Kanye West Drops “Real Friends” Plus Snippet Of Kendrick Lamar-Assisted “No More Parties In L.A.”

Carl Williott | January 8, 2016 1:26 pm

Kim Kardashian announced earlier today (January 8) that Kanye West would be dropping a new song today and implied he’d be doing it every Friday for the foreseeable future, much like his GOOD Fridays series leading up to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. And now it’s here, the self-produced “Real Friends” featuring Ty Dolla $ign and production help from Boi-1da, Frank Dukes and Havoc. It’s filled with cutting rhymes aimed at himself and bloodsuckers around him trying to capitalize on his fame, including a line about paying a cousin $250,000 after he stole West’s old laptop containing sex tape footage. It all happens over a twinkly piano bed.

As a special bonus, West tacked on the beginning of a Kendrick Lamar-assisted song, “No More Parties In LA,” which West produced with Madlib. It’s built on a soul sample, and together, these should serve as a salve for fans who heard “Facts” and thought maybe their almighty god was washed.

Kanye removed the song minutes after posting it, offering this explanation:

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/685533328506654720

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/685533442491027456

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/685541651272486912

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/685541699775414272

So after a flase start, it’s here…unembeddable. Hear it at his Soundcloud.

Maybe it’s because this Stereogum essay is fresh in my head or I’ve got The Strokes and Kanye fused in my mind due to the Gov Ball lineup, but this feels similar to when The Strokes’ “Juicebox” dropped ahead of their third album First Impressions Of Earth, and it was swiftly and widely regarded as a horrible misfire. But then “You Only Live Once” surfaced right after, and it found the band going back to basics and was a huge sigh of “oh good, they still got it” relief. That’s what the “Facts”/”Real Friends” dynamic is shaping up to be. As for what that means for Swish, or whether these are even on that album, who knows. But it’s worth noting that that Strokes LP ended up being the band’s first glaring misfire…