Listen: Kanye West Releases New Song, Find Out Why It’s Making Kim Kardashian Cry
Most people welcomed the New Year with a hangover and some stranger making waffles inside their kitchen. Kanye West decided to get 2015 off to a very emotional start. He released a new song featuring Paul McCartney, titled, “Only One.” McCartney beautifully plays the keyboard throughout the song while West pours his heart out from the vantage point of his late mother.
“One day, you’ll be the man you always knew you would be,” Kanye sings. “And if you knew how proud I was, you’d never shed a tear, have a fear, no you wouldn’t do that.”
West also put out a press release for the song, and the story behind this project is absolutely beautiful.
In early 2014, Paul McCartney and Kanye West first began working together in a small bungalow in Los Angeles. The process that would result in “Only One” began with a simple brainstorming session between the two: With McCartney improvising on the keyboards and Kanye vocally sketching and shaping ideas in a stream-of-consciousness riff.
When they played back the recording afterward, something remarkable happened. Kanye sat there with his family, holding his daughter North on his lap, and listened to his vocals, singing, “Hello, my only one . . . ” And in that moment, not only could he not recall having sung those words, but he realized that perhaps the words had never really come from him.
The process of artistic creation is one that does not involve thinking, but often channeling. And he understood in that moment that his late mother, Dr. Donda West, who was also his mentor, confidante, and best friend, had spoken through him that day.
“My mom was singing to me, and through me to my daughter,” he said, astonished.
Okay, so are you all ready to hear this song? The song that makes Kim Kardashian cry every single time she hears it? Check it out down below, and maybe grab a box of tissues.
If video doesn’t work. Click here to listen to the full song on Kanye’s website.
I will say that if the lyrics weren’t so powerful, this would be a horrible song. You change about 50% of the lyrics and it would totally sound like some poor robot got locked inside a recording studio alone.
