Kanye West Alters ‘Yeezus’ Album Artwork Again

Ever since word came down that Kanye West would be performing on SNL, the anticipation for his upcoming album, Yeezus, has been at an all time high. The public has still yet to hear an official stream of either of the songs West performed during the Saturday Night Live broadcast, except for the exclusive video projections of the track “New Slaves” which has been shown everywhere from New York to Switzerland.

In fact, West is on record stating that the album will not be available for pre-order, and has asked fans to, “Please Purchase June 18.” A similar method was taken on the release of West’s and Jay-Z’s collaborative 2011 album, Watch The Throne, where no advanced copies were released, nor did the album leak on the internet prior to its release date.

Upon receiving news regarding the June 18 release of Yeezus, we have seen many variations of what exactly the album artwork would consist of. Now, Kanye West has made another slight alteration to the already posted album artwork on his official website.

The new image contains a similar red duct tape on the outside of the CD casing, however it is much cleaner looking and doesn’t contain the album title written horizontally. Originally, the album artwork, which was posted on various websites and even the iTunes music store, included what appeared to be a melted gold face and graphic artwork underneath the CD itself. With the album title already being a play on words, perhaps the original artwork would have been pushing the boundaries too much, as it seems to resemble a distorted version of a Jesus piece.

On the second release, the artwork was dialed down from 11 to about 2. It contained the same duct tape with Yeezus written down its side, and a CD with a blank canvas. Def Jam Recordings even went as far as stating on an image, “Please Add Graffiti.” The new artwork was simplistic, but somehow it still worked.

Today, word came down that there has been another change to the album artwork. As of June 3, the word “Yeezus” have been removed and instead of duct tape, there just appears to be a red bar. Even though this minor change isn’t the end-all be-all, it’s safe to say the changes are due to manufacturing difficulties. To me, there was something about the red duct tape with “Yeezus” handwritten that gave the artwork its charm. It was almost as though Kanye West personally handed you the album straight from the studio. Without it, the presentation seems bland and somewhat confusing.

Whether or not Kanye West and Def Jam decide to change the artwork again before June 18 is still unknown. Until then, we’ll have to wait two more weeks until the album finally is released.

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3 Responses to “Kanye West Alters ‘Yeezus’ Album Artwork Again”

  1. Travis Wagner says:

    I really liked the second release. This last one, not so much.

  2. Jack Mumm says:

    That’s my opinion as well. The second one was simplistic, yet had a personal vibe to it. Even though the change is minor, the new one just comes off as looking kind of lazy.

  3. LeakMaster says:

    Full album leak, 13 songs, 320kbps rate. Over 12 000 downloads in last 24h! http://pastebin.com/jQEGDSZi