the convergence of kanye west, james blake & justin vernon

Words by Samantha Potter

2016 has seen the release of James Blake’s 76 minute-long album The Colour In Anything, Kanye West’s 7th album The Life of Pablo, and just recently extended versions of the two opening tracks from Bon Iver’s forthcoming album, 22, A Million, set to be released at the end of September. Listen to these altogether and you start to notice certain similarities – sampling, auto-tuning, looping – a recognition of the interlinked nature of these artists in their album-making processes.

 Justin Vernon, frontman of Bon Iver, contributed to the production of James Blake’s latest album and features on the track I Need a Forest Fire. Blake had also been collaborating with Kanye West in response to Kanye’s invitation to work with him in his Hawaii studios, though the collaboration seemingly fell through and Kanye does not appear on the album. Justin Vernon and Kanye West have been collaborating since West’s 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, with Vernon’s vocals as well as a sample from Bon Iver track Woods featuring in Lost In The World.

The artists’ corresponding influence on each other is more apparent now than ever with Bon Iver’s release of two new singles, “22 (OVER S∞∞N)” and “10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄”, demonstrating a significant divergence from the band’s previous albums, not least by the eccentric track names. The two tracks retain Vernon’s distinctive falsetto, yet differ from the familiarity of Bon Iver’s acoustic, hushed folk music with the addition of Kanye West and James Blake-esque electronic distortions.

But the increasing resemblance of the artists’ sounds come not from attempts to emanate one another’s music, but through mutual admiration of each other’s talent and the genuine desire to cooperate. Kanye West has made no secret of his appreciation for both Justin Vernon and James Blake, stating in an interview with Zane Lowe that Justin Vernon is his “favourite living artist” and that he loves Justin “the way Kanye loves Kanye” – probably the greatest compliment to come from Kanye and his notoriously inflated ego. A true demonstration of this appreciation came with the guest appearance of Justin Vernon at Kanye West’s headline set at Glastonbury in 2015, introduced as “one of the baddest white boys on the planet” and falsifying rumours that West would be joined by the likes of Eminem or Rihanna.

Slightly conflictingly in another interview, West said of Blake “Hey, that’s Kanye’s favourite artist”. At the receiving end of the compliment, Blake stated in an interview with The Rolling Stone: “I’ve been inspired by a lot of the music he’s made. I was certainly inspired by Yeezus. It made me rethink what I’m doing”. However, the relationship failed to materialise with their collaboration for Blake’s latest album, as Kanye had been set to appear in the track Timeless though Blake later explained that “the verse didn’t materialize…I think a huge swath of things happened in his life, and I just stayed out of it”.

The latest meeting point for Kanye West and Justin Vernon - minus James Blake, but with (for me, previously unheard of) Francis & The Lights – comes in the form of their single, Friends, which has just been released. Its music video has been viewed over 1.5 million times less than a week after its release – it involves nothing but Francis, Justin, Kanye, a white screen background and simple choreography. The single is literally about friends, and the friendships in its video are real: when asked about the influence, the director stated: “[Kanye] and Justin are friends, and me and Francis are friends, and Justin and Francis are friends. It just felt right”.

These friendships are stemmed from a passion and appreciation for good music, and they are proving to be nothing but productive relationships. James Blake, Justin Vernon and Kanye West are creatively at the peak of their career, and their corresponding influences on each other are a significant part of that. The original genres of these artists differ entirely, and the convergence of these artists is producing music that is unique: something that not only displays talent, but these artists’ ability to innovate.