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VIBE is certainly making the most out of its 20th anniversary. The latest and last reveal of the magazine’s three Summer 2013 issue covers features Pharrell Williams and Daft Punk.

In the cover story, Daft Punk discusses working with Kanye West.

You connected with Kanye West to help produce his Yeezus LP. It sounds very different from when he sampled you guys for “Stronger.”

BANGALTER: It’s good that it is different, beccause the impact that “Stronger” had is very important. Somehow, it turned out to be this combination between hip-hop and electronic music, and almost started the mix of those genres. We’re all trying to push the envelope and to see where the music can go.

Were you surprised by the sound that Kanye West was going for on Yeezus?

BANGALTER: No, we were not surprised. I think the interesting thing is that we were the first people that Kanye came to. It was at the very beginning of the process, and he just wanted to make the record. We discussed it a lot… the approach. The very first track we did was “Black Skinhead.” We had recorded [the drums] earlier during the recording of our album, so we had those drums. It was a great twist of pushing the envelope. The last trackwe did was “On Sight,” which was even more ghetto, but in another sense. One was super rock and the other was more techno/ghetto/ house. His ideas were really making a lot of sense… Do something with a lot of integrity. And [they were] also about reinventing; this is what we try to do ourselves as artists. And that’s what you appreciate with someone as popular and as big as Kanye is. We were happy to help figure out a direction he was looking for in terms of substance. He really responded positively to those ideas we were throwing out to him. And then he ran with it. 

Previously, we saw covers that features Robin Thicke and Janelle Monáe and another that features Nas and J. Cole.

Check out the full cover and photos of Pharrell and Daft Punk from the latest issue of VIBE in the gallery. You can read the full cover story here.

Photo: VIBE

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