Kanye West announces Cruel Winter, featuring a just-out-of-jail Gucci Mane

By William Hughes | June 3, 2016 | 6:59pm

Aux Features Music

Just when you thought The Kanye Machine—the lurching, unstable, and fitfully brilliant contraption that recently (and forcefully) shoved an album, a fashion line, and roughly a million tweets, Twitter reactions, and music news stories out into the world—might finally be winding down for a while, it looks like someone has once again turned the key. Which is to say, Kanye West has announced a new collaborative album, Cruel Winter, the sequel to his 2012 compilation Cruel Summer.

Like its predecessor, Cruel Winter will feature a number of artists from West’s G.O.O.D. Music label, most notably Gucci Mane, who was just released from jail last week. Mane—and Travis Scott, Big Sean, Quavo, 2 Chainz, Juicy J, and West himself—all appear on “Champions,“ the first single from the album, which West debuted today on Big Boy’s 92.3 radio show. Radio rips of the song have already made their way online, allowing fans and critics to see whether West’s ability to lead a menagerie of artists has improved since the lackluster critical response that greeted Summer back in 2012.