NEWS: What Are Kanye West & Rick Rubin Up To?

What Are Kanye West & Rick Rubin Up To?

A text message posted to Instagram by Chicago rapper Towkio raises a few questions.

There are a few people in the industry who just can't seem to stop working -- Kanye West and Rick Rubin are two of them. West and Rubin's names came up, surprisingly, through an iMessage screencap posted by Chicago musician and close friend of Chance The Rapper, Towkio.

The text exchange is between Towkio and Rubin, and it delivers many more questions than answers.

This happened today..😳

A photo posted by WWW. (@towkio) on Jan 29, 2017 at 4:26pm PST

"I played swim for Kanye yesterday. He Loved it," writes Rubin, who seems to be talking about an unreleased track from Towkio. According to the text, he also played the song for former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij, who's produced for Frank Ocean, Solange, Carly Rae Jepsen and more. It's not clear if the three were all in the same room for the listening.

So it seems that Towkio and Rick Rubin are likely working together in some form or another -- what's less clear is what Rubin was doing with Kanye and Rostam. Was he just bouncing some ideas off the musicians? Are they all collaborating on something new? Is he working with both of them individually? Are they going to contribute to this Towkio record? Word to Sway, we don't have the answers, but we are intrigued by the whole situation.

Rubin famously collaborated with Kanye on the final stages of his 2013 album Yeezus, which was a down-to-the-wire affair.

Listen to Towkio's 2015 project .Wav Theory, featuring contributions from Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, and Nico Segal (FKA Donnie Trumpet). 

STREAM: Lil Herb - PPP (Pistol P Project)

Lil Herb -  PPP (Pistol P Project)

Lil Herb drops a surprise mixtape called "PPP (Pistol P Project)".

While staying fairly low-key, Lil Herb managed to make a considerable impact on the rap game this year. Showing up on Nicki Minaj's "Chi-Raq", the young drill rapper managed to inform the flows of dozens of rappers who later took on the beat themselves, with his jabby lyrical style being adopted throughout the year following that appearance.

On top of that, Herb released one of the strongest mixtapes of the year with the very personal Welcome To Fazoland. While the Chicago rapper could of ended the year feeling great about his career, he couldn't resist releasing one last project. PPP features production from Atlanta experimentalists Childish Major and 808 Mafia, as well as an appearance from buzzing Chi rapper Katie Got Bandz.

VIDEOS: Welcome to Noisey Chiraq - Ep 1

Welcome to Noisey Chiraq - Ep 1
In the first part of Noisey's 8-part documentary Chiraq, we head to Englewood, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city of Chicago, to meet Chief Keef, the most famous rapper in the drill scene. 

Unfortunately at the time, Chief was facing legal trouble, so we instead found Young Chop, a producer credited with shaping drill music, and he gives us an overview of the scene. Later, fellow 3Hunna members Lil Durk and Lil Reese expand on Chop's thoughts, and we learn extensively about the violence surrounding the area, and the social and cultural challenges the city faces.