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Kanye West Paid $85,000 to Use Photo of Whitney Houston’s Drug-Strewn Bathroom on Pusha-T Album Cover

CREDIT: COURTESY OF DEF JAM RECORDINGS

Kanye West paid $85,000 to license a photo of Whitney Houston’s drug-filled bathroom for the cover of Pusha-T’s new album “Daytona,” which was released today. The image, which was taken in Houston’s Atlanta home in 2006 after an alleged drug binge, features a multitude of drugs and paraphernalia. Pusha told radio host Angie Martinez Thursday that West, who produced the entire album, changed the artwork at the very last minute.

“He changed my artwork last night at 1 a.m. He wasn’t feeling it,” Pusha told Martinez. “The [original] artwork — it was pictures that we all agreed on. He picked the photographer, I took these pictures, I was like, ‘Yo, these are fresh.’ I picked all of these pictures out, he had a little edit to it, how he wanted the actual grading of the picture to look. Picked the picture, great, we look, boom, boom, boom, it’s good.”

Pusha said that West paid for the artwork out of his own pocket. “This is what people need to see to go along with this music,” Pusha quoted West as saying.

The image has been altered slightly from its original rendition, which appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer: a beer can has been removed, presumably for copyright reasons.

Pusha also said that West’s own album, which is due next week, may clarify some of the rapper’s recent controversial comments about Donald Trump and other matters, although he is somewhat vague on how that clarification takes place.

“He’s speaking on a lot on this album,” he said. “And I feel like he even speaks it clearer and messages it clearer and better through the music. That’s where you can see a bit of like, OK, you’re asking these questions. You’re saying these things to get this type of emotion or just get an answer for something else. I feel like it’s better there.”