At midnight on New Year’s Eve, world-renowned and prolific rapper–producer–religious figure Kanye West, along with former Beatle Paul McCartney (aka some underground artist Kanye is so generously bringing into the spotlight) unexpectedly released their new single, “Only One.”
While New Year’s Eve seems like an odd time to release a single, it is a clever way to gather a lot of hype, capitalizing on people’s tendency to ring in the new year on social media. Popular southern-influenced, New York-based rapper A$AP Rocky had the same idea when he dropped his new single “Lord Pretty Flacko 2” earlier that day. Rest in peace to A$AP Yams.
Within a few hours of the Kanye–McCartney release, Twitter exploded with snarky back-and-forths about the song by people pretending not to know who Paul McCartney was.
The Independent, a British national news source, reported that these users had to fight back scorn, hateful tweets, and even a few death threats from angered Beatles fans who couldn’t handle the joke.
“Only One” featured Paul McCartney on the keyboard and backing vocals from Ty Dolla $ign, who was rumored to have recorded at least twelve songs with Kanye West.
The careful and gentle melody of the keyboarding combined with Kanye’s use of Auto tune gives the song an 808s & Heartbreak sound while referencing McCartney’s familiar songwriting style. “Only One” is sung from the perspective of Kanye’s late mother, who is speaking through him to his daughter, North West.
For the most part, Kanye has left fans clueless as to what he will do next and when. Some insider info stated that Kanye has a single featuring Drake on his next album, and rumors circulated that he would drop the album on a secret date, emulating the release of Beyoncé’s eponymous album last year.
Kanye has also been rumored to have played a new track featuring Rihanna at the iHeart Media Label Summit Jan. 21; supposedly he received a standing ovation in response to the song.
Billboard described it as “a duet with Rihanna (title unknown) that featured acoustic guitar and a big soaring chorus and melody with a massive hook,” which seems a lot more like Kanye’s early work (College Dropout, 2004; Late Registration, 2005; My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 2010) than his more recent projects, especially Yeezus, which polarized long-time Kanye West fans.
Kanye has a great ear for talent. This Paul McCartney guy gonna be huge.
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) January 1, 2015
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