Kanye West has made James Blake’s birthday by playing songs they made together in London.
The ‘Say What You Will’ singer confirmed a brand new song by the pair was played by the rap legend, not featuring a sample of his previous track ‘Always’ in a clip of Kanye premiering the song behind the decks in a venue in the British capital on James’ birthday (26.09.22).
He tweeted: “It’s my birthday and @kanyewest is playing tracks we made I’m good for presents thanks.”
Retweeting the clip of Kanye from the kanyewestau account to his own profile, James added: “Doesn’t sample ‘always’. It’s new.”
James also confirmed that he produced the song.
At the time of writing, James hasn’t said if and when the song will be released.
The ‘All of the Lights’ rapper was due to feature on James’ 2016 LP ‘The Colour In Anything’ on the track ‘Timeless’- but due to stuff going on in the Yeezy founder’s personal life and the album going in a different direction sonically, it didn’t make the final cut.
Speaking in 2015, James said: “Something was supposed to happen; I don’t really know how to describe how that didn’t work out.
“I wanted Kanye to be on the song ‘Timeless’, but the verse didn’t materialise.
“I think a huge swath of things happened in his life, and I just stayed out of it. Eventually, the mood of the album changed, and in the end I don’t think it would have fit.”
Meanwhile, James’ most recent project was the ambient album ‘Wind Down’ released in collaboration with the German software company Endel.
Released in March, it’s the first functional music album constructed using AI technology to be released by a label within the Universal Music Group.
James said: “The ‘Wind Down’ soundscape I created with Endel lets me explore the more ambient side of my music and create a project to support people in a new way.”
Prior to that, James released his fifth studio album ‘Friends That Break Your Heart’ in 2021.