I love speculating and theorizing about music releases and am nearly positive we will see a Kanye release (a) within the next two or three weeks or (b), around Christmas/early January.

Firstly, Kanye releases an album approximately every two years. He released the College Dropout (Feb 2004), Late registration (Aug 2005), Graduation (Sep 2007), 808s and Heartbreak (Nov 2008) to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Nov 2010), Watch the Throne (Aug 2011), Yeezus (June 2013) and finally, the Life of Pablo in Feb 2016). It’s fair to say that Kanye has had enough time to produce an album. In addition, most of Kanye’s discography was released in the fall or winter, which would line up timing wise here. In addition, it is commonly known that holiday releases are common for artists.

In May, there were reports of Kanye isolated in Wyoming working on an album.

In addition, Takashi Murakami (famous Japanese artist who did the cover art for Graduation) posted a photo in August with Kanye and Kid Cudi together in his studio. This are notable for two reasons. Firstly, Cudi and Murakami are both previous collaborators, Cudi appearing very frequently on recent Kanye albums.

I think this album already has seeds of being similar My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, arguably one of the best hip hop albums of the 2010s or of the 21st century. The album was produced intensively in isolation in Hawaii in rooms with Kanye surrounded by his close collaborators, including Cudi. Wyoming could serve as a similar prompt for Kanye, a way to isolate him as he did.

In addition, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was produced directly after the 2009 VMA incident with Taylor Swift, a time in which Kanye was completely pushed out of the public light because of the major controversy, very similar to Kanye’s drop out of the public light recently because of his mental health breakdown last year and remarks about Jay Z, Trump, and others on the Saint Pablo Tour.

CyHi the Prince, also one of Kanye’s most frequent collaborators, most often as a writer but also on some features recently published a playlist on Spotify called “ypm” with some imported offline tracks off of an album called “Yeezus 2”. in addition, CyHi and Kanye teamed up for the first new Kanye verse in months on “Dat Side”, released on October 31st. This would suggest the two collaborators are working together as well.

Articles about Yeezus also suggest producer and former co-President of Columbia Records urged Kanye to make Yeezus more concise or to break it into two albums, suggesting there is more material.

It’s difficult to quantify, but more paparazzi photos of Kanye have surfaced recently, suggesting that he is more comfortable in the public light and regular to return to the public view.

Kanye also went on stage with Kid Cudi in Chicago earlier this week (Nov 4), his first time on stage since November . This further supports the Kanye/Cudi closeness theory and the idea that Kanye is ready to resume. There were also reports earlier last year about how Kanye was planning to resume the Saint Pablo tour in Early 2018, a date fast approaching. For reference, Kanye cancelled the rest of his tour dates last year on November 21st.

Kanye also did a public interview, calling 808s and Heartbreak and Yeezus better than MBDTF. This would suggest more of a move toward a Yeezus sound.

In addition, today reporters found that Kanye filed a trademark for something called “Yeezy Sound”, which, if it follows the model in the trademark, will be a streaming service. Kanye cut ties with Tidal in July and it is not unlikely that he is looking to get back at Jay Z after their feud and Jay Z’s remarks on 4:44.

Finally, arguably the most damning piece of evidence, is a Taylor Swift release planned for November 10th, 2017. This is extremely significant, because it is the 10 year anniversary of Donda West (Kanye’s mother’s) tragic death to plastic surgery that arguably brought about the Kanye we see in the media today. Ms. West meant a lot to Kanye, evidenced in his song “Hey Mama” and naming his creative company “Donda”.

Many Kanye fans are not fans of Swift because of how she handled the drama surrounding Kanye’s song “Famous” last year. For those not in the loop, Kanye’s “Famous” off of The Life of Pablo has lyrics referencing Swift. Many considered the lines offensive) but Kanye claimed that Taylor said it was OK and knew it was in good fun. Taylor denied this but Kanye had recordings of it, posting them and proving Taylor a liar.

This beef seems to be unresolved, choosing the 10 year anniversary of Donda West’s death to release an album, especially considering the 52 potential weeks to release your album in the year. Even if this was a total coincidence, enough people have taken this that Swift’s PR departmentcould at least issue a statement saying “this is not intended to be on the anniversary of Donda’s death” or similar.

Kanye could easily release an album soon to throw off Taylor’s numbers, likely beating them and ruining her opening week.

I personally hate the idea of sequel albums — it feels derivative and like it detracts from the originality and differing sound of the last album. Even if Kanye were to release a “Yeezus 2” sonically, I’d hope he doesn’t call it that. However, Kanye is notorious for name changes (see The Life of Pablo [SWISH, Waves] and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [Good Ass Job]) so we are unlikely to get a “Yeezus 2”.

Overall, I’m predicting a Kanye release before January 31st with the strong production of MBDTF although potentially sonically closer to TLOP or Yeezus.

Fingers crossed because Kanye tends to be an extremely consistent artist and in my opinion has not put out a bad album yet. All we can do is hope.