Kanye West's "Yeezus"

In 2013, Kanye West released Yeezus, his sixth studio album. It sounded like nothing the rapper had ever produced. Fans recoiled at the album’s experimental sound. Critics began to wonder if Ye, who seemed to be at the height of his career, might finally be losing his touch. But, then, something strange happened. Over time, the world Kanye constructed on Yeezus — full of guttural and chaotic emotion, combined with so much noise — started to feel and sound like the world around us. Kanye’s collaborators on the album, from indie electronic musicians like Arca and Hudson Mohawke to icons like Daft Punk and Rick Rubin, helped him construct a blueprint for where popular music was heading.

In this episode of our Amazon Original podcast Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums, collaborators on Yeezus (including producer Hudson Mohawke), and New York Times critic and Kanye expert Jon Caramanica join RS Senior Editor Jeff Ihaza to tell the story of how Kanye West took a sledgehammer to the norms of rap and pop culture to create one of the most fiercely innovative and prescient records of all time.

Listen to Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums on Amazon Music: amazon.com/RS500.

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