You would think that multiple viewings of The Ring and its sequels would've kept me from opening a strange package sent by an astronaut and/or Kanye West and pressing play on the VHS tape contained within.
You would be wrong.
On March 15, a cardboard box addressed to me arrived at MTV News's New York office. Inside the box was another box bearing the logo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. Inside that box was a VHS tape labeled "E PLURIBUS UNUM"; a white credit card with Kanye West's name, the number 772233688, and the words NASA, PROJECT-10, and 8/10; and a tiny plastic case with what appears to be a pebble, also labeled PROJECT: 10.
Hilary Hughes for MTV NewsThe first thing I did was Google that nine-digit number, which led to this two-minute clip of blank white noise.
When we tracked down a VCR at the office and played the tape, we found more static — two hours of it. Fast-forwarding through the whole thing and pausing every once in a while to check for audio clues, we found nothing but dead air.
A quick visit to www.772233688.com gives us more of the same: references to KANYE WEST, NASA, and PROJECT 10, another video of creepy, white noise — and the date March 20, which is this coming Monday.
Naturally, we were skeptical at first, as this package, technically, could have come from anyone.
The postmark showed that it was sent from Atlanta (specifically, the East Point neighborhood), though the return address said Max Peck at 4800 Oak Grove Drive in Pasadena, California. Max Peck is an alias that was used by NASA astronauts on top-secret assignments, specifically the crew of nine who wound up in Houston to train for the mission that launched the disastrous Apollo 13 on April 11, 1970.
The Pasadena address itself leads back to the Jet Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of Technology. A representative of the JPL tells MTV News, "It’s not from us. The NASA logo used on the box is an old logo retired in 1992." (Fun fact: They are definitely not fans of their logos being used without written permission!)
Kanye's own team was slightly more cagey. "That sounds really weird and suspiciously like a hoax," wrote a Def Jam spokesperson — not the most encouraging response, but also not an unambiguous denial. (UPDATE: In a later email, the same rep clarified that this is a hoax and has nothing to do with Kanye's team. Oh well.)
Which leaves us ... approximately nowhere. The video and website offer precious few details to analyze. The pebble looks like a damn pebble. This could potentially just be bogus mail from a prankster, or a submission from another artist posing as Kanye, or a misguided promo strategy from a wannabe who's seeking attention.
But what if it's legit? Kanye and Kim's aesthetic lately has leaned toward the lo-fi: All of the photos and videos they've been posting to social media seem to follow the format of VHS-style home movies or favor a vintage aesthetic more reminiscent of a drugstore's 1-hour photo processing.
Adding to the intrigue, 20-year-old filmmaker Julian Klincewicz has been trailing Kanye with what appears to be an old-school VHS camcorder over the past year. (He appeared to have been present, for instance, at West's December 2016 meeting with the then-POTUS-elect at Trump Tower.)
If Kanye did release a new project on Monday, it would be his 10th studio album (counting Watch the Throne and Cruel Summer). Could that be what "PROJECT - 10" means?
If you map the numbers in 772233688 onto an old-school phone pad, it can be read as "SPACED OUT," which lines up with the NASA/Apollo 13 hints. Is that the name of a new song, album, or other project from Kanye?
What about that Atlanta postmark? Just a shot in the dark here: Is Young Thug releasing a space-themed music video for his song "Kanye West" on Monday? (Young Thug's reps did not respond to a request for comment, and this one's a long shot anyway.)
Is this about a shoe — like, say, Kanye's new Calabasas x Adidas Power Phase sneakers, whose retail offering is rumored to be "coming very soon"?
Or is it ... nothing?
Either way, someone who might or might not be Kanye put a hell of a lot of effort into this.
The options, as we see them, are below:
A. This is a package from Kanye West, and it's meant to let us know that his forthcoming project, a.k.a. PROJECT 10, is either titled that or E PLURIBUS UNUM, or maybe SPACED OUT, and also it has an audio/visual component — and an intergalactic one, too. (UPDATE: It's not Kanye. See above. Sad trombone.)
B. This is not a package from Kanye West, but it is a very convincing package that involves a bunch of space things and a credit card that probably took more than two seconds to make. It may also violate copyright law, so points for the gutsiness, I guess.
C. This is leftover viral marketing from Rings.
D. This is the actual real-life sequel to Rings, we just don't know it yet, and I have seven days to live.
I'd like to, y'know, live, so here's hoping PROJECT 10 is legit. If you know anything about this, please let us know?
Additional reporting by Meredith Graves.