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.
"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).