actual album packaging, the video concept, the song... Everything is equally as important." When creating the music, he would reference the album art to ensure it all tied together, "It got to a point where I had to have the artwork in front of me while I was working on the songs, and I would listen and say, 'Does this song sound like this packaging looks?"
Kanye's passion for innovation and perfection shone through, as he wants his creativity to inspire others, "we makin music to create to...", getting almost poetic, West adds, "it's our offering as a collective as a sonic snapshot of what is happening right now in 2012...this Cruel Summer."
Cruel Summer is available now, and projected to move around 170k-190k units in its debut week. Expect this album to only be the beginning, as there are some exciting solo projects in the works for G.O.O.D. Music as well.
