In a new interview with Esquire , James Blake disclosed that Kanye West and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon will be featured on his forthcoming LP, Radio Silence.
“I can confirm that they’re on it. Kanye — I’m with him today. We’d already started on something … today we should nail something down. If it doesn’t end up on the album you know it hasn’t worked,” said Blake.
Interestingly, Vernon’s a common connection — he has worked separately with both Kanye and Blake in the past, having collaborated with Blake on “Fall Creek Boys Choir” in 2011, and having been sampled on Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (which he followed by contributing three tracks on Yeezus).
At Glastonbury, Kanye said on the radio that Blake is “his favorite artist.” After the rapper invited Blake to team up in the studio last year (it was Kanye, it seems, who made the first move), Blake spoke with Rolling Stone about the momentous opportunity, saying:
I spend so much fucking time talking about Kanye West and Chance [the Rapper] and Drake. People ask me so much about it, but really up until this point, I haven’t had any time to act on any impulse, so all I can say is we’ll see and watch this space but there’s things coming.
It seems “watch[ing that] space” will actually pay off on Radio Silence.