Kanye West Visited The ‘Graduation’ Cover Designer With Kid Cudi And Kicked Off New Album Speculation

Kanye West has spent the last few days traveling around Asia, spending a lot of time in Guangzhou, China where he checked out the facilities that make his signature Yeezy shoes. While he was in the neighborhood, Ye decided to hop on over to another country he’s very familiar with, Japan, where he paid a visit to Takashi Murakami, the same artist who designed the cover of his album Graduation, and put together the animated visuals to his “Good Morning” video.

In a picture that Murakami shared on his official Instagram page, it was revealed that West didn’t come alone, but brought his friend and frequent collaborator Kid Cudi with him. Even more interesting, as the fan organization Team Kanye Daily noted, a few people took to the comments section of the post and filled it with some enticing tags. “Coming Dec. 31 #EverybodyWins.” A title and release date for his new record perhaps?

Now, there could be a whole lot of hope and hokum in that comment, but Ye has been known to drop new projects on New Year’s Eve, like his “Only One” ballad a few years back. Despite the thin evidence, we do know he’s been back in the studio, working with both Pusha T on the top of a mountain in Wyoming, and in Calabasas with Migos. The Jay shots on 4:44 has still gone unanswered. Something has to come eventually, and what better time to take over the next year than by releasing something at the end of this one?

Either way, as we approach the 10th anniversary of the release of Graduation next month, it’s pretty cool to see Yeezy getting close with some of his former collaborators once again.