Photo: Press/@inezandvinoodh
Kanye West has revealed a duet with Paul McCartney 'Only One', told from the perspective of his late mother. Check it out below.
West revealed the sparse auto-tune and keyboard arrangement on New Year's Eve and is told from the perspective of West's mother Donda. "My mom was singing to me, and through me to my daughter," West said in a statement.
The lyrics are particularly emotionally charged, recalling the rawm open-hearted laments of West's 808s & Heartbreak, and has an uplifting message that "the good outweighs the bad even on your worst day".
Listen to 'Only One' below
According to a release, this may only be the first of a series of collaborations between Kanye and Macca. A statement explains 'Only One' is the first "publicly available recording from what has become a prolific musical collaboration between these two legendary artists."
Work on the track began in 2014 in Los Angeles originating from "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. 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."
The two have been fans for some time. In 2013 McCartney told Radio One's Zane Lowe that although he didn't fancy 'getting a rapper in' on his last album he'd like to collaborate with "Oh, Jay-Z, Kanye,". McCartney also told this writer in GQ back in 2012: "With Kanye, I'm always so excited that he knows who I am and he's come up. I'm a fan of his. I met him and "Jay Zed", as we call him, at the Met Ball that Stella was being honoured at. I never know what to say. They were just saying "Hey man, you're really a Knight!" Their perspective on that, as Americans, as ex-Project guys - for them a knight is like Sir Lancelot. It's always funny as I'm just Paul, one of the guys."
