Gold Digger Kanye West Free Mp3 Download
Joseph Zyiuahndy
"Gold Digger" is a song by American rapper Kanye West, featuring singer Jamie Foxx, from West's second studio album, Late Registration (2005). The song includes additional vocals from Plain Pat and Don C. West created the beat in Atlanta. He and Jon Brion produced the song. It was originally set to be recorded for Shawnna's debut studio album, Worth Tha Weight (2004), but the song was later passed on to West. On July 5, 2005, it was released to American rhythmic contemporary radio stations by Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam as the second single from West's album. The song set a record for the most digital downloads in a week, selling over 80,000.
A pop rap song, "Gold Digger" samples Ray Charles's "I Got a Woman" (1954), mainly the line "she give me money when I'm in need". Lyrically, Foxx sets the stage by detailing how he was taken by a gold digger and West raps in each verse about the behaviors and characteristics of one, alluding to a woman who tricked him. The song received widespread acclaim from music critics, who often praised the composition. Some complimented the lyrical content and Foxx's feature, while a few critics highlighted the sample. The song was named to year-end lists for 2005 by multiple publications, including Eye Weekly, NME, and Pazz & Jop, the latter of which it was voted the single of the year. Numerous outlets have placed it on retrospective lists, such as VH1 and Rolling Stone. At the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won Best Rap Solo Performance and also received a nomination for Record of the Year.
"Gold Digger" topped the US Billboard Hot 100, ARIA Singles Chart, and NZ Singles Chart, becoming West's second number-one single on the Hot 100, and his first on the latter two charts. The song reached the top 50 in nine other countries, such as Ireland and the United Kingdom. On Billboard's 60th anniversary in 2018, it was ranked the 70th biggest Hot 100 hit of all time. Having since been certified octuple platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the song places among the highest certified digital singles in the US. It has also been awarded quadruple platinum certifications in Australia and the UK by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and British Phonographic Industry (BPI), respectively.
An accompanying music video was released in the summer of 2005, directed by Hype Williams. Throughout the video, pin-up girls and moving magazine covers appear alongside West and Foxx. It was nominated in multiple categories at 2006 MTV award shows, including Best Male Video and Favorite Video at the MTV Video Music Awards and MTV Asia Awards, respectively. West performed the song at the MTV Video Music Awards, Grammy Awards, Brit Awards and Saturday Night Live. In retrospect, West admitted he did not like "Gold Digger" and only made the song to earn money. It was covered live by the Automatic on numerous occasions, which included the 2006 Reading and Leeds Festivals. The song was covered by Will Schuester and New Directions for the second episode of Glee, "Showmance" (2009).
West produced "Gold Digger" with record producer and composer Jon Brion.[1] Brion had achieved fame from his distinctive production work for artists and film scores for auteurs, though was lacking experience in hip hop. West became a fan of singer-songwriter Fiona Apple for whom Brion had produced; while watching the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he appreciated Brion's score. The pair became connected via their mutual friend Rick Rubin. West phoned Brion and chemistry instantly developed between the two. West enlisted him to work on Late Registration, marking Brion's first involvement in a hip hop project, with the decision creating confusion across his fanbase. Brion imagined people commenting that West has "gone off his rocker" and envisioning him making "an art record with some crazy, left-field music guy", clarifying this not to be "the case whatsoever".[2] The producer recalled West taking charge of production with his strong vision and mentioned the rapper's "quick, intuitive decisions".[2]
In late 2003, West previewed an early version of "Gold Digger" with singer John Legend in New York City (NYC).[3][4] Many surmised that West conceived the song after watching Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film Ray, contrary to how he actually created the beat at Ludacris' house in Atlanta, Georgia, before the film's creation had begun.[5] West originally came up with the song for Shawnna's 2004 debut studio album Worth Tha Weight, though she passed it on to him; his A&R representative Plain Pat said her reasoning was unknown. The chorus was originally written by West from a female's point of view, until West wrote the first two verses for himself in 2004, the second of which was performed live by him early that year when touring for his debut album The College Dropout. West initially planned to re-use a verse from his unreleased track "Drop Dead Gorgeous" for the third verse, before penning a new verse shortly before the release of "Gold Digger". Plain Pat remembered the song's mastering location and regular studio being "right next to each other" at Sony Music Studios in NYC, saying that the team went "back and forth for a week" as they walked over to master content after it was recorded and the process ended when "we cut the final part".[5]
During West's meeting with Canadian DJ A-Trak at Sasquatch! Music Festival, the rapper presented a rough version of the song to him. West felt the song was too "poppy" and sought out a style more akin to hip hop, to which A-Trak reacted by coming up with the idea of adding scratches, with confidence of what sample should be used. West reacted positively to the idea and it was mentioned when recording of the song would soon be finished in Los Angeles; the DJ recorded the scratches very late in the process, after the rapper flew him out to the county.[6] After West watched Ray with his friend John Mayer, he thought of the idea to have Foxx sing an interpolation of Charles's "I Got a Woman" (1954) in place of the song's initial sample, in case it failed to be cleared. He recorded many takes; one version featured him singing from start to finish, but it was retracted since his vocals did not match properly with the instrumentation. The singer once recorded an explicit ad-lib, though he demanded for it not to be used.[5] Brion composed some extra sounds for "Gold Digger" to finish the basic track during his first session with West, recalling that the rapper was clearly aware of what elements he liked and how he complied: "Great, we'll focus on those things."[2][5] A sample of "I Got a Woman" was used for the final version, alongside Foxx's interpolation.[1][7]
Musically, "Gold Digger" is a bouncy pop rap song, having a basic sound in contrast to the majority of Late Registration.[8][9] The song is built around a looped sample of "I Got a Woman",[10][11] written by Renald Richard and its performer Ray Charles.[1] "Gold Digger" prominently features handclaps and drums[7][10][12] that recycle patterns from The College Dropout track "Get Em High".[13][14] The song begins with Foxx's interpolation of "I Got a Woman"; he first sings the line "She takes my mon-eeee".[5][7][11] It features scratches of a "get down" vocal that were contributed by A-Trak, appearing within the choruses.[1][6] A synth coda is also included on the track,[15] as well as additional vocals by Plain Pat and Don C.[1]
"Gold Digger" was released to US rhythmic contemporary radio stations as the second single from the album on July 5, 2005, through Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam.[18][19] On August 2, a 12" vinyl was released for the song by Roc-A-Fella.[20] "Gold Digger" was eventually included as the fourth track on West's second studio album Late Registration on August 30, 2005.[21] On September 19, the song was released on a CD maxi single across Europe, through Roc-A-Fella.[22] A CD was later issued for it in France on November 27, 2005, by Def Jam.[23]
When released on the album, the song was made available for digital download.[24] "Gold Digger" sold over 80,000 digital downloads through legal music services, such as iTunes and Napster, within a week.[24][25] At the time, the song broke the record for the most digital downloads in one week and also scored the fastest download sales ever, feats that were both previously held by Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" (2005).[24][25] It was the top selling song on iTunes in 2005.[26] In 2018, "Gold Digger" was streamed 21.2 million times in the United Kingdom, ranking as the most streamed song from 2005 in the country.[27]
The song was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, mainly being praised for its composition. Jonah Weiner of Blender hailed "Gold Digger" as the album's best song, depicting it as letting out "the levels of talent separating West from that guy at the 7-Eleven".[10] He noted how West crafted "a thumping beat" from handclaps and the Charles sample, over which he "jokes about greedy groupies".[10] The Observer writer Kitty Empire saw the song as going against the elaborate style of most of Late Registration, saying it is "deliriously straight up and bouncy".[9] Sean Fennessey of Pitchfork stated that the song is simple "but not subtle", delving strongly into obviousness with Foxx's interpolation of Charles and recycled drums, but "succeeding with humor and reverence".[13] Writing for Uncut, Simon Reynolds commented that although he would have been fond of it sampling Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" (1964), the "Charles loop powers this gritty groove".[11] Reynolds asserted that the beginning has "a faux-blues whinge" from Foxx, while West later observes with dry humor.[11]
The Guardian critic Alexis Petridis observed that the song features "the odd sound" of Foxx's Oscar-winning impersonation of Charles, alongside the singer being sampled.[28] USA Today's Steve Jones appreciated the song's humor, pointing out that West speaks of "women who will burn a hole in a man's pocket" beside the Charles sample that is accompanied by Foxx impersonating him.[29] In Tiny Mix Tapes, Matty G vastly preferred the singer's interpolation of Charles to his past imitation of Al Green.[30] At the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn wrote that the song is self-explanatory and has a theme of "marvelous mischievousness",[31] similarly to how Rolling Stone reviewer Rob Sheffield viewed West as using it to indulge his style of humor.[32] Jon Pareles from The New York Times praised West's "cool arrogance" on the song, noticing him funnily commanding a chant.[16] Azeem Ahmad voiced a less positive response in musicOMH, commenting that it "hits you with standard pigeon bashing" like a male version of girl group TLC's "No Scrubs" (1999), though affirmed the Charles sample provides "the feel of a rejuvenated Negro Spiritual song".[33] Entertainment Weekly journalist David Browne saw an example of predictable paranoia from West in him "warning against a 'Gold Digger'" over a "taut, grunting beat" and a sample of Charles.[34] Veteran critic Robert Christgau wrote for The Village Voice that the song is "marked by [a] cognitively dissonant" Foxx's interpolation of the work also sampled, while "misogynistic clichs" are laid on until "the oppressed black male" West defends suddenly abandons a non-gold digger for a white woman.[17]
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