Teyana Taylor will silence her critics when she releases her debut album VII on November 4. The project has been years in the making for the Harlem singer, who parted ways with Pharrell’s Star Trak/Interscope Records and signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music in 2012.
And no one could be more excited than Teyana herself. Rap-Up TV caught up with G.O.O.D. Music’s First Lady backstage at August Alsina’s “Testimony Live” tour in L.A. to discuss the long-awaited release.
“It’s kinda hard because people don’t really know the politics behind the industry,” said Teyana. “Everybody is being impatient and so am I. I’m like, ‘I need answers now.’ I finally got an album. I’m just as excited as everybody else and I just hope everybody likes it.”
She has enlisted production from Bangladesh, Harmony, Boi-1da, Hit-Boy, and The Order, with appearances from Pusha T, Yo Gotti, Fabolous, and her friend Chris Brown, who appears on “Do Not Disturb.”
“It’s one of those slow animated songs,” she said of the Breezy duet, which she has been performing on tour.
Unlike her past situation, Kanye West has given her the freedom to do what she wants. “He definitely gives you that creative control. He kinda lets you do you and then you take your project to him,” said Teyana. “You have it all laid out and then he puts the icing and the candles and blows ’em out and everything else.”
But she won’t hand in the album to Kanye until it’s perfect. “I’m a perfectionist just like him. He always says I’m a female version of him.”
In keeping with the title, VII will be packaged with seven visuals, which she plans to tease in the weeks ahead.