| "Cold" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single byKanye West featuringDJ Khaled | ||||
| from the albumCruel Summer | ||||
| Released | April 17, 2012 (2012-04-17) | |||
| Recorded | 2012 | |||
| Studio | Jungle City(NYC) | |||
| Genre | Hip-hop | |||
| Length | 3:39 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producer | Hit-Boy | |||
| Kanye West singles chronology | ||||
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| DJ Khaled singles chronology | ||||
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| GOOD Music singles chronology | ||||
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"Cold" (originally "Theraflu" and then "Way Too Cold"; stylized as "Cold.1" on the album) is a song by American rapperKanye West, released as the second single from the albumCruel Summer (2012). The song, which featuresDJ Khaled, was made available for purchase on theiTunes Store on April 17, 2012. Songwriting is credited to West, Chauncey Hollis,James Todd Smith andMarlon Williams, while production was handled byHit-Boy. Lyrically, the song features West boasting about his personal issues and touching on subjects such as his relationship withKim Kardashian, his breakup withAmber Rose, and his feelings onWiz Khalifa andKris Humphries. Additional vocals are included from DJ Pharris. The song received positive reviews from music critics, who praised West's lyrical performance and the boldness of his subject matter. The song contains aninterpolation of "Lookin' at Me" (1997) as performed byMase andPuff Daddy, and a sample of "Illegal Search" (1990) also performed byLL Cool J.
The song peaked at number 86 on the USBillboard Hot 100, while it reached number 68 on theHot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. "Cold" received single artwork designed by frequent West collaboratorGeorge Condo, designer of the cover of West's 2010 albumMy Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. West performed the song at the 2012Watch the Throne Tour, and at the 2012BET Awards, along with singles "Mercy" and "New God Flow". A version with an alternative intro was performed live by him duringThe Yeezus Tour. The song drew controversy from Humphries, the brandTheraflu, andPETA who criticized the content of West's lyrics, claiming the track glorifiedfur clothing.
"Way Too Cold" was produced by Hit-Boy, a producer signed to West's labelGOOD Music, known for his production on "Niggas in Paris".[1] According to Hit-Boy, he had "made the beat a couple months ago, just in a session messing around" and that West "just did the record maybe a week and a half ago. We actually don’t know if it's going to be on Khaled's album or ‘Ye's album. We just put it out because we felt like it was so urgent, people just needed to hear it."[1] In an interview Khaled explained: "I was in the studio with 'Ye [Kanye] and I was like, 'Let's do something for your album, and let's do something for my album,' and you can just release it for fun."[2]
The song was first released on the New York City radio stationHot 97 byFunkmaster Flex on April 4, 2012.[3] The cover artwork was designed byGeorge Condo, who designed the artwork for West's albumMy Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and singles like "Power" and "Runaway".[4] The first cover originally featured a bottle of Theraflu atop the woman's neck, was edited to remove the bottle before being released for digital download.[5] On April 15, West announced onTwitter that the name of the song had been changed to "Way Too Cold", and then finally "Cold".[6] The track was then released as a single onto iTunes on April 17, 2012.[5] Following its digital release, the song impactedurban contemporary radio on May 8, 2012.[7]
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"Cold" is a bass-heavy, bouncy track with West rapping prominently over a "furious beat".[8] It includes West's "blunt thoughts on his romance with model Amber Rose", who was engaged to rapper Wiz Khalifa at the time, with lines like, "only nigga I got respect for is Wiz / And I admit I fell in love with Kim around the same time she fell in love with him".[9] The second part of the quote alludes to his relationship with Kardashian and her estranged husbandKris Humphries.[10] West boasts that Kris is "lucky I ain't had Jay drop him from the team", a line referencing his frequent collaboratorJay-Z, who was part-owner of theNew Jersey Nets, theNBA team that basketball star Kris Humphries played for at the time.[10] The song "is stuffed with boasts about the rapper's fashion cred, from boasting that he's had dinner withVogue editorAnna Wintour to showing off a $6000 pair of shoes.[11] The track features vocal assists from DJ Khaled and DJ Pharris, who close out the outro of the song with their boasting.[12]
The song was met with positive reviews from music critics, who mostly had praise for West's lyrical performance and the boldness of his subject matter. Tom Breihan ofStereogum described the song as "a seriously strong performance, all hard snarls over a bleepy late-'90s-style beat" and that it "finds Kanye getting surprisingly personal, at least for a couple of lines, about his long-rumored relationship with Kim Kardashian."[13] Rob Markman ofMTV stated that "lyrically, Kanye delivers a fiery performance" on the track, and that "it's all pretty intriguing, considering Kanye has shied away from the media for almost two years now."[2] Alex Gale ofBET mused that the song features a "brash Kanye West going in furiously over a schizophrenic soundscape from Hit-Boy, the production maestro behind The Throne's 'Niggas in Paris.' Yeezy's bars are buzzworthy to say the least".[12] DJBooth mused "arrogance is busting through the seams on the record, yet it is balanced enough to sound charismatic in a form that Mr. West has perfected."[8]Rolling Stone wrote that the song was "surprisingly magnanimous" and that it features West in his "full-on braggart mode".[11]
InComplex's list of the best 25 lines of the first half of 2012, West's line "And I'll admit, I had fell in love with Kim/Around the same time she had fell in love with him/Well that's cool, baby girl, do ya thang/Lucky I ain't had Jay drop him from the team" was listed as the second best.[14] "Cold" debuted at number 92 on the USBillboard Hot 100, ultimately achieving a peak position of number 86 on the chart.[15] The song further reached number 68 on the USHot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[15] On September 23, 2020, the song was certifiedgold by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of 500,000 certified units in the United States.[16]
When "Cold" premiered, it was titled "Theraflu". A representative ofTheraflu released a statement toTMZ which read "We in no way endorse or approve of the references or use of the image and likeness of Theraflu in this manner."[17] Theraflu noted that this was not done at their request.[18] In response to the line "Tell PETA my mink is draggin' on the floor",PETA stated:
"What's draggin' on the floor is Kanye's reputation as a man with no empathy for animals or human beings. He's a great musician but doesn't seem to have the fashion sense to design anything more than caveman costumes. We keep hoping that one day he'll find his heart and join evolved style icons—includingRussell Simmons,Pink, andNatalie Portman—who have dropped animal skins."[19]
The music video was released on August 13, 2012 at the end ofDJ Khaled's "I Wish You Would" video. The video features an appearance by West's then-partnerKim Kardashian and was directed byHype Williams.[20]
The song was first performed by West at the London stop of his 2012 Watch the Throne Tour, with West performing the songa cappella.[21] At the 2012 BET Awards, the song was performed with rappersBig Sean,Pusha T,2 Chainz, as filed out one by one to deliver their verses from the song "Mercy", with West emerging to perform his verses from "Cold" and "New God Flow" afterwards.[22] ThoughLos Angeles Times's Randall Roberts noted that it wasn't "until West moved into his hit "Cold" that things got great".[22] The track was performed with snow machines shooting out ice over the audience when West played a gig inHammersmith on February 24, 2013.[23]
On November 20, 2013, when performing live onThe Yeezus Tour at theBarclay's Center, West used a vocal track of "Cold as Ice" byForeigner for an intro to his performance of "Cold".[24] The same version was performed live again by West when he took the tour toPerth Arena on September 6, 2014 and as part of his headline set forGlastonbury Festival 2015.[25][26]
Credits adapted from the liner notes forCruel Summer (2012).[27]
| Chart (2012) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[15] | 85 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[15] | 86 |
| USHot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[15] | 69 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[16] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
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