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Early Christmas from Kanye? The rapper drops two new songs on SoundCloud

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Monday just got more exciting for Kanye West fans. Unannounced, Kanye released two tracks through his SoundCloud page: a remix of 2008’s Say What You Will featuring experimental music composer Caroline Shaw, and a brand new song called When I See It. The latter expands on The Weeknd’s 2015 cut Tell Your Friends, which West produced. It’s unclear if these tracks foreshadow more new music from West soon, but any new music from the 21st century hip hop mastermind is worth noting regardless.

The remix of his 808s & Heartbreak album track, this version of Say What You Will is shorter — and more experimental — than the original. West originally met his collaborator Shaw at one of her performances earlier this year. Interestingly, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner just performed live with Kanye a few days ago in San Francisco.

When I See It features an even more heavily-autotuned, singing West (for better or for worse) than the previous track. At under two minutes, it’s also much shorter than the song by The Weeknd from which it originated. GQ notes that Tell All Your Friends was originally scheduled to be on the rapper’s upcoming album, so maybe this version is a scrapped Kanye West single?

West’s music career hasn’t been the rappers only priority lately, though. Last month, he revealed the second season of his Yeezus clothing line. “There’s something about the way clothes fit and feel and the emotion that they give you,” said the rapper to Vanity Fair recently on why he got into fashion. “… the details of [clothes] that I’ve been passionate about and addicted to since I was five years old.”

Going back to music, it’s unclear if there’s any relationship between the two tracks and the rapper’s upcoming fourth record Swish, but it seems doubtful. In the same Vanity Fair interview, he briefly mentioned that he wasn’t sure about the release date. “I’m not worried about the years,” said West. “I’m worried about the life and the body of work that I can put out while I’m breathing.”

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Chris Leo Palermino
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…
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