--- description: Kanye West is producing Pusha T’s upcoming album 'Daytona', which will feature a photo of late singer Whitney Houston's drug-strewn bathroom title: Kanye West Paid For Controversial 'Daytona' Album Cover image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73c30e54855d55a0/6989318286f68e80fd6e947d/rts1phb81.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrities](/tag/celebrities/) ## celebrities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Kanye West Paid $85,000 For a Photo of Whitney Houston's Bathroom for Pusha T's New Album by [Maureen Lee Lenker / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Maureen Lee Lenker / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 25, 2018 5:20 AM CUT  Rapper Kanye West arrives at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, NY, August 28, 2016. Rapper Kanye West arrives at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, NY, August 28, 2016.Eduardo Munoz—Reuters by [Maureen Lee Lenker / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Maureen Lee Lenker / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 25, 2018 5:20 AM CUT Kanye West has brought the [storm](http://ew.com/news/2018/04/25/kanye-west-twitter-saga/ "undefined") [of](http://ew.com/music/2018/04/26/kanye-west-twitter-john-legend-chrissy-teigen/ "undefined") [controversy](http://ew.com/music/2018/05/01/kanye-west-slavery-jay-z-obama/ "undefined") that seems to follow him everywhere lately off his Twitter feed and onto an artist’s album cover. West is producing _Daytona_, Pusha T’s upcoming album, and on Thursday he tweeted the cover art, revealing that it is a bleak photograph of the late singer Whitney Houston’s bathroom covered in drug paraphernalia. The photo was taken secretly by one of Houston’s family members in 2006 and ran in the _National Enquirer_ the same year, as Houston struggled with drug addiction. In an interview with _EW_ on Thursday, Pusha T told [reporter Brian Josephs](https://twitter.com/Bklyn%5FRock "undefined") that the image “definitely does match the energy of my album.” The rapper added, “I feel like the cover represents an organized chaos. The energy of the album is a bit chaotic, but it’s all in place. Looking at that cover, I’m sure whoever frequents that bathroom or area knew whatever they wanted to find and knew where it was.” > [](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/999771408258318338) A day earlier, Pusha T [appeared on _The Angie Martinez Show_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g309T2rLOKk "undefined") to promote the new album and said the cover art was a last-minute change by West. “He changed my artwork last night at 1 a.m. He wasn’t feeling it,” Pusha T told radio host Angie Martinez. “\[Originally\], the artwork — it was pictures that we all agreed on.” He also said West told him the photo had cost him $85,000. “I love it, I actually do love it,” Pusha T said. “\[But\] I absolutely did not want to pay for it.” Though West purportedly paid $85,000 to license the photo, it’s unclear whether he paid the _National Enquirer_ or Houston’s sister-in-law Tina Brown, sister to Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown. > [](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/999777955894050816) _Daytona_ is scheduled to drop Friday and will mark the first album release out of West’s Wyoming studio, where he’s also working on his own album. “Daytona is the first project out of Wyoming,” West tweeted Thursday. “I’m really proud of what we put together. We’ve spent a year and a half digging for samples and writing. I really appreciate the overwhelmingly positive response that we’ve been receiving.” _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/music/2018/05/24/kanye-west-spent-85000-photo-whitney-houston-bathroom/ "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://ew.com/ "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5291212/kanye-west-pusha-t-daytona-whitney-houston/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5291212/kanye-west-pusha-t-daytona-whitney-houston/"},"headline":"Kanye West Paid $85,000 For a Photo of Whitney Houston's Bathroom for Pusha T's New Album","datePublished":"2018-05-25T05:20:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:23:20.801Z","description":"The album cover will show the late singer Whitney Houston's drug-strewn bathroom","url":"https://time.com/5291212/kanye-west-pusha-t-daytona-whitney-houston/","keywords":["celebrities","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73c30e54855d55a0/6989318286f68e80fd6e947d/rts1phb81.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maureen Lee Lenker / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73c30e54855d55a0/6989318286f68e80fd6e947d/rts1phb81.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FILE PHOTO: Rapper Kanye West arrives at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards in New York","caption":"FILE PHOTO: Rapper Kanye West arrives at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards in New York","creditText":"Eduardo Munoz—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5291212/kanye-west-pusha-t-daytona-whitney-houston/","name":"Kanye West Paid $85,000 For a Photo of Whitney Houston's Bathroom for Pusha T's New Album"}}]}] ```