Complex recently caught up with Jay-Z’s go-to studio engineer Young Guru to talk about the Brooklyn legend’s future projects. Although Guru kept tight-lipped about Hova’s twelfth solo LP, he did mention that the project will follow a tightly focused concept that will surely please his fans.
“Jay-Z is always working on stuff, it’s a concept that I can’t talk about but I’m marveled at how smart this guy is,” he noted. “When he told me the concept, I was like ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ It was just so simple. It’s not a concept album though. It’s not like American Gangster, it’s not a Beatles concept album. It has a concept and a title, and the title and the concept fit him so well that people are going to be like ‘Wow.’”
He added, “The simplicity of the title and the concept that it conveys is incredible…I can’t tell you the title, it’s so good it’s like, ‘Oh my god why didn’t I think of that? What made you think of that and why haven’t we done that before?’ It’s just staring us in the face all these years, we could’ve been put that out as an album concept.”
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Guru also spoke on the possibility of a sequel to Jay and Kanye West’s widely successful collaborative album Watch the Throne. Although there has been no confirmation as to whether the Roc Nation and G.O.O.D. Music impresarios would link up for a second album, he said it’s definitely in consideration. For the time being, however, he said that Jay and ‘Ye are focused on their respective solo and G.O.O.D. Music compilation LPs.
“It’s definitely a serious consideration. Hasn’t been underway yet but definitely serious consideration. Has been talked about but hasn’t been executed yet. Definitely could happen,” he explained. “A lot of artists just say shit too but if you think about it, this is just my opinion, the way I would like it to go – I would like Kanye to do the G.O.O.D. Music album and Jay-Z to do a solo album then they go out and tour and do all that shit and then next year, or the end of the year, we get Watch the Throne 2. To me, that would be the best thing to happen. I think the G.O.O.D. Music album is necessary for Kanye to establish that brand because they need to establish [themselves].”
