Detroit music historian and Third Man archivist Ben Blackwell has revealed what the “AR 1331 A” stamp means on the artwork of Kanye West‘s new album, Jesus Is King.
Taking to Twitter over the weekend, it was revealed that the code is a direct reference to a pressing plant called Archer Records (AR) and a 1970 Detroit gospel record by Rubye Shelton. That single included tracks “I Want the World to Know Jesus,” “God’s Going to Destroy This Nation,” “The Hypocrite,” and ‘Come Out of the Valley.”
Read the tweet below.
In a statement given to Pitchfork, Blackwell said, “I knew the past decade spent in the deepest, loneliest recesses of Archer Record Pressing nerd-dom would eventually lead me to the biggest recording artist in the world. But enough about Jack White…who is this Kanye guy?”
