Abstract Mindstate Return With New Album Produced Entirely by Kanye West
Long-dormant Chicago hip-hop duo Abstract Mindstate have announced their new album Dreams Still Inspire, produced entirely by Kanye West.
E.P Da Hellcat and Olskool Ice-Gre also shared the LP’s first single “A Wise Tale” ahead of their reunion album’s release on August 6th via West’s YZY SND.
Dreams Still Inspire marks the first album West produced in full and alone for another artist since Common’s 2005 LP Be. West himself features on the album’s “The Brenda Song,” with Jonquia, Tony Williams, Deon Cole, and Luke Sabbat also featuring on the LP.
West’s history with Abstract Mindstate dates back to the early 2000s when the then-budding producer authored the beats for the song “Pain” on the duo’s 2001 debut album We Paid Let Us In!; West produced two more tracks for the duo’s never-released second album Still Paying, after which E.P Da Hellcat and Olskool Ice-Gre parted ways, with the latter becoming West’s creative partner and A&R at G.O.O.D. Music.
In 2018, when West tweeted his dream YZY SND roster of artists, it included Abstract Mindstate. Soon after — and 13 years after the duo split — E.P Da Hellcat, now a board-certified behavior analyst, was summoned to West’s Calabasas, California, home to rejoin Olskool Ice-Gre and record at West’s multidisciplinary creative space the Energy Center.
In addition to the new album, Abstract Mindstate — both Chicago natives who met as students at Mississippi’s Jackson State University — will release a documentary titled We Paid Let Us In! that chronicles the duo’s long journey.
Dreams Still Inspire Tracklist
Salutations (Intro) ft. Jonquia
Rose
I Feel Good
A Wise Tale
YZY SND (Skit) ft. Luka Sabbat
Elevation
Move Yo Body ft. Tony Williams
Social Media
Lambo Truck Podcast (Skit) ft. Luka Sabbat
Expository Mode
My Reality
Sound Off the Alarm
Voice Mail (interlude) ft. Deon Cole
The Brenda Song ft. Kanye West
I Know You
