Kanye West performed a new song “All Day” during the Brit Awards last week, and today the studio version finally arrived.
https://cdn.playwire.com/bolt/js/zeus/embed.js
Some essential* thoughts:
1. Does the voice box melody at the beginning not remind you of everybody's favorite jock jam, Zombie Nation's “Kernkraft 400?”
2. Paul McCartney's contribution — so far as it can be tracked and confirmed — is the beach-day whistling over the guitar riff your dormmate from college freshman year played over and over again AND I GET IT KYLE YOU LEARNED C7 CHORD GOOD FOR YOU I HAVE MIDTERMS IN THE MORNING
3. Theophilus London, Paul McCartney and Allan Kingdom got official contributor credits in the song release to iTunes, but check out the full, all-you-can-eat credits bar for the purchased version: Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Tyler Bryant, Kendrick Lamar, Karim Kharbouch, Cydel Young, Victor Mensah, Mike Dean, Che Pope, Noah Goldstein, Allen Ritter, Mario Winans, Charles Njapa, Malik Yusef Jones, Patrick Reynolds, Ernest Brown and Noel Ellis. I have yet to hear what Lamar had to contribute, but my guess is “cred.”
4. As the song dissolves past that 4:30 mark, that's approximately where — were I King Kendrick or a Beatle — would have told West “no.” It's like the music composed for a television procedural like “CSI” where the perp is a video game-obsessed serial killer and it's the music he hears in his head as he's first person shootering his next victim.
5. I like its cold party vibe, a return to his and Jay Z's “N*****s in Paris” in tone, liberal use of “n****s” and, specifically, locale: the mall.
“All Day” will be included on the tracklist for Kanye West's new album “So Help Me God,” alongside “Wolves,” “FourFive Seconds” and “Only One” — which have all already had public previews. The hip-hop titan has yet to reveal the set's release date, but a press release says it's “coming soon.” I kinda want Kanye West to win.
*Non-essential