Yeezus follow-up could arrive next year

Rapper says he's started work on a new album, while Seth Rogan and James Franco parody Bound 2 video with Bound 3

Kanye West has begun work on his next album, revealing that he hopes to release a follow-up to Yeezus "by next summer". Although the rapper said he is mainly focusing on a new clothing line, he is "constantly working" on fresh songs and may even put out a Cruel Winter compilation LP before the cold weather clears.


"I haven't named my next album but I have started on it," West told Philadelphia's Power 99 Radio. "I'd like to put out more product." While the rapper has only just begun touring Yeezus, which was released in June, the 36-year-old is a notorious workaholic: he has put out seven full-lengths in less than 10 years, as well as producing complete albums for acts like John Legend, Common and Pusha T.

In September 2012, West executive produced Cruel Summer, a compilation showcasing artists on his GOOD Music label. The rumoured sequel, Cruel Winter, hasn't yet appeared. The trouble, West admitted, is that the seasons keep going by: "We keep on missing the winter," he said. "That's the only problem."

But the main reason West hasn't completed a Cruel Winter, Spring or Autumn is that he's focused on a non-musical "product line", due September 2014. "This line gonna be Ralph Lauren meets Steve Jobs meets Walt Disney meets David Stern meets every visionary through our culture," he declared. "I'ma mix all of 'em, like how [2004 debut] The College Dropout was, a mix of Roc-A-Fella, Bad Boy, Tribe Called Quest." At a concert earlier this week, West bragged that he had just inked a clothing deal - rumoured to be with Adidas.

In other news, the rapper's recent video for Bound 2, featuring his fiancee Kim Kardashian, has been made into a spoof by actors James Franco and Seth Rogan, with the former perfoming the part of of West and the latter a topless Kardashian.