SWISH List: 10 Things We Want to Hear on Kanye West's Next Album

We don't know when 'SWISH' will come out, but this is what would make Kanye West's new album worth the wait.

Kanye West dropped Yeezus, his sixth studio album, in 2013, and since then we've seen him commit more and more time to his interests outside of music. He's a father now, and has a fashion line that he cares deeply about, and there's also that damn election campaign in 2020 to start preparing for.

When "Only One" and "FourFiveSeconds" were released at the beginning of the year, followed by "Wolves" (confirmed to be the album's first track) and "All Day" in March, it seemed as if the album—then called So Help Me God—was just around the corner, but then the new music stopped, Kanye changed the title to SWISH, and we were left to wait.

We don't know when SWISH will come out, but we do know what would make it all worth the wait. Kanye, if you're reading, this is our swish list.

1.

2. A Frank Ocean feature

Frank Ocean's features on Watch The Throne ("No Church in the Wild," "Made In America") are among the album's best, and he followed it up with some "additional vocals" on "New Slaves." So we already know the two artists work well together—and if it ain't broke...

Plus, it would be good to have some sort of indication that Frank is alive, breathing, and still in possession of functioning vocal chords. Not tryna rush you, though, Frank. Take your time. Take as much time as you need.

3.

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4. More collaborations with rising artists

On Yeezus, Kanye West worked with an eclectic array of artists, including many from outside the rap world, and a number of real up-and-comers. Working with Kanye helped launch Evian Christ's career into overdrive (as it had previously done for Hudson Mohawke), while contributions from Brodinski, Gesaffelstein, Arca, and Assassin gave the album a raw, boundary-pushing edge.

We hope this spirit of cross-genre collaboration continues on SWISH, and we get a bunch more "Holy shit!" moments when we check the credits. So far, the signs are positive: Allan Kingdom featured on "All Day," Cashmere Cat and Sinjin Hawke produced "Wolves," which also featured vocals from Sia, and Post Malone was on the track debuted at the Yeezy Season 2 fashion show.

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6. Social commentary

It's appeared in varying degrees on all of Kanye's albums, but the moments of intense social commentary on Yeezus ("New Slaves," "Black Skinhead") stood head and shoulders above the rest of the music.

His ability to weave society's ills into his personal experiences is unparalleled (see: "Murder to Excellence"), and he has plenty of material to draw on these days. From the increased visibility of police brutality to a seemingly endless spate of school shootings, it's really only a matter of what, not if, Kanye chooses to denounce in song.

Then again, 'Ye's more pressing interests these days seem to be fashion and fatherhood. So we'll see.

7.

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8. More songs about North West

The life of Kanye West has undergone a great many changes since Yeezus was released in June of 2013. But all the awards and speeches pale in comparison to Kanye's acclimation to family life.

He's gotten married to the biggest reality star OF ALL TIME, and is the proud father of North West. The change has inspired a few new songs from Kanye, and they're very close to the polar opposite of the Yeezus buzzsaw cuts.

Songs like "Only One" represent this new stage in the artist's life, and while the adoring, tender songs will hit you right in the feels, we wouldn't mind seeing the other half of fatherhood, too. The late nights and diaper changing, for instance. Or the anxiety of finding the right pre-school. Or a song from North's perspective, about how tough it is to be a baby in the spotlight (see meme below for details).

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12. Grime influence

Kanye didn't just bring a bunch of grime artists on to the stage with him when he did "All Day" at the BRITs, a few days later he performed at London venue KOKO with Skepta, JME, Novelist, Meridian Dan and others from the grime scene. With "All Day" leading into "That's Not Me" and JME's "96 Fuckries" followed by "Cold," this show made it clear that grime's raw, relentless energy has much in common with Kanye's most punishing songs.

With Drake's grime love affair in full swing (shout out the BBK tattoo) Kanye needs to come through with a Skepta feature, or even better a posse cut with a bunch of all-star grime MCs.


14. More soul samples

We're fully aware that Kanye West's College Dropout days are behind him. Those early albums contain some truly great samples, but Kanye is far past repeating himself, and we'd be fools to ask him to do so.

That said, some of the beats Kanye has produced for other artists prove he still has the golden touch when it comes to combining soul music into rap. "Bound 2" felt like a half-hearted effort to prove he can still chop up vinyl with the best of them—SWISH, hopefully, will remove any doubt.

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16. Kanye over forward-thinking production

Just like 808s & Heartbreak before it, Yeezus pushed Kanye entirely out of his comfort zone, albeit with a little help from some new friends. Kanye's more divisive side incites a lot of excitement and speculation from fans, and it'll be somewhat of a disappointment if SWISH is merely a rehash of old sounds.

While it's awesome hearing new production from 'Ye himself, there's nothing like two artists working together seamlessly to create something neither of them would have on their own. Kanye has proved time and time again that he can help guide a producer into the big time.

Hearing Kanye over production from the likes of Yung Gud, Mssingno, Romil, or Blank Body would be immensely exciting not only for those involved, but for the listeners too. Some of the best moments on Yeezus came when Kanye took some big risks production-wise, and we can only hope to see that paying off again on SWISH.

Related: Surprise Features We'd Love to Hear on Kanye West's New Album

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18. That James Blake collab we keep hearing about

19. Skits

20. Better material than we've heard in 2015

Let's keep it 💯: while Kanye has surely made some interesting music in 2015, it's not like he's owned the music conversation in the way he has in the past. He kicked off 2015 with a song with Paul McCartney, and less than month later they linked with Rihanna for the pop hit "FourFiveSeconds." It was interesting, but not necessarily what fans were looking for from 'Ye's SWISH.

The one track people really dug, "Wolves," got a live SNL 40 performance, then disappeared into the ether, and "All Day" was great, but we need more. Yeezy Season seemed to be in full effect in the spring, but then we got another lull that featured some Big Sean, A$AP Rocky, and Wale collabs.

"U Mad" was kind of lit, but again, that's a Vic Mensa track, and none of this is confirming what we'll be getting from Kanye, exactly. With talk of James Blake and Chance the Rapper collaborating with 'Ye, maybe this year was more "Kanye Kollabs" than him properly focusing on SWISH?

Look, we could sit and dissect everything Yeezus did in 2015, but the fact of the matter is that if this is a build to SWISH, it's a little underwhelming. The hope is that Kanye finally filling his SoundCloud with (new to us) tracks leads to something epic might be a stretch, but 2015 hasn't been the best in terms of fire material from Kanye West.

But we haven't given up hope, and neither should you. Kanye's surprised us too many times over the years to make the mistake of thinking he won't drop a classic.

21.

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