Kanye West’s new album is now called Waves


Days after Kanye West announced that work was completed on long-awaited new record Swish and posted the tracklist for what he believes will be “the best album of all time,” something major about its release has changed: Swish is no more, and now we’re all waiting on Waves.

West later tweeted an updated and embellished version of the tracklist for The Album Formerly Known As Swish, adding a new track and suggesting possible involvement from A$AP Rocky, The-Dream, and Swizz Beatz:

If you’re keeping count, that’s the third official title for West’s seventh album, though we can’t say we weren’t warned even after So Help Me God gave way to Swish.

West’s fifth album was also expected to be called Good Ass Job before that was ditched for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

So then. Waves, or whatever it ends up being titled for real, will be out on February 11th and see a live premiere at Madison Square Garden also screened in theaters.

Update, 9.45PM: Added second tweet with new tracklist photo.

Microsoft’s News Pro app is an iOS competitor to Apple News and Flipboard


Microsoft’s experimental app outfit, the Microsoft Garage, released another iOS app today called News Pro. The reader is similar to Apple’s own offering, Apple News, and mobile mainstay Flipboard. You can login with a Facebook or LinkedIn account, where you’ll pick topics of interest like finance, tech, and design to get a selection of algorithmically chosen articles in a more mobile-friendly reading format. News Pro has a highlights section for getting a list of top stories and an explore tab for checking out new topics organized by industries, organizations, skills, and products. That type of granularity may be useful to some users, especially those interested in certain subtopics like coding languages.

By linking with either your Facebook or LinkedIn account, Microsoft’s is trying to glean what topics interest you most from a social and work perspective. It succeeds in some respects, and fails in others. It accurately subscribed me to The Verge, video games, nanotechnology, and graphic design, among other topics. But it also thinks I like farming, dairy, and food production, which I’m sure was gleaned from some strange misunderstanding of my Facebook activity and liked pages. News Pro also put me down as a sports fan, despite my appetite for sports-related news being almost non-existent.

Microsoft’s ambitions for News Pro are unclear

Microsoft’s ambitions for News Pro are unclear. Garage apps, which are made by a hodgepodge of company employees, are often one-off projects put out in the wild and forgotten. They rarely if ever move from one platform to another, and Microsoft has already confirmed Android and Windows 10 Mobile users won’t be getting News Pro. Still, if you’re an iPhone user looking for a no-frills reader to stay informed and Apple News and Flipboard just don’t cut it, Microsoft’s product may be worth your time. One big benefit of News Pro is that its web app works on any device, so it could be a good desktop destination for when you’re bored at the office.

More than half of iPhone users haven’t upgraded to a 6 or 6S yet


To Apple enthusiasts, it’s hard to imagine that someone might go more than a year or two without upgrading to the latest and greatest iPhone.

With new plans from AT&T, Verizon, and Apple itself that make it easy (if perhaps not cost-effective) to trade in your iPhone for a new model every year, many gadget lovers are well-equipped to always have the newest iPhone. But many, many people — a majority of iPhone owners, in fact — do not upgrade every year, or even every 15 months, according to data released by Apple CEO Tim Cook on this quarter’s conference call.

In fact, only 40 percent of iPhone users who — deep breath for caveat — owned an iPhone the day before the iPhone 6 was released in September 2014, have upgraded to one of the new, larger screened phones: either the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, or 6s Plus. That means 3 in 5 iPhone owners in September 2014 have yet to upgrade to new phones.

And it’s been a very slow climb. A year ago, after the first quarter of iPhone 6 availability, barely 15 percent of iPhone owners had upgraded, and that’s in a quarter where Apple sold nearly 75 million iPhones. See this chart:

So, if you read an article that says Apple’s sales have flatlined (Apple sold roughly 75 million iPhones in both the December 2014 and 2015 quarters), just remember: there are millions of people still using the iPhone 4 or 5 who might be upgrading to Cupertino’s newest phone in the next year or two. And that’s a lot of phones.

Wiz Khalifa Isn’t Into Kanye West Calling His Album <i>WAVES</i>


This evening, Kanye West announced that he’s changing the title of his album Swish to WAVES. Wiz Khalifa wasn’t a fan of the switch, as he felt the title encroaches on the wavy territory set by imprisoned rapper Max B.

Kanye gave Max B a Twitter nod, but Wiz ~manually retweeted~it, the Twitter fingers equivalent of a nuclear strike.

Freeing the wave is something we can all agree on. Watch our FADER doc At Home With Max B below.

Rashad Stark Cooks Up A Potion With Fat Trel and Yuppie Lifestyle In "Wanna Ball 2"


Rapper/producer, Rashad Stark craves for success in his thrilling new video, “Wanna Ball 2.” As Stark goes on about his desire to ball, a mysterious figure mixes up potions in a kitchen illuminated by red lights. The obscure visuals for the track offer a unique portrayal of the magic that Stark raps about trying to tap into. The clip also features rappers Yuppie Lifestyle and Fat Trel and was filmed on location in Stark and Trel’s hometown of Washington D.C.

Fat Trel said an in email to The FADER, “The beat was smooth and I was rocking with da vibe of the record. Didn’t really know the video’s direction but it turned out dope.”

Enjoy the rap fairy tale above.

Kendrick Lamar, FKA twigs, Justin Bieber, Fetty Wap And More Share Calvin Klein Ads


In case you’ve ever been stuck for ideas on what to do while you wear clothes, once again, the stars have come to your rescue. Kendrick Lamar, FKA twigs, Justin Bieber, Fetty Wap and Joey Bad@$$ have all shared Calvin Klein ads on Instagram for the clothing brand’s #mycalvins campaign, as spotted by Pitchfork. They all look very fashionable, yet comfortable and approachable.

This continues a bumper 2015 for the omnipresent, sext-positive brand.

Holocaust Denier Endorsed By B.o.B. Says He "Will Now Take A Greater Interest In American Rap"


This morning, B.o.B. released “Flatline,” a track that aimed to give further explanation to his theory that the world is flat. On the song, he takes aim at scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who on Monday publicly explained to the rapper that the world is round. On the songs second verse, B.o.B. also raps: Do your research on David Irving/ Stalin was way worse than Hitler/ That’s why the POTUS gotta wear a Kipper [kippah]/ I’m a man first ‘fore an artist/ Get a lawyer, look up Doctor Richard Sauder.

The lyrics seem to carry at least a bit of anti-semitism, especially in their endorsement of David Irving’s research. Irving is a famous European Holocaust denier. In 2011, a London judge described him as an “anti-Semitic and racist” person who “associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism.”

Reached over email from the Scottish highlands on Tuesday, Irving told The FADER that he had never heard of B.o.B. or the song until we contacted him. “I would like to say I have the greatest respect for American rap singers, but can’t quite get the words out,” he said.

According to Irving, his reading of the lyrics suggests that “[B.o.B.] does not quite go along with what the media (and shortly, Hollywood) says about me, quite right.” Irving said he agreed with B.o.B.’s estimation that Stalin was worse than Hitler. “I think that Stalin is credited with 35,000,000 nicks on his bedpost, Hitler only 6,000,0000,” he wrote.

And although Irving was unfamiliar with the terms “POTUS” and “kippur,” he said that he “will now take a greater interest in American rap.”

Representatives for B.o.B. did not immediately return a request for comment.

Kanye West Has Changed His Album Title To <i>WAVES</i>


Kanye West has changed the name of his upcoming album Swish to WAVES, according to a representative. This isn’t the first time Kanye changed the name of the project – its first title was So Help Me God, but that was axed to in favour of Swish. This is by no means the final title, after all, Kanye did make this threat when he first changed it:

Update: Kanye has shared a new track list for the album on Twitter. The revised WAVES now includes an extra track called “ULTRA LIGHT BEAM,” and has been divided into acts. There also a few interesting signatures, belonging to A$AP Rocky, The-Dream and Swizz Beats. Check that out below.

Check Out A Snippet Of New ScHoolboy Q Music


ScHoolboy Q has been quietly working on his follow-up to 2014’s Oxymoron, aside from strong guest appearances on tracks like Tinashe‘s “2 On” and Anderson Paak‘s “Malibu.” This afternoon, TDE CEO Anthony Tiffith posted a clip of a new ScHoolboy Q song and video that may be called “Groovy Tony.” It seems from the dark and stylish clip that Q has doubled down on playing the villain, to the point where he may even be a monster (has his mouth been digitally erased in the video’s opening seconds? Creepy).