OPINION: While the record was leaked amidst the Kanye and Drake feud, André 3000 appreciates that the song was able to see the light of day.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I’ve reached this interesting point in my musical and hip-hop life where I’m almost more interested in hearing my favorite artists talk about their music than I am hearing the music that changed my life. I constantly absorb information about the creation of songs, projects and careers, because it often provides inspiration and motivation. A lot of my favorite artists seem like regular people with extraordinary talents whose lives consist of a little bit of luck, a lot of faith, and more often than not, being in the right place at the right time. That combination, along with the willingness to lean into that talent, has created art forms and creative works that have shaped, bent and transformed the world. For that, I am forever grateful.
But also, sometimes you get stories you never knew and information about how even the artists interact. In a recent interview with the New York Times’ music podcast, Popcast (Deluxe), André 3000 mused about a lot of things and spoke about various aspects of his career and life, including his constant thoughts about aging in rap and his Album of the Year Grammy nomination for his flute-centric album, “New Blue Sun.” It’s a good interview and he covers a lot of ground and shares interesting tidbits I didn’t know, like his verse on last year’s Grammy-award winning “Best Rap Song” — “Scientists & Engineers” — was about eight years old at the time and originally written for another record. See? That’s interesting.
Then, there’s one segment where he speaks about “Life of the Party,” a record that hit the internet with a lot of fanfare. “Life Of The Party” is a song that I remember hitting the internet like lightning because, well, any song that features an André verse is going to make the rounds, but this was André and Kanye West. West is, of course, always a lightning rod for attention, but he’s also one of the most innovative musicians we’ve had in music, and this was during the time when Kanye was working on his 2021 album “Donda,” named after his late mother, Donda West.
In the song, André, who, like Wes,t also lost his mother, raps a verse to Kanye’s mother, Donda, asking her to give a message to his mother. It was very surreal and the subject of a lot of conversation and social media discussion. It was especially a thing because the song saw the light of day because of Drake. Yes, that one. In the middle of whatever issues Drake and Kanye West were having back in 2021, Drake leaked “Life Of The Party” on his OVO Sirius XM radio show. Surprisingly, André thanks Drake for leaking the record.
As it turns out, Kanye and André were having a disagreement about the song’s release. It was originally an outtake from the original “Donda” sessions, so it wasn’t on the official album release anyway, but the song (which did get played during private “Donda” listening sessions) might never have seen the light of the day because Kanye wanted all of the songs associated with “Donda” to be profanity-free. André’s verse has profanity, so in their conversations, André asked to be taken off the record.
And then the leak happened. Now, if you pull up “Life Of The Party,” the original version with all of the profanity is available on streaming, and maybe that only happens because of the leak. Otherwise, André’s verse might have been deleted because while he respected Kanye’s decision to release the album his way, he wasn’t changing or being willing to release it as one where his words were beeped or muted.
This is why I love hearing the background stories of songs that impacted me. You really never know what’s happening between the artists or the politics surrounding a thing. And while Drake is indisputably having a very bad, no good, terrible 2024, apparently, his decision-making in 2021 was appreciated by André, even if it was in the middle of their feud.
So, umm, yeah…thanks Drake!
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
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