In today’s news from the sunken place, Kanye West reportedly paid $85,000 to use a photo of Whitney Houston’s drug-covered bathroom as the album art for Pusha T’s latest release. Wait, let’s call this the “How Low You Can Go News From the Sunken Place.”
In an interview with Angie Martinez, Pusha T said the original art for Daytona was replaced, and a photo of Houston’s bathroom from her Atlanta home littered with drugs and drug paraphernalia was used instead.
“1 a.m., my phone rings, no caller ID,” Pusha told Martinez. “‘Hey, yeah, I think that we should change the artwork. I like this other artwork.’ Now this other artwork is 85 grand. I said, ‘Hey, I don’t want to pay for that. And I wasn’t even going to ask you to pay for that. We picked what we picked. It’s here, it’s ready.’ ‘No, this what people need to see to go with this music. Imma pay for that.’
“Ummm, it’s a picture,” Pusha T said. “It’s a picture. … It’s just a picture that to license it worldwide is 85 grand. I’m not really too, too, too entrenched in the art world like that. I’m just going to let him do that thing. And he’s paying for it.”
Keep it classy.
Houston died Feb. 11, 2012, at the age of 48 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., where she was staying for the Grammy Awards.