book ye

The Forever Dog Podcast Network creates innovative comedy, culture, and entertainment podcasts by next level performers.

The Book of Ye

THE BOOK OF YE

Hosted by rob haze & chris daniels.

Comedians Rob Haze and Chris Daniels enter the Kanye-verse to explore the cultural significance and artistic legacy of Kanye West. Every episode, joined by a special guest, the duo dives into a different chapter of the ever-expanding legend of the mad genius Yeezy.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

‘The Book of Ye’ podcast explores all-things Kanye

Just when you thought you were an expert..

Alicia Eler

Posted on Aug 21, 2016   Updated on May 26, 2021, 5:27 am CDT

To many, Kanye West is a mystery. To others, he’s a genius. 

Is his infamous Twitter presence performance art, or nonsense more in line with his “ BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!! ” line? You’re along for a bumpy ride either way.

West and his wife Kim Kardashian West are media personalities as good at drawing attention to themselves as Donald Trump . Does this make West an entertainer, musician, provocateur, or just someone who isn’t afraid to speak his mind? Either way, West is forever transforming—and those who choose to follow him become transfixed with this prolific, creative soul.

Comedians Rob Haze and Chris Daniels, who started producing the all-West, all-the-time podcast, The Book of Ye , are two such people. Begun in March but legitimately 12 years in the making, The Book of Ye is dedicated to thinking through and about all-things Yeezy. The result is an hour-long episode posted every few weeks about whatever news West is generating; discussions about his album or a specific song; and guests ranging from Dante Holley, the man who won a free pair of Yeezys after guessing the title of West’s album The Life of Pablo based only on the acronym “TLOP”; to “Crying Jordan Meme” king Lawrence DeLoach; and Alexis Nedd, a senior editor at Hearst. Every podcast begins with Yeezy saying: “I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation.” 

It’s true, and West knows that you gotta listen to the kids, bro .

Chris Daniels |

The Book of Ye

In Episode 13, “Monster,” an homage to a song from 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , Daniels and Haze bring on Nedd to talk about West’s recent  “Famous” video and its ongoing  Kim K./Taylor Swift  feud. The music video features an array of nude, famous people lying together in a bed: Bill Cosby, Caitlyn Jenner, Amber Rose, Kardashian, Swift, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Donald Trump, Anna Wintour, and George Bush. It’s a neon, attention-grabbing project—but with so many iconoclasts jostling for headlines, the hosts felt the need to unpack its art.

“Everyone has a different take because no one in our society feels like they have enough time to really just watch the entire video,” says Haze on this episode of the podcast. His observation is suggestive of the ways that people react quickly to something like a Snapchat, rather than taking the time to think through the bigger picture of the video’s message.

“The content of the video hasn’t even become… part of the conversation,” notes Nedd.

Thoughtful conversations about West songs that continue to be relevant, like “All of the Lights” from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , get a discussion in the eighth episode. In episode 1, “Through the Wire Pt. 1,” guest Shalewa Sharpe offers fan theories about The Life of Pablo . 

As the co-hosts of the show, Haze and Daniels are clearly fascinated with West, but they don’t come across as fanboys. In fact, their love for West feels more like that of a creative individual whom they respect and admire. Antics be damned.

Daniels, who grew up in Detroit, first discovered West in middle school.

“I was always kind of like a weirdo kid and I didn’t really know who I was at the time,” Daniels tells the Daily Dot. “There was a time when you had to have all-white Air Force 1s , tall tees, and a Dope Boy jacket. Or you could still wear a big jersey to school. I remember trying that and it wasn’t me at all.”

The party-centric hip-hop that dominated the early 2000s wasn’t for him, either. He was the only kid in his circle into street poet types like Mos Def.

Similarly Haze, who grew up in southwest Atlanta, first discovered West in 10th grade.

“It was Christmas Day of 2003 and LeBron James and the Cavs played the Magic, and then the Lakers played the Kings, and my family turned on some music videos and it was the first time I saw the ‘Through the Wire’ video,” Haze says.

As the video’s infamous origin story goes, a few weeks prior West had gotten into a near-fatal car accident and fractured his jaw, but he still recorded the video for his album,  The College Dropout .

“Visually it was incredible, the song was great, and they even showed footage of him and his jaw wired. It was the craziest thing I’d ever seen,” says Haze. From there, he was hooked.

“There was nobody who was like this, who’s coming from the same voice —talking about guns and drugs but it’s also appealing and has substance,” he says. “I wanted to listen to the guys who made the thought-provoking rap, but I also wanted to listen to what the people in high school were into.”

West brought him back to the idea that he could like mainstream music. Of course, any West fan knows that the Chicago rapper’s brand of evolving, genre-nudging rap runs laps around pop radio. That includes West’s continual work in the art world.

“I think the art world embraces him as much as it can for someone that famous,” says Daniels. “[He works with artists like] Michel Gondry, Marco Brambrilla, Murakami, and KAWS.”

“Seems like there’s a mutual respect,” adds Haze. “I feel like the art world respects him maybe more than the music world. The most critical of Kanye are people like Quincy Jones, who’s critical because Kanye samples. But someone in the art world sees the beauty in being able to turn samples into something else because they use references, and this whole idea of ‘What is art? Are you really creating or just remixing things you’ve seen in your experience?’ If he was only a rapper, I don’t think he would have the same relationship with artists.”

The guys say that they’ll eventually ask West to be on the show, but that it “might end the podcast.” Until then, The Book of Ye ‘s ongoing search for knowledge endures.

The Book of Ye is available on iTunes , or wherever you download podcasts.

Alicia Eler is the author of 'The Selfie Generation: How Our Self-Images Are Changing Our Notions of Privacy, Sex, Consent, and Culture.' She is the visual art critic at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Her work has been published in the Guardian, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, New York Magazine, CNN, LA Weekly, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Sun-Times.

74 episodes

Comedians Rob Haze and Chris Daniels enter the Kanye-verse to explore the cultural significance and artistic legacy of Kanye West. Every episode, joined by a special guest, the duo dives into a different chapter of the ever-expanding legend of the mad genius Yeezy. Produced by the Forever Dog Podcast Network.

The Book of Ye with Rob Haze and Chris Daniels Forever Dog

• 4.4 • 85 Ratings
• SEP 10, 2020

Cannon’s Class Dropouts

Rob and Chris catch up on the Verzuz battles between Brandy and Monica and the unorthodox conversation between Nick Cannon and Kanye West. —— CONNECT with THE BOOK OF YE on Twitter (@BookOfYe)  for episode updates, conversations with the Book Of Ye community, and behind-the scenes photos/videos: twitter.com/bookofye PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND RATE US  on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. THE BOOK OF YE is a Forever Dog Podcast https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/the-book-of-ye/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• AUG 4, 2020

Interview with Iesha Daniels

Much was made of Kanye's impromptu presidential rally... Rob & Chris catch up with Iesha Daniels, who was at the rally, to discuss what it was like being there and what it was like to catch the ear & ire of Ye himself. —— CONNECT with THE BOOK OF YE on Twitter (@BookOfYe)  for episode updates, conversations with the Book Of Ye community, and behind-the scenes photos/videos: twitter.com/bookofye PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND RATE US  on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. THE BOOK OF YE is a Forever Dog Podcast https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/the-book-of-ye/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

KKKris Jenner

Rob and Chris try to figure out what's up with Kanye's tweets and run through more dream verzuz battles. —— CONNECT with THE BOOK OF YE on Twitter (@BookOfYe)  for episode updates, conversations with the Book Of Ye community, and behind-the scenes photos/videos: twitter.com/bookofye PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND RATE US  on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. THE BOOK OF YE is a Forever Dog Podcast https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/the-book-of-ye/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• JUL 13, 2020

WYD Kanye?!

Comedian Nick Chambers joins another impromptu pod to talk about Best Ye Ever and Kanye's political aspirations. —— CONNECT with THE BOOK OF YE on Twitter (@BookOfYe)  for episode updates, conversations with the Book Of Ye community, and behind-the scenes photos/videos: twitter.com/bookofye PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND RATE US  on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. THE BOOK OF YE is a Forever Dog Podcast https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/the-book-of-ye/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 1 hr 14 min
• JUN 12, 2020

“Turn The Mics On” (w/ Clark Jones)

Bruh they back back??? Clark Jones (Classic Black Dude podcast) stops by to talk Kanye’s presence during BLM protest in Chicago, The Last Dance, Verzuz, and more. —— CONNECT with THE BOOK OF YE on Twitter (@BookOfYe)  for episode updates, conversations with the Book Of Ye community, and behind-the scenes photos/videos: twitter.com/bookofye PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND RATE US  on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. THE BOOK OF YE is a Forever Dog Podcast https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/the-book-of-ye/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 1 hr 20 min
• DEC 20, 2018

Who’s Kanye? What’s a Podcast?

Everyones been waiting for what the Book of Ye boys have to say about the past couple months. Well, Rob and Chris are back behind the mics to talk about their favorite artist...for the last time? —— CONNECT with THE BOOK OF YE on Twitter (@BookOfYe)  for episode updates, conversations with the Book Of Ye community, and behind-the scenes photos/videos: twitter.com/bookofye PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND RATE US  on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. THE BOOK OF YE is a Forever Dog Podcast https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/the-book-of-ye/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• © Forever Dog Productions. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

Best ye pod.

this was the best kanye pod while it lasted. i respect their decision to end it, and their “goodbye” ep is one the best.

Dope podcast.

No question, this is the best podcast about Kanye ✊

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Kanye West Is God in New NFT Conceptual Art Project, 'The Books of Ye'

Fans will recognize the overall concept behind 'The Books of Ye' as having previously been traversed with 'The Book of Yeezus' project back in 2015.

Image via Publicist

With The Books of Ye , a new conceptual art NFT project, an anonymous collective comprised of artists and programmers is aiming to make a statement about “power in the age of hype.”

The project comes from the same minds behind the 2015 Book of Yeezus project, which—as fans will recall from its swath of news coverage at the time—replaced each mention of God in the Bible with a mention of the artist formerly known as Kanye West .

The Books of Ye stands as a sequel to that project, this time featuring five one-of-one books (with a launch window of Winter ‘21/22) corresponding to  one of five Books of Moses and 100 one-of-one cards featuring illustrations of select moments from the repurposed (i.e. “God” is now replaced with “Ye”) literature.

👀 Sneak peek here of the private viewing room experience, custom-built in WebGL, available to all BoY asset holders. Flip through the pages of your book, orbit around your card and read the conceptual foreword. Comes with an original bardcore score (previewed here). pic.twitter.com/jytI7toAMN — BoY OG Account (@booksofye) January 25, 2022

“If before you had to sell an artifact, like a song or a painting, to capitalize on your influence, the NFT makes hype directly fungible,” the group behind the project said. “It can turn anything into an equity, yourself included. Just as The Book of Yeezus was a sumptuous, over-the-top artifact that casted light on those very qualities, it occurred to us that The Books of Ye could extend this, being an NFT that would highlight the newfound power dynamics brought on by the age of hype.”

Asset owners, notably, will have access to what’s billed as a “boutique” viewing room that places immersion at the forefront of the experience. Also utilized as part of the larger Books of Ye project is the augmented reality platform Treasure Chest , marking a partnership the anonymous group says is the “first of its kind” in the NFT space.

Get a closer look at The Books of Ye below, including a sampling of the aforementioned illustrations.

Courtesy image

While the Genesis chapter of the project has already been detailed, remaining installments—i.e. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—are still to be publicly elaborated on in the coming months. Click here for additional info.

As for Ye himself, who isn’t involved with the project, fans are currently enraptured by the seeming-in-progress Donda 2 era. Earlier this week, a previously teased interview with Hollywood Unlocked was released in full, a breakdown of which can be found here .

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