Tomorrow (9/18) the highly anticipated G.O.O.D. Music album Cruel Summer drops. Earlier this week the album became available to preorder, and if you eyed the official tracklist you surely noticed a featured artist’s name you might not have seen before. On the eighth track “Sin City” G.O.O.D. Music signees John Legend and Cyhi the Prynce headline with Malik Yusef.

A five-time Grammy award winner, forty one year old Yusef is a longtime collaborator of Kanye West’s, having co-wrote a whopping seven songs from West’s impressive 2010 release My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. He also dipped his creative hand in helping produce West’s Runaway short film, and he went on to co-write two tracks off West and Jay-Z’s collab album Watch The Throne (2011). With a youth literacy foundation under his belt and an eye for high fashion, Yusef is a philanthropic member of West’s G.O.O.D. Music team, and his sense of style, word choice, and ear for a solid beat make him a vital member of the formidable team ‘Ye built in the rap community.

Jump after the break to read experience-it-all‘s exclusive interview with Malik Yusef. In it the spoken word artist discusses what it is like working with Kanye West in the studio, what G.O.O.D. Music stands for, he’s asked about the Chicago rap scene, and hypes a new, up-and-coming artist by the name of Tyran Brown. Continue reading Exclusive interview with G.O.O.D. Music’s Malik Yusef →