Famous Song Download
Meryl Uphoff
"Famous" is a song by American rapper Kanye West, produced and co-written by fellow American hip hop artist/producer Havoc. It serves as the lead single from his seventh studio album The Life of Pablo (2016). The song features vocals from Barbadian singer Rihanna and ad-libs from American hip hop artist Swizz Beatz, and enlists samples of Jamaican singer Sister Nancy's song "Bam Bam" and "Do What You Gotta Do" by American singer Nina Simone. The single was serviced to US urban and rhythmic contemporary radio stations on March 28, 2016, and was confirmed for release three days before.[2] It was sent to Italian contemporary hit radio stations on April 15 by Universal.
Upon its release, "Famous" was met with both critical acclaim and scrutiny for a controversial lyrical reference to American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, partially in relation to West's interruption of her 2009 VMA acceptance speech. After West claimed to have obtained Swift's approval over the criticized lyric, Swift denied the claim, criticizing West and denouncing the lyric as "misogynistic" in a statement. Several months later, West's then-wife Kim Kardashian released a three-minute video capturing parts of a conversation between Swift and West in which Swift appears to approve a portion of the lyric.[3][4] In 2020, a 25-minute uncut version of the video surfaced, establishing that West did not appear to tell Swift about the specific line ("I made that bitch famous") which she had objected to.[5][6]
In June 2016, West released a music video for "Famous" depicting wax figures of Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Ray J, Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner and Bill Cosby all sleeping naked in a shared bed. It was released to a polarized response. The wax figures used in the video were later exhibited as a sculpture. The song was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
In May 2016, Chance the Rapper shared a snippet of a demo version of the song during an interview with Zane Lowe of Beats 1 that featured a verse from him.[7] "Famous" was originally slated to be released under the title of "Nina Chop", as it was called in West's handwritten notes, and include vocals from American musician Young Thug.[8][9] In October 2016, another demo version leaked online, featuring two verses from Young Thug and him singing alongside the Nina Simone sample.[10][8] Ab-libs were also provided by Young Thug for West's vocals, with the demo revealing more explicit lyrics about Taylor Swift from West and him insulting his ex-girlfriend in American model and actress Amber Rose.[10][8] "Famous" features a segue from "braggadocious, bell-ringing hip-hop" into samples of Sister Nancy's dancehall song "Bam Bam" chopped up over the chord progression featured in Nina Simone's "Do What You Gotta Do".[11] After the initial release of The Life of Pablo, "Famous" was among the several tracks to receive alterations in West's March 2016 update of the album; changes included a different mix and slightly altered lyrics.[12] On August 6, 2020, rapper Rick Ross played a version with an unreleased verse from him in the song during his Verzuz battle with 2 Chainz.[13]
Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot called the song "an example of just how brilliant and infuriating West can be at the same time", noting its controversial Swift-referencing lyric while going on to praise the production and Rihanna's guest vocals.[14] Jayson Greene of Pitchfork wrote that the controversial lyric "feels like a piece of bathroom graffiti made to purposefully reignite the most racially-charged rivalry in 21st-century pop".[15] The Guardian's Alexis Petridis described the song's position on The Life of Pablo as being "a flatly fantastic piece of music that may be the best thing on the album".[16]
The track was positioned at number 10 on Time's list of 2016's best songs.[17] Slant named it the second best single of 2016.[18] German magazine Juice named it the seventh best international rap song of 2016.[19]
The song received Grammy nominations for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017, but ended up losing both to "Hotline Bling" by Canadian rapper and singer Drake.[20]
Upon the song's release, the lyric was heavily publicized and criticized by media outlets,[22][23] though West defended the line,[24] saying, "I called Taylor and had an hour long convo with her about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings."[25][26][27] In response, Swift's spokesperson adamantly denied that West asked for her approval for the controversial lyric,[28] with an official statement claiming that Swift had only been asked to release West's song on her Twitter page, and had instead warned him not to release a track "with such a strong misogynistic message".[22] In Swift's 2016 Grammy Awards victory speech for Album of the Year, she seemingly made a veiled reference to West's lyric, referring to "those people along the way who are going to try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame."[29]
West can be heard telling Swift, "I just had a responsibility to you as a friend, you know, and thanks for being so cool about it."[22] The recording of the call without Swift's consent was illegal and broke Californian telephone call recording law.[33] Following the video's release, Swift released a statement stating "being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination", claiming West did not tell her she would be referred to as "that bitch".[22]
The song's music video premiered at a Tidal exclusive event at The Forum in Inglewood, California on June 24, 2016. The video begins with a camera passing slowly over the naked, lookalike sleeping bodies of famous personalities. The bodies of all of the celebrities are synthetic.[44] At the end of the video, the camera pans out to show all of the sleeping bodies at the same time as West wakes up from his slumber.[44] Vincent Desiderio's painting Sleep is the visual inspiration for the video.[45]
Two days prior to the video's release, West showed the video to Dirk Standen of Vanity Fair over Skype while the video was still in its final editing stages. The video was filmed over a period of three months and went through four different versions prior to the finalized version. West did not reveal which of the celebrities' bodies in the video were real and which ones were prosthetic; however, he stated that the video was "not in support or [against] any of [the people in the video]" and was merely "a comment on fame". He also stated that he had received his wife's permission.[46] Days after its release, E! Online editor Corinne Heller commented, "Swift is the main reason the 'Famous' video was so anticipated." However, it received "almost no reactions" from the celebrities portrayed.[47] Audience response to the video was polarized.[48] The video of the song was uploaded to YouTube on July 1, 2016. West's song "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1" is also featured in the video.[49] It was negatively received on YouTube, gathering nearly 100,000 dislikes three days after being uploaded, which outweighed the number of likes.[50] German director Werner Herzog expressed admiration for the video, describing it as "very good stuff" and admitting he had "never seen anything like this".[51] The sculptures depicted in the music video are on a gallery tour, whose sale value estimates go as high as $4 million.[52]
Personally, my on-ramps were Boxer and Trouble Will Find Me, but I have favorites throughout their catalog. Different albums, eras, or songs have spoken to me at different times, so I feel like I could use a gut check before I recommend to a new fan.
About six months into learning guitar, I tried my hand at composing a song. Looked into some basic composing theory, picked a specific tempo, learned how to record and actually play the thing, and then two months later I "finished" the song, complete with lyrics and some non-standard flourishes. At the time I figured I was just putting some beginner chords together and testing out some basic theory.
Firstly, while Tom Petty never consciously entered my mind while I was composing, I'm a big fan of his and I'm familiar with MJLD. I never intended to plagiarize the song but I can't say I've never heard it, and it worries me that at any time I can accidentally tread on somebody else's work.
Secondly, supposing I had released my composition without noticing how similar it was and somebody wanted to take legal action against me for plagiarism, I don't know how I would defend myself. I can explain my way through the song and try to justify my choices of chords and tone but there's no way I can tell them why I just chose an amp setting that "sounded good."
Finally, work on the song has basically halted because running every flourish and idea through the lens of "is this REALLY my idea?" has thrown a kink in what's passing as my inventive process. There are only so many time signatures and so many chords I can use and it's not hard to find somewhere else somebody decided that an Em and a C chord sound good together.
What do you mean by 'rhythm progression?' If you mean just the chord progression (the chord chart I found online shows Am G D Am for the verses) that wouldn't be unique enough to be a copyright violation. If the melody also is too similar to the Tom Petty song, you have a potential copyright problem. When you describe it as the same as Mary Jane's Last Dance, but with different lyrics, I imagine your melody is too similar to the Tom Petty song.
If you try these things with the Tom Petty song, it will probably all sound lame, because you will be effectively destroying a cool song. That's probably how it will feel. But the processes and judging the results are the main point. Do any alternatives work? Would they work with a different lyric if the song mood has changed too much? Try it, keep what works, then move on. Hopefully in the future you will notice sooner when you are recreating an existing song and steer it in a different direction before you are fully committed to an idea.
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