Kanye Hosts Star Studded Listening Party in NYC (PICS) (@kanyewest)

Industry hot shots, artists, and fans alike packed into Milk Studios for Kanye’s “Yeezus” listening party. The audience was anxious to hear the album, which had only been previewed in live performances before the party. 

Jay-Z, Beyonce, Q-Tip, Timbaland, Joell Ortiz, Busta, and other high profile artists listened intently as Kanye told them, “I figured out on this album I’m actually new wave, I’m not really soul. ” 

He closed the party with a speech, saying “If you ever see somebody standing next to me, know that they’re better than me at something. We didn’t give a f**k about what nobody said from the outside looking in. We just wanted to make the best product possible and this is just the beginning of an entire new mentality about how to make music.” 

Kanye also revealed why he chose Rick Rubin to produce the album, “Everything we did on this project, everything I did, like when we released ‘Numbers on the Board,” from the video, to the no artwork, to the style of the song and everything, I was like ‘what would Rick Rubin do?'”

He continued, “What was his Def Jam sh*t that they would do because I remember Rick even saying, he said ‘when we did Def Jam we really wasn’t feeling like we was in competition with nobody body because our sh*t was so direct… ‘where we at right now?’ We in the middle of the city right now, open to the muthaf**kin’ streets and nobody is shuttin’ down sh*t while we make real music” 

Check out more photos from the event in the above slide: 

Source: hiphopwired.com