Kanye West sessions have been known to be pretty eccentric environments, but with a high level of secrecy in place, we still don't know too many details of what goes on behind the scenes. In a new Okayplayer and Mass Appeal-produced segment for TBS, Diplo has shared a story which gives fans a look at the Watch The Throne sessions, where Kanye and Jay-Z rented out the entire Mercer Hotel out in New York, according to the producer, "because that's what you do when you're Kanye West." Other reports suggest it was a single floor, but you get the idea.
In the rotoscoped clip, Diplo remembers getting a text from Kanye to come down to the Mercer. "This is like a big deal. This is cool, because you're like what's happening now, am I right?" He explains seeing three rooms: Kanye, Jeff Bhasker (a producer who worked extensively on 808s, WTT, and MBDTF), and "the guy from fun. (Nate Ruess), I don't know what he was doing there" (The hook from fun.'s "We Are Young" almost made it on to WTT).
"I want you to do some cool beats but not the clown sounds," he said. "Come to this room, I got this other guy from Africa here... I want you to make this song awesome." Once he sat down to co-produce a song, Kanye announced two other guests who were on their way: "I'm bringing Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen over because they're like my thermometer for what white girls listen to I guess."
Later on, Kanye walked in with Kim Kardashian, who at the time was still married to Kris Humphries. But despite the exciting atmosphere, Diplo was not happy with his work. The next day, he came back to do some more production and found T-Pain at the hotel. Pain kicked everyone out of the room so he could do his special auto-tune settings privately without fear of them being stolen.
Overall, Diplo deemed his contributions a failure, and he didn't make the final cut of the album, but he did witness something pretty special before he left. "Kanye came back, he opens the door... and he says, 'Guys, I'm gonna marry Kim Kardashian, I'm gonna be president one day, I'm gonna be a fashion designer.'" Two out of three have come true so far, just sayin'.
Watch the full clip above.
