Taking a cue from his good friends, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and the noble elk, Kanye West has reportedly absconded to the mountains of Wyoming to work on his next album. TMZ reports that West is currently holed up in an undisclosed “retreat” somewhere atop one of the state’s many rocky peaks, hoping to write and record while escaping all the petty, invasive distractions of celebrity gossip media. Well, too fucking bad! TMZ knows you’re on top of a mountain, and now we do too.
West has placed himself into this sort of creative exile before, having escaped to the dull, diversion-free Hawaii to work on both 808s & Heartbreak and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. But of course, this latest seclusion requires the caveat that “this has nothing to do with problems at home or problems with his head”—this made in light of his recent hospitalization, his absence from this year’s Met Gala and even his own Yeezy fashion show, as well as the deletion of his social media accounts. But really, he’s fine. TMZ’s sources maintain that this is “all about creating music,” with Kanye drawing his inspiration from the beautiful, pastoral splendor of Wyoming (long regarded as America’s Bleached Asshole).