You know, so I think I flew out there New Year’s Day of 2010, you know, we stayed in Hawaii until June, really. But then January 1st of 2010, he had hardly - soon after December, he had gotten a place out there in Hawaii, and then he had a party, and they called me New Years Eve and they were like, “You want to come out now?” and I was like, “Let’s just wait ‘till the 1st.” ‘Cause they’re really gonna start on the 2nd. I mean, he had an idea, it had started a little bit prior in Los Angeles. They tried to show whoever was involved what was an acceptable contribution and what was not an acceptable contribution. Kind of where your head’s at musically, where his head was at musically. He had his, you know, like you saw, there’s pictures on the wall of the different parameters of things that were acceptable and not acceptable as part of the instrumentation. He was very precise and concise on everything.

I mean, Kanye had his vision from the beginning. Let’s just start with the beginning of this project can you take me back to what the first initial steps with this project were? What were those first initial conversations among Kanye, among you guys and the entire team, in putting this album together? Was there already a vision laid out for it, or was that something you guys had to work towards throughout the process? And at the time, you know, touring with Kanye, finishing the songs since he was doing some promo and we were doing, you know, just regular tour sh*t from the last album.

But I was there pretty much from January 1st, 2010 to the end. I can’t remember exactly, it’s been, like you said, 10 years. I mixed all the singles except “Power,” but, you know, I mixed “Runaway,” “All of The Lights,” a bunch of other ones. I did some additional production, but mostly I just recorded. I produced a couple songs that didn’t make the final record. Before we start, tell me about what your role was exactly on the project. No worries, I appreciate the kind words and, you know, I’m still trying to put more music out there for the world.Īnd you know what, we’re always waiting on it, man. I’m sure you’ve heard it so many times before, but the project does mean a lot to me and a lot of people my age, and your contributions to Kanye’s career over the years and the music you’ve created has left a long-lasting impact on me and my generation, so I’m really appreciative for taking the time to speak with me. Thank you so much for your time on a Sunday, just to chop it up with me about this album. It’s Aron from HotNewHipHop.ĭope, dope, I’m glad to hear that. For the 10-year anniversary of Kanye’s magnum opus, we chopped it up with Anthony Kilhoffer about the album’s legacy, the Hawaii sessions, and so much more.

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