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So Help Me God is an unreleased album by Kanye West that was worked on from fall 2014 to spring 2015 before being scrapped.

Three singles were released from this project, including "All Day", "Only One", and "FourFiveSeconds". So Help Me God would continue to be worked on, and loosely evolving into SWISH before eventually becoming The Life Of Pablo, released in 2016.

So Help Me God Rough Draft Cover 1

So Help Me God cover specifically was teased by Joe Perez on Instagram multiple times, implying it was the main or one of the main SHMG covers.

So Help Me God Rough Draft Cover 6

Another So Help Me God cover. Similar to the All Day cover art. Possibly an earlier version of that concept.

So Help Me God Rough Draft Cover 2

Another So Help Me God cover in the style of the early All Day single covers, with a different piece of religious art covering the disk.

So Help Me God Rough Draft Cover 4

Another So Help Me God cover using religious art. Possibly used in an unseen vacuum sealed CD cover like the previous cover was.

History[]

After the release of Yeezus (2013), Kanye began working a sequel to the album, tentatively titled Yeezus II. However, by the fall of 2014, the album had evolved into a different project titled So Help Me God. A private listening party for the album was held in September of 2014 in Paris.[1] On December 31, Kanye released "Only One" as a single.[2] On January 24, 2015, Kanye, Rihanna, and Paul McCartney released a collaborative single titled "FourFiveSeconds", with a music video releasing on February 3.[3] On February 12, at the Yeezy Season 1 fashion show, Kanye previewed an early version of "Wolves", which was set to be the opening track for his new album.[4] On February 20, Kanye revealed that his new album was about "80 percent done".[5] On February 28, Kanye announced on Twitter that his new album would be titled So Help Me God. He also revealed that the cover featured a 13th century monastic symbol for the Virgin Mary.[6] On March 3, Kanye released his third (and final) single from this era, titled "All Day".[7] However, by May 2015, Kanye announced on Twitter that the album would be renamed to SWISH.[8] Only a handful of songs from this era were worked on and released on The Life of Pablo.

Songs[]

Completely unreleased[]

  • "Fall Out Of Heaven" - song that was originally made during the Thank God For Drugs era and was only worked on once in the SHMG era
  • "God Level" - Yeezus II song that was featured on the whiteboard track list[9]
  • "High Life" - rumored version from SHMG without Post Malone's vocals
  • "I Feel Like That" - throwaway song that was featured in the "All Day" music video
  • "Mass Appeal" - freestyle over Gang Starr's song, "Mass Appeal"[10]
  • "Prayer" - features vocals from Bon Iver, reference track from KIRBY[11]
  • "Southside Serenade" - cover of Leon Russell's 1972 song, "Manhattan Island Serenade"[12]
  • "The Mall" - SWISH-era song that is rumored to have been created in SHMG sessions
  • "Start Time" - SHMG throwaway that was given to 88-Keys in 2019 before being scrapped[13]
  • "Mitus Touch" - reference tracks by Kanye that were meant for Rihanna

Unreleased versions of songs[]

  • "All Day" - reference track with vocals from Kendrick Lamar that feature different lyrics; one version which features 2 Chainz
  • "SMUCKERS" - Tyler, The Creator song which featured Ye; Ye's original verse was so "insane and ridiculous" that it was "unreleaseable"[14]
  • "Tell Your Friends About It" - The Weeknd song that was originally a minute shorter and featured Ye's verse, but was removed; Ye would later release his verse on Soundcloud
  • "U Mad" - Vic Mensa song that originally featured a slightly different verse from Ye

Songs released on different project[]

Track lists[]

2014 track list[]

Seen on a whiteboard, presumably in late 2014.[9]

  1. "Nina Chop"
  2. "God Level"
  3. "Wolves"
  4. "The Mall"
  5. "Hold Me Close" (?)
  6. "All Day"
  7. "Only One"
  8. "Sens-"
  9. "Tell Your Friends"
  10. "3"

Glastonbury setlist[]

From Kanye's performance at Glastonbury in June 2015.[15]

  1. "I Feel Like That"
  2. "Can U Be"
  3. "Mitus Touch"
  4. "All Day"
  5. "FourFiveSeconds"
  6. "Only One"

"Wolves" was set to be played, but it wasn't.

Trivia[]

  • This album shares a name with 2 Chainz's sixth studio album "So Help Me God!" this album was executively Produced by Kanye West and features Kanye West on the song "Feel a Way".

References[]

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