June Eighteen
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 2, 2013
Musically, how much stronger can this year get?
Just a bit ago, Kanye West revived his Twitter account to cryptically tweet out a date — June 18th — which instantly launched a barrage of speculation about a new album. And, well, it wouldn’t be the first time. But this time around, there seems to be significant merit.
As Pitchfork reported, hip-hop journalist Elliott Wilson tweeted that Def Jam’s Chris Atlas had confirmed June 18th as the release date for West’s follow-up to 2010’s immaculate My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Of course, that report may have been erroneous itself, as Wilson has since tweeted:
Clarity: Kanye West album release date has NOT been confirmed. Apologies to Chris Atlas.
— Elliott Wilson (@ElliottWilson) May 2, 2013
Attn: Kanye West album date NOT confirmed.
— Elliott Wilson (@ElliottWilson) May 2, 2013
So it would appear that, at least for the moment, we’re back to speculating, which at the very least can be a fun exercise. But in a year ripe with rumors about big name artists hitting the comeback trail (Daft Punk, Boards of Canada, Daft Punk), it would at least seem there are cosmic reasons to maintain that Kanye does indeed have a new record in the pipeline.