Dec 12, 2016 Excerpt from a podcast: NEWS FONZWORTH BENTLEY REMEMBERS THE MOMENT KANYE WEST’S 'THE LIFE OF PABLO' BECAME A GOSPEL ALBUM "Waves" was a major influence on the final product. BY: LAUREN NOSTRO Kanye West’s Grammy-nominated 2016 album The Life Of Pablo, was allegedly in the works for over three years, according to Fonzworth Bentley. He recently appeared on the Rich Friend podcast while down at Art Basel and detailed the evolution of Kanye’s latest project. Around the 64-minute mark of the podcast, Fonz reveals that ‘Ye’s album was years in the making before he got involved. Fonz’s first contributions to the project came together around the song “Waves,” which would eventually redirect the focus—and title—of the album. “Who’s the second most hated n----- in America? Chris Brown! I need to do a record with him,’” Fonz recalls ‘Ye saying. The two went to work on “Waves"—Fonz played a big role in creating the song’s chorus. “The next day, I come in fresh for real, I got the freakin' scarf tied around my neck, I look like Fonzworth Bentley,” Fonz says. “So as I walk in the studio, the beat to ‘Waves’ is on and ‘Ye is sitting on one side of the studio, Chris is on the other side, so I walk in with my bop and 'Ye is like, 'Walk up in this b---- like…’” That studio entrance inspired the lyrics “Step up in this b---- like.” However, the whole idea behind the “Waves don’t die” line came from Fonz’s brother. “When waves crash and they hit that white surf that you see, my brother believes that angels are going to come out of there perpetually at the end of the Earth as we know it,” Fonz recalls telling ‘Ye. This marked a turning point for the entire album because it was the first time any spiritual iconography became involved in the making of SWISH. It’s the reason Kanye briefly changed the album title to WAVES before ending up with The Life Of Pablo. “Swish was an extremely lascivious project,” he says. “It was the working title for three years… It wasn’t the best way to communicate what it was that he wanted to communicate.” You can listen to the entire podcast above and read all the lyrics to “Waves”on Genius. http://genius.com/a/fonzworth-bentl...wests-the-life-of-pablo-became-a-gospel-album
