Well here’s one that nobody had on their 2022 bingo card: Kanye West and Beach House appear to be in the studio together. Or maybe we could have seen this coming? Does anything surprise us with Kanye anymore these days? On the heels of releasing 16 tracks from Donda 2 directly onto his stem player this week, Ye posted a series of photos on Instagram from a studio session with two people who are very clearly Beach House’s Alex Scally and Victoria Legrande.
Beach House, who just released their double album Once Twice Melody last week, had a tour stop at The Sylvee in Madison, WI last night, and tonight, they’re performing at The Palace Theatre in St. Paul, MN. So assuming the series of photos aren’t from an old shoot, then it’s a good bet that these were taken in or near Madison or St. Paul.
West was in Miami this past Tuesday for the Donda 2 listening party and could be back in Chicago at this point. It’s also plausible that Beach House made a two and a half hour drive to Chicago after the Madison show to link with West and then took an hour and a half flight to St. Paul before tonight’s show.
Donda 2 co-producer John Cunningham took to Twitter to confirm the validity of the photo:
Can confirm
— John Cunningham (@cunningham___) February 26, 2022
Regardless, even though you didn’t ask for it, we have proof that Kanye and Beach House linked in the studio. And for what it’s worth, this wouldn’t be the first time a prominent rapper has taken an interested in the dream-pop duo. The Weeknd famously sampled “Master Of None” for “The Party & The After Party” on his 2011 debut, House of Balloons, while Kendrick Lamar sampled “Silver Soul” on “Money Trees” off of his 2012 breakthrough, Good Kid m.A.A.d City.