Meet the London tastemakers Kanye West has on speed dial

When the world’s most famous rapper is after a little inspiration, where does he turn? To London, of course. Gillian Orr introduces the capital’s creatives making Kanye cool 
(Picture: Getty)
Gillian Orr20 August 2015

Kanye West might be the music industry’s biggest ego - but he’s not averse to working with other people. At least, not if they come from London.

With a new album, Swish, in the works and further clothing lines inevitable, Yeezy is mining our fashion, film and music industries to cultivate a diverse circle of collaborators. From the designer who gives him style cred to the classical musician who pulls his strings, meet the Londoners Kanye has on speed dial...

The visionary

Es Devlin

ES Devlin

If you’ve ever been to see Kanye live, you’ll be familiar with Devlin’s work. The huge mountain that took centre stage in the Yeezus tour? Devlin. The giant video cubes projecting footage of sharks and Rottweilers that Kanye and Jay Z stood atop on their joint Watch the Throne tour? Devlin. One of the most in-demand set designers in the world, the 43-year-old, who took London’s Motley Theatre Design Course after studying at Central Saint Martins, was also responsible for the Olympic Closing Ceremony, Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz tour, Louis Vuitton’s S/S 2015 show and, most recently, Hamlet at the Barbican, aka the hottest ticket in town.

West and Devlin first spoke when the rapper rang her in a panic — there were 12 days until his 2005 Touch the Sky tour and he was unhappy with his set design. Devlin mocked up a stage featuring extreme weather conditions and the pair have been collaborating ever since. ‘There’s a singularity to [Kanye’s] vision,’ Devlin has said. ‘Although his music is the most electronically modified thing you can imagine... what he responds to visually and emotionally is pure nature. He would sing out on a glacier if he could.’

The super-producer

Hudson Mohawke

Hudson Mohawke

Glasgow-born, Dalston-based DJ and songwriter Hudson Mohawke (real name Ross Birchard) started working with the rapper back in 2012 when he was plucked from relative obscurity to be the in-house producer for West’s GOOD Music label.

With co-production credits on Yeezus’ ‘I Am a God’ and ‘Blood on the Leaves’, Birchard most recently worked on the track ‘All Day’ from Swish, which was released in March. Kanye had been working on the song in studios everywhere from Hawaii to Paris to Mexico, but he decided to finish mixing it earlier this year at the Health Farm, Birchard’s modest East London studio. It was from here that Yeezy debuted the original album title, So Help Me God on Twitter, causing an internet meltdown in the process (he announced the name change to Swish in May).

But HudMo, as he’s known to his fans, doesn’t merely answer to Kanye; he is a successful artist in his own right. As well as releasing hip-hop-inspired dance music with Montreal producer Lunice — the duo call themselves TNGHT — the 29-year-old’s second solo album Lantern, a masterclass in ambitious electronic dance music, came out in June to rave reviews. He’s clearly a busy guy: a recently tweeted screenshot of his mobile revealed he had some 22,977 unread emails, while his latest monthly phone bill was £4,741.13. Maybe Kanye can help him out.

The indie kid

James Blake

James Blake

James Blake might be a softly spoken lad from Enfield but the world’s gobbiest megastar has handed out some heavy praise for the electronic music whizzkid: ‘Just go listen to his music and say, “Hey, that’s Kanye’s favourite artist,” ’ West told a radio station a couple of years back. It became a very public love-in. Blake, 26, said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine: ‘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.’ Now the pair have cemented their bromance by working on a track together for Blake’s upcoming album Radio Silence. When trying to explain why a collaboration between the drastically different artists could be a good idea, Blake turned to Oscar Wilde: ‘Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.’

The protégé

Skepta

Skepta

When Kanye finally walked onstage at 1am for his surprise — and uproarious — gig at Camden’s Koko in March, flanked by half of London’s grime scene, it was Skepta, 32, who kicked off proceedings with his own track ‘That’s Not Me’.

The previous month Kanye had brought out the Tottenham-born artist, along with fellow grime stars such as JME, Novelist and Stormzy for his performance of ‘All Day’ at the Brit Awards. Shortly afterwards he revealed that he and Skepta had been in the studio working together.

Now Skepta’s fourth album Konnichiwa (release date tbc) is one of the most hotly anticipated of the year. Meanwhile, the US is beginning to sit up and take notice of the artist formerly known as Joseph Junior Adenuga. Appearing last week on New York radio station Hot 97, the host described Skepta’s rise as ‘the biggest moment that UK hip-hop has ever had... to really go international’. And it’s not just Kanye who wants an injection of the Skepta factor; at London’s Wireless festival, Drake brought him onstage to perform ‘Shutdown’. Watch this space.

The design maven

Katie Eary

Katie Eary

Eary and West have worked together since 2011 when West asked the Stepney Green-based designer to help him launch his fashion collection.

‘He said my stuff made him happy,’ Eary, 30, told the Evening Standard. ‘The freshness of the clothes and attention to detail appealed to him.’

Before starting her own label, Eary worked at Levi’s and attended the Royal College of Art. She’s not the only London fashion figure West is a fan of. He dropped Phoebe Philo’s name in his track ‘Dark Fantasy’ from 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and in a Radio 1 interview in February he broke down when discussing his friendship with the late Central Saint Martins fashion tutor Louise Wilson.

The movie man

Steve McQueen

 

Steve McQueen

Only Kanye could convince the Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen to make a music video. Last month, at LA’s County Museum of Art, West and McQueen unveiled the ‘conceptual art project’ for ‘All Day/I Feel Like That’. Filmed in a dockyard near London, the first half sees Kanye dancing while the second sees him collapsed on the floor. McQueen, who grew up in West London, asked Kanye to beat himself up before filming in order to look distressed.

When asked why he wanted to work with the 12 Years a Slave director, West said McQueen ‘elevated my palate’. It wasn’t the first time he’d hit up McQueen. At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, the rapper performed ‘Blood on the Leaves’ in front of a backdrop designed by him, and the director attended West’s wedding to Kim Kardashian. Meanwhile, McQueen wrote in Interview magazine that West ‘has perhaps done more than any other hip-hop artist to bring the bold experimentation and cathartic emotional energy of rock’n’roll to rap.’

The String Maestro

Rosie Danvers

 

Rosie Danvers

One of the most sought-after classical arrangers in the country, Danvers and her orchestra, Wired Strings, can be found on records by Adele, Noel Gallagher and Frank Ocean, among others. So it’s not surprising that when Kanye requires the rousing sound of strings, the North Londoner is his go-to woman.

Working together since 2005, they first collaborated on West’s live shows but Danvers has since overseen arrangements on a number of tracks from 2007’s Graduation and 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, including, most memorably, the classical interlude that opens ‘All of the Lights’ and the signature French horn that runs through it.

A graduate of London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, Danvers’ website mentions that she has been working on a track for Kanye at RAK Studios in St John’s Wood, suggesting that she and her orchestra may well make another appearance on Swish.

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