Are you ready to ride the Waves? Corny I know, but how else could one depict the excitement of Kanye’s latest album that is set to be released on February 11th of 2016. Kanye’s latest album has been long anticipated, but before there was Waves Kanye had changed the album’s name twice. The first name to be released to the public was So Help Me God, he later changed it to SWISH, and lastly to WAVES, which would later blow up on Twitter.

Waves, once known as SWISH, will be released on February 11 and the album will be eleven tracks of pure gold. Kanye has released two singles from his upcoming album. The tracks Kanye released were Real Friends, and No More Parties in LA. Kanye’s singles for his upcoming album has only hyped up the fan base due to the fact that the sound and vibes spewing from the tracks are a throwback to his previous albums. Real Friends was a hit instantaneously, because the track included a snippet of the second single Kanye would later release known as No More Parties in LA. Real Friends is a track that would remind anyone of Kanye’s precious older albums such as 808’s and Heartbreak or Late Registration, and the track included a Ty Dolla $ign feature. No More Parties in LA was the second single from the upcoming album which included a Kendrick Lamar, grammy winning artist, feature. Not only did No More Parties in LA hold a feature from an incredible artist such as Kendrick, but it was also produced by Madlib, an insanely talented producer. Kanye seems to be able to get the most amazing artist into the studio with him, this can be proven by simply looking at the released tracklist which includes over 10 signatures of artist that were in the studio working on the album. The tracklist was released on Kanye’s Twitter and at first was ten sloppily written tracks on a pretty boring looking piece of notebook paper, but included Kylie Jenner’s signature. I still don’t understand why the Kardashians would be included in what will be one of the greatest albums of all time, but let us just pretend they have nothing to do with this. The piece of notebook paper has evolved, now the paper includes signatures from artist who are the ipitamuty of good music. Andre 300, Kid Cudi, Earl Sweatshirt, Travis Scott, Sia Furler, Chance the Rapper, Plain Pat, A$AP Rocky, and many more incredibly talented artist are expected to be apart of the upcoming album.

Waves, formally known as SWISH, has already caused an impact on the hip-hop/rap scene. Yasiin Bey, also known as MosDef has recreated Kanye’s single No More Parties in LA, and titled it No More Parties in SA. Yasiin’s remake on Kanye’s single was in order to bring attention to his situation that is him being held in South Africa with his family due to immigration/legal issues. Yasiin left Kanye a voicemail stating his situation in a remake of his single No More Parties in LA. Erykah Badu also recreated one of Kanye’s singles Real Friends. Erykah renamed her version to Trill Friends and the beautiful talented artist is singing over the beat used by Kanye. The last remake worth noting would be Freddie Gibb’s remake on No More Parties in LA, titled Cocaine Parties in LA. Freddie puts his own twist to the Kanye single and the excitement from other artist waiting for the album seems to be very present.

Previously mentioned Waves was once known as SWISH, until that is Kanye decided to change the name. Kanye changed the name of the album once before with little to no Twitter drama. Although this time it was different only because of the name itself. Waves has long been associated with the one and only MAX B, a rapper known for popularizing the slang term ‘Wavy”. Max B released over 5 albums and mixtapes including wave in the titles or some form of the word. Max B is still alive and serving his sentence on charges of murder conspiracy and robbery. Wiz Khalifa, another known rapper, made sure Kanye knew of his disapproval for the name change. Wiz believed Kanye was being disrespectful when taking the name from Max B and posted on Twitter, “Just so you know what true waves are.” and included a link to a Max B song. This tweet later led to a full on Twitter fiasco between not only Kanye and Wiz but Amber Cole, Wiz and Kanye’s ex was also included. Names were called, children were claimed, and Kanye’s sexual preferences were made public. The debate on who won the Twitter feud is still ongoing, but in my opinion Kanye’s music can defend itself. Waves, once known as SWISH, will be one of this years best album releases and although there has only been two singles that could make anyone come to that conclusion Kanye has a track record of creating albums that are timeless to prove it.