Kanye West Recruits Madlib for New Album

Kanye West has reportedly hired plenty of help for his untitled follow-up to 808s & Heartbreak. Everyone from Q-Tip to DJ Premier to Pete Rock to the RZA has been rumored to be working with the Chicago-native, and now another beatmaker has come out of the woodwork to reveal his involvement in ’Ye’s highly anticipated return to rap.

In a recent interview with LA Weekly, underground favorite Madlib shared that West has put aside five of his beats for his upcoming album. Without offering any more details on the collabo, ’Lib simply stated that the MC/producer is a fan of his work—which includes tracks for Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Ghostface Killah, J Dilla, De La Soul and Talib Kweli, among others.

’Ye performed the first single from the project, “Power,” last night at the BET Awards and over the weekend G.O.O.D. Music signee Big Sean tweeted that fans can expect new discs from Kanye, Kid Cudi and himself to drop on September 14. The tweet has since been removed from the XXL Freshman’s account and as of press time reps for both Def Jam and Universal Motown have yet to confirm the date.

[Update: Universal has confirmed that Cudi's Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of the Mr Rager is set for a September 14 release.]

Stay tuned to XXL as more info on Kanyeezy’s new album disc become available. —Elan Mancini