As Kanye West is currently busy preparing his upcoming eleventh solo studio album Donda 2, he also decided to make one of his lesser acknowledged projects more accessible for his fans.
On Feb. 9, West put Late Orchestration – Live At Abbey Road Studios onto digital streaming platforms. The album, recorded live in 2005 in London, England at the studio where The Beatles recorded their famed album, contains a mixture of the best hits from Kanye’s first two studio albums.
Along with a 17-piece, all-female string orchestra, and in front of 300 invited guests, Kanye performed four songs from The College Dropout and nine from Late Registration. He also welcomed features from some of the songs to perform with him, including John Legend for “Heard Em Say” taking Adam Levine‘s place, GLC for “Drive Slow,” Consequence for “Gone” and Lupe Fiasco for “Touch the Sky.”
The 13-song live album utilizes creative cover art that sees his “College Dropout” bear mascot crossing the street much like The Beatles on the Abbey Road cover. When speaking about the unique project, Ye said, “Being able to spit true, heartfelt rap lyrics in front of an orchestra is juxtaposing what’s thought to be two totally different forms of music… it shows you that it’s all music. We tried to alter people’s perception of the music. I love pushing the envelope… I love to perform for those people who think they’ve seen everything before. But have you seen this? Can you get with this? That’s the toughest crowd [and] I love the challenge.”
As the album was originally made available on CDs and DVDs with footage of the performance, Late Orchestration arriving on DSPs is a fantastic moment for fans to reminisce on Ye’s earliest music, just around the anniversary of The College Dropout.
If you have not heard it yet before, check out ‘Late Orchestration – Live At Abbey Road’ Studios by Kanye West below!
