Earlier today Kanye West hopped onto a Def Jam conference call and Ustream to talk about his upcoming album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

In regards to the album, ‘Ye dropped the following bits of info.  The album is about a “year and a half in the making” and he collaborated with RZA, Pete Rock, No I.D., Q-Tip, Rick Ross, Nicki Manaj, Rihanna, Fergie, and Elton John, among many other surprise guests.  He also confirmed that a new version of “See Me Now” features Big Sean, along with original guests Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Charlie Wilson.

While he was taking calls from the press, Kanye held up the physical album casing.  It’s a red three-fold case with a very interesting design.  In addition to the CD, the album comes with 5 interchageable covers.  You can swap them in and out of the front to give the case different looks.  We have already seen four of the five covers by artist George Condo; they include the two “Power” single artwork, the “Runaway” single artwork, and of course the “banned” album cover, still pixelated.

When asked about how the final tracks will differ from the leaked versions, Kanye responded, “I don’t want to give away exactly what I did differently, you know you just gotta hear it and feel the surprises.”  And then came the best quote of the call from Cyhi Da Prynce (who stood by on the call with Big Sean and Pusha T): Referring to the leaks he said, “What ya’ll got is uncooked meat.”

‘Ye also discussed the inspiration behind his short film Runaway: “the colors…fantasty/future mashup…express some of the feelings that I’ve had as a creative dealing with a culture that beats down on creativity and anything that’s different.”

He said that the “uphill challenge” of the past year pushed him to make better products (ie. G.O.O.D. Fridays, the new album).  Speaking of new product, he spilled that his collab album with Jay-Z is due out “early next year.”  Cheers to that!

Watch the entire Ustream conference call after the break.