Ghost Town (Kanye West song)

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"Ghost Town"
Song by Kanye West
from the album Ye
Released June 1, 2018
Recorded 2018
Studio West's ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Genre Rap rock
Length 4:31
Label
Songwriter(s) <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Various
Producer(s) <templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Various
Audio sample

"Ghost Town" is a song by American rapper and producer Kanye West from his eighth studio album, Ye (2018). It features vocals from PartyNextDoor, Kid Cudi and 070 Shake. A follow-up was released by West and Cudi, as Kids See Ghosts, under the title of "Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)". The song is composed around a sample of "Take Me for a Little While" by the Royal Jesters. Jungle covered it in September 2018. West performed the song, alongside Kid Cudi and 070 Shake, on the outro to the 44th-season premiere of Saturday Night Live. It was met with strong reviews from music critics and was featured in several end of the year lists in 2018. The song was commercially successful, managing to chart in a total of 15 countries and achieve the certification of Gold in the US.

Background

File:PartyNextDoor 2016 press photo.png
The song features vocals from PartyNextDoor.

A link was shared by West via his blog on February 7, 2009 to a cover version of his 2007 single "Can't Tell Me Nothing" by Francis and the Lights.[1] They first collaborated on Francis and the Lights' single "Friends" in 2016 alongside Bon Iver and West has a cameo in the accompanying music video.[2][1] Along with "Ghost Town", Francis and the Lights contributed production to Ye tracks "I Thought About Killing You" and "All Mine".[3]

A promotional video runs for one minute and 45 seconds on the official website of West from the Ye listening party that plays "Ghost Town" and "I Thought About Killing You".[4] West assembled the listening party on the night before the album's release in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is the same place that West recorded it.[5][6] Kevin Parker of Tame Impala initially believed that he was credited as a co-writer on the song instead of "Violent Crimes", until he was informed that "Violent Crimes" was played at the listening party.[7] Parker had allegedly sent a number samples to West for Ye, but assumed that they hadn't made the cut after not hearing back from him.[8] West began to come to Jackson Hole often from early 2017 onwards, months after his stay in hospital.[9] After he left the hospital, notes were made by West about his experiences and feelings.[9] As part of the album's songwriting process, West gave his notes to various writers for them to help add structure to his thoughts.[9] When discussing his songwriting process during an interview with The New York Times on June 25, 2018, West revealed that co-writer Malik Yusef was responsible for the lyrics "Sometimes I take all the shine/Talk like I drank all the wine."[9]

Composition

The track includes a sample of "Take Me for a Little While" by the Royal Jesters within its leading bass, drum and keys combination.[10][11] Whilst singing the chorus of "Ghost Town", Kid Cudi interpolates vocals from rock and roll artist Dave Edmunds' 1979 version of "Take Me for a Little While".[11] "Ghost Town" takes rock influence from Kid Cudi's work, with a strong presence of guitars throughout that has been described as "very reminiscent of a couple of tracks" from his second studio album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010).[12] West touches on multiple subjects linked to his personal life within the song.[13] PartyNextDoor sings the intro, which is a stream-of-consciousness riff.[14] The outro is sung by 070 Shake, who felt crazy about being on a record with West, and laser sounds are included that resurface on Teyana Taylor's West-produced track "Issues/Hold On".[12][15][16]

Release and recording

An early tracklisting of the album Kids See Ghosts by the duo Kids See Ghosts, which consists of West and Kid Cudi, showed that "Ghost Town" was originally supposed to be on the album.[17] It was ultimately released on June 1, 2018 as the sixth track on West's eight studio album Ye.[18] The song's follow-up was released by Kids See Ghosts on the duo's album Kids See Ghosts under the title of "Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)" on June 8.[19] The official credits for Ye were updated on June 15, 2018, revealing the contributions of PartyNextDoor, Malik Yusef, Cyhi the Prynce and Consequence to "Ghost Town".[20]

In an interview with Pigeons & Planes, 070 Shake revealed that the song was finished hours before the album's listening party on May 31 and recalled reference tracks being recorded: "I had done a reference for it, and then I guess he forgot about it. We put that reference on another song, then Kanye did his own reference for that 'free' concept."[21] She explained in the interview that it almost didn't make the album's final cut during the recording sessions: "At the end we were talking and asking, 'Is this the one right here?' And I kind of mentioned 'Ghost Town' and said maybe we could use something from that. He listened to the reference again, and said, 'Oh yeah, this is the one.' So 'Ghost Town' almost didn't make it."[21] Recording for Ye had began after West made controversial comments about slavery in a TMZ interview earlier in May that led to the album being re-done afterwards.[22]

Critical reception

"Ghost Town" received strongly positive reviews from music critics. Meaghan Garvey of Pitchfork branded it as "ye's clear highlight".[23] Christopher Hooton of The Independent billed it as "the only other remotely good song on ye" after "I Thought About Killing You" and "Yikes".[24] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone praised it as the only track on the album that "stands on its own".[25] Douglas Greenwood of NME described "Ghost Town" as "the penultimate and perhaps strongest track" while still arguing that it "owes a great deal to its euphoric, rocky outro provided by [070 Shake]".[26] Ed Power of The Irish Times referred to the song as "gorgeous and uncomplicated" and the outro as "a simple celebration – affirmative, uncomplicated and joyous".[27]

Accolades

Vulture named "Ghost Town" as one of the best new songs for the week of June 7, 2018.[28] It was listed as one of the best songs from the first half of the year by Junkee.[29] The track has appeared on year-end lists by multiple publications, including being listed as the fifth best song of 2018 by Consequence of Sound.[30] Matt Melis of the site complimented it as the "very best" of West's 2018 and Melis described the track as where West is "backed by a killer, old-school sample; surrounded by friends; and delivering a liberating, back-to-basics message."[30] Joe ranked "Ghost Town" at the same position on their list, with Dave Hanratty calling it "an exceptional song that hit the heavens with power and grace."[31]

Year-end lists
Publication Accolade Rank Ref.
Billboard The 100 Best Songs of 2018
62
[32]
The Best Songs of Kanye West's Wyoming Sessions[lower-alpha 3]
14
[16]
Consequence of Sound Top 50 Songs of 2018
5
[30]
Highsnobiety The 50 Best Songs of 2018
37
[33]
Joe The 20 Best Songs of 2018
5
[31]
NME The Songs of the Year 2018
36
[34]
NPR The 100 Best Songs of 2018
56
[35]
The Daily Beast The 20 Best Songs of 2018
7
[36]
The Village Voice The Pazz & Jop music critics poll 2018
42
[37]
Triple J Hottest 100 of 2018
98
[38]

Commercial performance

In 2018, the track managed to chart in a total of 15 countries worldwide. On the week of Ye being released, the song entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 16 and the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at number 11.[39][40] In the same week, it reached number 21 on the Canadian Hot 100.[41] "Ghost Town" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 17 following the release of West's album.[42] The track performed best in New Zealand by charting at number 14 on the NZ Singles Chart.[43] It performed worst in the Netherlands, only managing to reach number 81 on the Single Top 100.[44]

The track was certified Gold in the US on October 23, 2018.[45] It stands along with "Violent Crimes" as the only non-single releases from Ye to be certified in the US.[46]

Live performances

070 Shake performed the song live on June 22, 2018 at Ladyland Fest in Brooklyn, which marked the first live performance of it.[47] On August 17, West and Kid Cudi performed it together at a surprise live show in Los Angeles.[48] The track was performed live by West, Cudi and 070 Shake on the outro of the 44th season premier of Saturday Night Live (SNL) in September 2018, and West followed the performance with a pro-Trump speech.[49] Prior to West's appearance, SNL creator Lorne Michaels revealed in an interview on the Origins With James Andrew Miller podcast that West was booked for the show when he stepped up after American singer Ariana Grande dropped out.[50] West and Kid Cudi, as Kids See Ghosts, performed the song live as the closer to their set at the 2018 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival.[51] A choir collaborated with West for a rendition of it during the second "Sunday Service" of his in January 2019 once West got up off a stool 36 minutes in to the performance, with the rendition including an extended outro that saw West deliver a sermon.[52] During the sermon, West said "Don't it feel to know you can never be canceled. They say, 'You can't do this. You can't do that, you'll lose your career,' but I'm still here."[52] Kid Cudi brought out West as a surprise at the 2019 Coachella Music Festival, where a rendition of "Ghost Town" was among the songs performed live by the duo.[53]

Cover version

"Ghost Town" was covered by English soul musical collective Jungle on September 12, 2018 during a BBC Radio 1 Session.[54]

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.[3]

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
United States (RIAA)[72] Gold 500,000

xunspecified figures based on certification alone
double-daggersales/streaming figures based on certification alone

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Credited as co-producer
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Credited as additional producer
  3. ↑ Pusha T's Daytona, Ye, Kids See Ghosts' Kids See Ghosts, Nas' Nasir, and Teyana Taylor's K.T.S.E.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  55. ↑ "Australian-charts.com – Kanye West feat. PartyNextDoor – Ghost Town". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  56. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Kanye West feat. PartyNextDoor – Ghost Town" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  57. ↑ "Kanye West – Chart history" Canadian Hot 100 for Kanye West. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  58. ↑ "ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 201823 into search. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
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  60. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Kanye West feat. PartyNextDoor – Ghost Town" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  61. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ "Archívum – Slágerlisták – MAHASZ" (in Hungarian). Stream Top 40 slágerlista. Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  63. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Kanye West feat. PartyNextDoor – Ghost Town" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  64. ↑ "SNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 201823 into search. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  65. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Kanye West feat. PartyNextDoor – Ghost Town". Singles Top 100. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  66. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Kanye West feat. PartyNextDoor – Ghost Town". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  67. ↑ "Archive Chart: 20180608" UK Singles Chart. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  68. ↑ "Archive Chart: 20180615" UK R&B Chart. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  69. ↑ "Kanye West – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Kanye West. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  70. ↑ "Kanye West – Chart history" Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for Kanye West. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
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External links

Template:Francis and the Lights

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