Slowly but surely, Kanye West has slowly reintroduced himself into the cultural zeitgeist. He spent years being edgy for reaction and engagement, hurling out Nazi propaganda, and some bad music to boot. Meanwhile, there were a ton of enablers cosigning his every move. It was maddening for anyone still desperately hoping for the old Kanye back. However, lately, he’s been trying to win back anyone he lost during his deranged episodes. Now, he’s revealed what it was all culminating towards: a brand new album.
Recently, comedian Deon Cole performed at the Hollywood Improv and shared a brief appearance from Kanye West at the show on Instagram. There, he quips about Ye’s generally quiet public demeanor, wondering if he was just being polite after a while. “You weren’t giving me no sympathy laughs, right?” Cole said to a grin and a chuckle from the rapper.
Then, as the two briefly stumbled through an awkward silence, the comedian inquired about what Kanye was working on next. Was he even actively working? Is he doing anything with fashion again? Ultimately, he gives the crowd the answer everyone wanted to hear. “New album,” he said to rapturous cheers and applause from the crowd.
Kanye West Says He’s Working on His Next Album
All of this comes on the heels of an apology tour he’s undergone lately. Not long ago, Kanye apologized to the larger Jewish community when speaking with Rabbi Yoshiayao Yosef Pinto. There, he admitted that his mental health was in shambles and accounted for his problematic behavior in the past.
“I feel really blessed to be able to sit here with you today and just take accountability,” Kanye West tells the Rabbi. “I was dealing with some various issues, dealing with bipolar also. So it would take the ideas I had and have me take them to the extreme where I would forget about the protection of the people around me and/or myself.”
Still, this rehabilitation of his image hasn’t quite resonated with everyone. Back in November, the country of Brazil essentially threatened to arrest Kanye West if he went through with his scheduled performance. The State Public Prosecutor’s Office in São Paulo announced that they would have officers ready to go if the hip-hop legend even thought about performing something so aggressively anti-Semitic. In the end, the country inevitably got its wishes as the rapper didn’t perform his song “Heil Hitler”.
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