Teyana Taylor Clarifies Album Complaints
Teyana Taylor is keeping some positive energy.
After controversy surrounding K.T.S.E. (Keep That Same Energy), G.O.O.D. Music’s First Lady has clarified her comments about her album and its rollout. During interviews and on social media, Taylor has been vocal about the final version of the album and the amount of tracks that made the cut.
She earlier said that a “completed” version of the project would be released, but those plans were deferred. “A lot of clearance issues, shit takes time,” she tweeted. “At this point I will leave album the way it is & will just debut the extended records thru my visuals!”
Taking to Instagram on Saturday (July 14), she cleared the air. “For a better clarity of my ‘publicized emotions” toward my album…I LOVE MY ALBUM and never said that I didnt AND BELIEVE IN MY ALBUM with all of me,” she wrote.
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She continued, “My complaints never came from a place of anger but more so from a place of hurt that I felt that I owed the world more. After 5 years of patience I could have anticipated the culture would be hurt that all I had to offer them was 23 mins. I have a very loyal and active fan base that I’m extremely indebted to and that I am extremely dedicated to.”
She admitted that she wanted more than eight tracks on the album, but doesn’t hold any ill will towards the album’s producer, Kanye West. “Though a shortened version shocked me upon its released date i appreciate my brother Ye for helping me produce my most vulnerable, personal and soulful album to date,” she said. “I think that our collaboration on this album shows and proves to add to the culture we creatives promise to push forward! I never meant for my passion to be mistaken for ungratefulness however i’m always open to agreeing to disagree, that doesnt take away from the bond I share with not only Ye but all of my G.O.O.D Music family. Yall know ima keep shit a buck! #KTSE and last but not least I want to thank everyone for the love and support of #KTSE!”
During an interview with Hot 97, Teyana said wanted at least 10 tracks on the album, including “We Got Love,” which was unable to get cleared in time. “When Kanye first said he was doing the seven-song album and he wanted to do four more of those, I was like, ‘OK, so I’m getting a seven-song album,'” she told Hot 97. “He let me squeeze in an eighth one. It was hard even narrowing everything down. It would have been nine if ‘We Got Love’ was cleared.”
Teyana was not satisfied with the final versions of the tracks, and preferred the earlier recordings, something Pusha-T calls “demo-itus.”
“Demo-itus is when you record a record and you begin to love the record as it is and then somebody comes and changes something within the record and then you can’t hear it another way,” the G.O.O.D. Music president told Beats 1. “We all suffer from it. You know she hears it one way, it was recorded one way and then you know, ‘Ye may add a sound or three, or add a sample or things that may change the dynamic in her mind to not what it was, what she was married to. So I feel like T is super passionate man, but the good part about it is, T also knows what she wants.”
Despite the controversy, the album has been receiving positive reviews from fans and critics. Rolling Stone called it the “most fun of any of G.O.O.D. Music’s recent releases,” while Pitchfork awarded it 7.8/10. “She is deft at performing modernist soul with the genre’s forebears as her backdrop,” wrote the site.