Previously, U2 and Kendrick Lamar teamed up for a song off the rapper’s earth-moving new album, DAMN., which remained one of the best-selling and most acclaimed album of 2017 even months after it came out. Their initial collaboration was called “XXX.” and a new song shared today called “American Soul” is a variation on that track.
This alternative version comes on the heels of yet another collab, a song called “Get Out Of Your Own Way,” that will appear on U2’s long-awaited new album, Songs Of Experience, which follows up their widely-maligned album Songs Of Innocence from 2014. You know, the one that automatically appeared in everyone’s iTunes and created an enormous wave of backlash?
Anyway, now they’re in a much better place, and have already released “Blackout” and “You’re The Best Thing About Me,” along with this B-side featuring Kendrick. By the time you have B-sides featuring the greatest rapper alive, your band is back in good graces, and about to release an album that impacts the world — in a good way.
“You are rock and roll / You and I are rock and roll,” Bono sings, after Kendrick kicks off the track with a spoken word section that offers ominous warning to liars and bullies. Later, the words “Refugee and Jesus” combine into “Refu-Jesus” — only Bono. Listen below.
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