Era archive · 2010–2011 · Verified dates
72 titles · 220 entries
91 playable · 69 external · 60 unavailable
Part of the archive of Kanye's unreleased albums — songs and versions listed as documented in the Ye tracker.
Dates: AllMusic · Apple Music · Ye Tracker
prod. S1, MIKE DEAN, Southside, Kanye West, Anthony Kilhoffer, Tyler, The Creator, T-Pain, ???, The Neptunes, 88-Keys, Madlib · Recording · 2010
OG Filename: s1 md 1 Original version of the beat, made by S1 and MIKE DEAN. Snippet previewed by S1 on Instagram for Yeezus' 13th anniversary.
with Beyoncé · prod. Hit-Boy, MIKE DEAN · CD Quality · 2011
OG Filename: Kanye West - Awesome Ruff 2.1.11 In a Jimmy Kimmel interview, Kim Kardashian says that Kanye played her a version that was made during the Watch The Throne sessions. Has completely different production compared to later versions and a background vocals from Beyoncé. Beat was later reused for "No Tears" by Nas.
with Beyoncé, Bruno Mars · prod. Kanye West, MIKE DEAN, Jeff Bhasker, Pharrell Williams, Q-Tip, Don Jazzy, LMFAO, Hit-Boy, Diplo · Not Available
OG Filename: LiftOff soho4 Listed on an early Watch The Throne tracklist given out by music insider blog "The DOTR". Features Bruno Mars on the hook, which he helped write. Jeff Bhasker said "it has Diplo drums". File is in circulation.
with Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, John Legend, Tash Neal, Swizz Beatz · prod. S1, Kanye West, No ID, MIKE DEAN, Jeff Bhasker, Plain Pat, Swizz Beatz, Ken Lewis · Not Available
Kobe Bryant reference track. According to Ye, "Kobe helped me finish my 'POWER' remix verse … just building on the concept of #POWER …". He would also state that "There’s so many ways to break down the subject of power … me and Kobe went in on it … perfect person to help out on that".
with Roscoe Dash, Big Sean · prod. MIKE DEAN, Camper, Pop Wansel · Not Available
Listed on an early Watch The Throne tracklist given out by music insider blog "The DOTR". Assumed to be an early version of the Big Sean track "Marvin & Chardonnay", which was confirmed by Roscoe Dash to be originally meant for Watch The Throne before Kanye gave the song to Big Sean. Differences are unknown, however JAŸ-Z has vocals on all other songs on the same tracklist, meaning he likely recorded.
prod. Karlyle, Blair Wells, MIKE DEAN · Low Quality · 2023
Listed on an early Watch The Throne tracklist given out by music insider blog "The DOTR". Seemingly fully finished with a hook and verse from Kanye, alongside a JAŸ-Z verse later reused on the Magna Carta... Holy Grail song "Fuckwitmeyouknowigotit". Samples "Por Ti Volare" by Andrea Bocelli, which could not be cleared, being the reason it was cut. One of the holy grails of unreleased Kanye tracks. The beat was given to Lil B for his song "New York Subway". LQ snippet was posted in May 2019. Three more LQ snippets of Kanye's verse leaked and then the full verse leaked in LQ on November 13th, 2023.
with Nate Reuss, THE-DREAM · prod. Jeff Bhasker, Ken Lewis · Not Available
Listed on an early Watch The Throne tracklist given out by music insider blog "The DOTR". According to Jeff Bhasker. "They were going to rap over the beat, but everything gets changed at the last minute. I was working with them on Watch The Throne when I met Nate [Ruess] and I said, ‘Maybe you guys want to mess with this’ and [Ruess] really liked it a lot". MIKE DEAN mentioned wanting to use the hook, with Hogan saying that THE-DREAM and Nate Reuss were on it. Jack Antonoff confirmed that Kanye and JAŸ-Z did record for it and he even said some lyrics. Also according to Hogan, part of Kanye's verse was reused for "Primetime". There's a recreation in the Fakes tab showing what Kanye's part might've sounded like.
with Shire · prod. Hit-Boy · Not Available
Listed on an early Watch The Throne tracklist given out by music insider blog "The DOTR".Also seen on a tracklist in the source code for the Watch The Throne website, and a notepad used as the thumbnail to the "Living So Italian" beat's YouTube upload. Mentioned by Hit-Boy as something that they were working on for the album in an interview, meaning JAŸ-Z likely recorded, where he also referred to the song as "Never In My Whole Lifetime".
with Mr Hudson · prod. S1, Kanye West, MIKE DEAN · Not Available
Listed on an early Watch The Throne tracklist given out by music insider blog "The DOTR". Combined version of "Why I Love You" and "Guilt Trip". Likely features a string transition, as both songs feature the same quartet. The "Guilt Trip" portion is likely similar to the version S1 described, with MIKE DEAN additions and different drums to the released version. Has "half of a [JAŸ-Z] verse", described as being a "freestyle type...verse", that he never finished. S1 described it as having a Kanye verse and a hook.
with Roscoe Dash, Big Sean · prod. MIKE DEAN, Camper, Pop Wansel · Not Available
Kanye recorded his verse first when the song was shown to him by Roscoe Dash - "He fell in love with it immediately, man. He grabbed the jump drive, threw it in my lap and said “I gotta do that right now.” He recorded his verse, two weeks later Sean was on it and it was out of here. At first it was [intended] for Watch The Throne but I guess he felt Sean would make better use of it.”
prod. Kanye West, MIKE DEAN, Hit-Boy, Anthony Kilhoffer · Not Available · 2011
MIKE DEAN said a JAŸ-Z freestyle was recorded, later cut up for his finished verse. The "ball so hard" and "that shit crazy" lines, he said, was sampled from this. The sampled freestyle lines can be found in the track's session.
prod. S1, Caleb Sean · Not Available
S1 has said that "Murder To Excellence" was originally two separate songs, that were later merged: "Swizz Beatz did the first half and the name of that song was actually, "Black on Black Murder." And then the second half that I did was actually called, "Black Excellence"...in the studio wilding out, listening to it and jumping around, and then [Kanye] was like, "Yo what if we merge these two together?" So the engineer did it in the session and I remember us playing it and that transition happened the way it immediately went into the other song and we were just going crazy in the studio, like this is it. So they merged the titles, "Let's just call it "Murder to Excellence." The transition was so powerful because it flowed so smooth and it sounded, with the samples that Swizz and I chose they were very familiar, but different, so it just blended so well".
prod. Swizz Beatz · Not Available
S1 has said that "Murder To Excellence" was originally two separate songs, that were later merged: "Swizz Beatz did the first half and the name of that song was actually, "Black on Black Murder." And then the second half that I did was actually called, "Black Excellence"...in the studio wilding out, listening to it and jumping around, and then [Kanye] was like, "Yo what if we merge these two together?" So the engineer did it in the session and I remember us playing it and that transition happened the way it immediately went into the other song and we were just going crazy in the studio, like this is it. So they merged the titles, "Let's just call it "Murder to Excellence." The transition was so powerful because it flowed so smooth and it sounded, with the samples that Swizz and I chose they were very familiar, but different, so it just blended so well".
with Ryan Leslie · prod. Ryan Leslie · Low Quality
Version that can be heard in a leaked vocal stem of "I'm In It". Instrumental is a song titled "Break This Down" by Ryan Leslie, who had writing sessions for Watch The Throne. The song is a demo done by Ryan Leslie from 2008. Said by Hogan to be unrelated to "I'm In It", only reusing the same verse. There's a recreation in the Fakes tab showing what it might've sounded like. Snippet linked is from the bleed of the vocal stem for "I'm In It".
with John Legend · prod. Jeff Bhasker, Kanye West, MIKE DEAN · High Quality · 2026
Version found on the 12" Vinyl for "H•A•M", misprinted on the label as "Eyes Closet". Finally ripped on February 23rd 2026 by ShockOG. Identical to the previously leaked version but with an extended intro and outro instrumental loop.
prod. Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost · Recording
Solo Nate Reuss mumble demo which is in a different key than release. According to Nate in an interview, "I sang into my phone what is essentially the chorus. And then I remember asking the other two guys for chord progressions. Andrew sent me this beat and a chord progression, and it had a little drop in it with, like, this note. I ended up using some of those chords for writing the verses, and I used that drop part - suddenly, I had a song." When asked if he still had this recording, Nate responded "Yeah, I think I do. I have so much of that stuff because I do it so often", and when asked to put it up on YouTube he responded, "Not gonna happen! I think I hit some bad notes on it.". Snippet played by Andrew Dost in an interview on November 30th, 2023.
with Kid Cudi · prod. The Neptunes, Kanye West · CD Quality · 2011
OG Filename: Gotta Have It Ruff 5.5.11 Version with the James Brown samples completely missing, instead having an entirely different sample. Contains an alternate line from Ye, a mumble line from Jay, and an open verse where the second verse would later go. Leaked as part of the "Living So Italian" groupbuy.
prod. S1, MIKE DEAN · Not Available
Kid Cudi said after the release of Yeezus, that his "feature vocal...on that song was a couple years old...it was just a reference". When S1 was asked about the version with JAŸ-Z, he did not mention Kid Cudi being on it, meaning Cudi was likely referring to a solo reference track.
with Aude Cardona, Jacob Lewis Smith · prod. Lex Luger, Kanye West, MIKE DEAN · Lossless · 2010
OG Filename: HAM 1.1.10 According to Mark Beaumont in the book Kanye West: God & Monster, sections of the song were kept from November 2010 sessions at Real World Studios. Lacks a lot of the production compared to release, the outro, and the effects at the end of JAŸ-Z's verse. Found in the session. Left and right channels have been combined. Filename is a typo, as metadata shows it's from November and not January.
prod. Da Internz · Not Available
OG Filename: Heaven new Kanye Internz Edit_ Reference track owned by Saya, said to be by a female vocalist.
prod. Hit-Boy · Not Available
According to Hit-Boy, this song started out as a beat he emailed to Kanye on his Blackberry, with Kanye and JAŸ-Z recording the song in Paris. Contains additional instruments which Kanye would later cut. This is likely the version of the beat offered to Pusha T before he passed on it.
prod. Jeff Bhasker · Not Available
According to Jeff Bhasker in a VladTV, Ye flew him out to Austalia and asked him to pull out a beat from his laptop. Jeff played him an orchestral composition of the melody which would later become this song. He would also say that Beyoncé sung the melody for the hook when he played the beat.
with The WRLDFMS Tony Williams, Seal, Kanye West · prod. Kanye West · Lossless · 2011
OG Filename: JL - flashlights_ja RefMix 1 A 2011 John Legend song produced by Kanye, which uses the original "Fade" instrumental. Features Tony Williams and Seal. ProTools session also has a Kanye mumble take. Lyrics for the hook are seen in the minidoc for Watch The Throne, placing it as being created during these sessions. Original snippet leaked October 3rd, 2022.
prod. Hit-Boy · Lossless · 2011
OG Filename: NotEnoughTime_Kanye Voc Ideas Rough version, leaked before Watch The Throne dropped. Was originally a John Legend song, as confirmed in filenames from the session, which leaked in 2022. Samples "Love Has Come Around" by Donald Byrd.
with Swizz Beatz, Acapella Soul · prod. Swizz Beatz · Not Available
Version listed on an early tracklist for Watch The Throne, differences are unknown.
with Frank Ocean · prod. SAK PASE, Om'Mas Keith, MIKE DEAN · Not Available
Listed on an early tracklist for Watch The Throne. Not much else is known about the song, besides that it's very likely an early version of "Made In America".
prod. Lex Luger · Lossless · 2026
OG Filename: Lex - 6 Beat According to Lex Luger, "'H·A·M' really came about in New York City. Me and Kanye, we had did 'See Me Now.' I played him a lot of beats, but he liked the ones that I didn't expect him to like. I left, like, eight beats with him; he called me, like, two weeks later and he said he wanted, for sure, two. That was one of the ones. ... I sent him the track out. He did what he did to it, still I didn't hear the song. I couldn't hear it until everyone else heard it". Likely the 6th of the 8 beats that Lex left.
with Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Bankulli, Don Jazzy, Seal, Mr Hudson, Ricardo Lewis, John Legend, Rihanna · prod. Kanye West, MIKE DEAN, Jeff Bhasker, Pharrell Williams, Q-Tip, Don Jazzy, LMFAO, Hit-Boy, Diplo, Anthony Kilhoffer · Not Available
Bankulli said he was was "blessed to lay some Vocals in the original version co-produced by @donjazzy". Used as background vocals on release.
with Mr Hudson · prod. Kanye West, MIKE DEAN · Not Available
Version listed on an early tracklist for Watch The Throne, differences are unknown.
prod. SAK PASE, Om'Mas Keith, MIKE DEAN · Not Available
Bu Thiam said "Made In America" started as an idea that Frank Ocean did in the studio by himself. "[Frank Ocean] was just thinking of different concepts, he was there for like eight hours, then probably like six in the morning he was like "Sweet baby Jesus."
with John Legend · CD Quality · 2026
Reference made for Watch The Throne by Justxn Paul. Originally thought to be CyHi and for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Unknown if a Kanye version exists. Original snippet leaked December 19th, 2020, with an untagged version later leaking January 5th, 2026.
with Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, Charlie Wilson · prod. Kanye West, MIKE DEAN, Plain Pat · Not Available · 2010
Initial version with JAŸ-Z vocals. According to Rick Ross, JAŸ-Z was the last to record for the song. According to Ye, this song was intended to be track 2 on Watch The Throne when it was intended to be a 5 track album.
prod. S1, Swizz Beatz · Not Available
Seen on a tracklist in the source code for the Watch The Throne website. Played at the private July 7th, 2011 listening party.
prod. Kanye West, RZA, MIKE DEAN, Ken Lewis · Not Available · 2011
According to MTV News, at an early album preview for Watch The Throne, JAŸ-Z recalled that Kanye had rapped to him his verse from this song, and that JAŸ-Z had told Kanye he "wasn't going to get on it". While this song isn't said by name, it can be assumed to be the song being discussed as the reporter recounts it as, "JAŸ-Z and Kanye deliver verses directed to their hypothetical unborn sons". This implies the existence of a version without vocals from JAŸ-Z.
prod. Kanye West, MIKE DEAN, Hit-Boy, Anthony Kilhoffer · CD Quality · 2026
In his Mix With The Masters episode, Anthony Killhoffer previewed a mix with a slightly different vocal take from Kanye. "Bitch" is removed from "Bitch you need to crawl 'fore you ball", and the "going gorillas" line is replaced with "take a Bufferin for this head that got me aching from Phyllis". Both vocal stem filenames "KW VOX Verse End" and "KW 2_01" were shown on screen. Another snippet was played by Hit-Boy on the 15th anniversary of Watch The Throne.
prod. Kanye West, MIKE DEAN, Anthony Kilhoffer, Hit-Boy, ??? · High Quality
A cinematic style remix featured on an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. No further evidence supports whether it is an edit made solely for the show or an unused remix. Community member DJTroublesome created an almost perfect replica, which could be confused as a real version. However, his edit is currently lost.
with Frank Ocean, THE-DREAM · prod. 88-Keys, Kanye West, MIKE DEAN · Lossless · 2011
OG Filename: B - No Church Voc Dn Version with a different Kanye vocal take and two alternate lines towards the end of the verse, and one alternate line from THE-DREAM. Was called "No Church", right up until release.
with Otis Redding · prod. Kanye West · Recording
Video of Kanye recording his verse shows a version with mumble lyrics. CDQ mumble lyrics can be heard in the "L.I.E." snippet, which can be found in Fakes. Seen on the Kanye Checklist, noting that the verses needed to be finished.
prod. Kanye West · Not Available
Version sent for clearence in late June or early July. According to Karla Redding-Andrews in an interview with Billboard on July 24th, 2011, "We first heard about the song in early July, end of June. ...There was a back and forth about whether the name of the song would be 'Otis' or 'Otis Redding.' And we just wanted to make sure lyrics and references in the song worked with the legacy of my father.".
prod. No ID, Ken Lewis · Lossless · 2011
OG Filename: ed_ye Initial Ye freestyle. Contains entirely different lyrics than release, with mumble. Has different production with different piano and guitar, likely the sample before it was replayed for release. Ye's vocals start at 2:34, after a long period of silence after JAŸ-Z's verse. Original snippet leaked September 21st, 2026. Leaked as part of the "Living So Italian" groupbuy.
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