| "Never Let Me Down" | |
|---|---|
| Song byKanye West featuringJay-Z andJ. Ivy | |
| from the albumThe College Dropout | |
| Released | February 10, 2004 |
| Recorded | May 2002–03 |
| Studio | Baseline Recording (New York, New York) The Record Plant (Hollywood, California) Larrabee Sound North (Los Angeles, California) |
| Genre | Hip hop |
| Length | 5:24 |
| Label | |
| Songwriters | |
| Producer | West |
"Never Let Me Down" is a song by American rapper and producerKanye West featuring fellow artistsJay-Z andJ. Ivy, from West's debut studio albumThe College Dropout (2004). It was released as the album's eighth track, produced solely by West, and samples "Maybe It's the Power of Love" by Americanrock groupBlackjack. As such, Blackjack membersMichael Bolton andBruce Kulick have writing credits on the song. West and Ivy each provide one verse–the latter's being a poem–while Jay-Z has two verses.
Music critics mostly had praise for the track, released with the rest of its album on the 10th of February, 2004, but tended to view Jay's appearance in a negative light. Although the song was not released as a single and, thus, did not chart, it was certified gold on the 21st of April, 2022. Previously, in 2011,Billboard listed the song as the second greatest collaboration between Kanye and Jay. Although an accompanyingmusic video was never produced for "Never Let Me Down", the audio of the track was used in one of West's videos for fellowCollege Dropout track "Jesus Walks". The song has developed a significant legacy over time, despite never having an official single release.
Ivy revealed that he initially knew West fromChicago, but was reintroduced to him inNew Jersey shortly before they collaborated on the track.[1] He got a call fromCoodie at 11 pm on December 7, 2002, about being part of the song, in which Coodie said to him: "J, you need to get to L.A. Kanye got this song with him and Jay Z and he wants to put a poet on it. I told him he had to put J. Ivy on it." and Ivy was initially like: "Stop bullshitting", before Coodie played it for him over the phone fromRecord Plant inHollywood, California.[2] At the time, Ivy was excited about being on the record, not only because of: 'knowing that [West] was taking off to superstardom at the time', but also because he thought of Jay as: 'one of the greatest of all time'.[3] After penning his verse, Ivy called Coodie and rapped to him over the phone, then he put Ivy on speaker phone to rap his verse again once Coodie went in the other room with people in it and the people in there reacted positively to Ivy's verse - this led to him rapping it over, over, over and over again to them.[2]
On February 13, 2014, a video surfaced online from 2003 of West rapping his verse toPharrell in the studio, as well as singing along with the sample and Pharrell clearly showed excitement after hearing the rap from him.[4] The verse was actually recorded by West on the night of theMadison Square Garden show by Jay that he wasn't invited to.[5] Ivy rapped his verse on speaker phone to West and others on December 7, 2002, then flew over to Hollywood to join them in recording via West's request.[2] It was revealed by Tarry Torae that West set up a little studio section in his living room during the recording of "Never Let Me Down" and Torae ended up recording two or three songs in the night of this session, one of which was "My Way" which ended up on the infamous unofficial Kanye West mixtapeFreshmen Adjustment (2004).[1][6] When it comes to Jay's appearance on the track,John Monopoly revealed that he recorded for it two days before mastering of the featuring album – however, Jay had confirmed to give West a feature before it was even known which track he'd be part of.[2]
The two verses by Jay-Z were originally recorded for his seventh studio album,The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse in mid 2002. After deciding to not use the song, West decided to finish it for his album.[7] Ivy's verse is a poem that he wrote in a notebook, which Ivy claimed was something that he turned toGod and prayed for.[3] The lines rapped in West's verse: "Nothing sad as that day my girl's father passed away/So I promised to Mr. Rainey I'm gonna marry your daughter" mark a promise that he didn't keep, since the rapper went on to marryKim Kardashian in 2014 rather than Sumeke Rainey.[8] Within the verse, West raps the line: "Racism's still alive, they just be concealin' it", which went on to be one of his most quoted lyrics.[9] The 2002 car accident involving West is referenced by him with the line: "I know I got angels watching me from the other side", which is a subject he mostly touches on in debut single "Through the Wire".[10]
Within the track, American bandBlackjack's 1980 song "Maybe It's the Power of Love" is sampled.[11] In February 2015, band memberMichael Bolton recalled clearing the sample at the time, revealing that he required the artists to send him the lyrics first to see if the content was worthy of his approval - in the end, Bolton believed that: 'the song turned out beautifully' and he's 'totally happy with it'.[12] Bolton actually took to the online siteGenius and annotated the song.[12] However, it was also revealed by Bolton that he didn't know who Kanye and Jay were when he first found out that they were trying to license "Maybe It's the Power of Love", until his daughters told him: "They're like the biggest rappers in the business, dad." - Bolton himself even admitted to being out of touch during this time.[13]
On the original track list ofThe College Dropout, "Never Let Me Down" was number fourteen, instead of number eight as it stands on the official release.[14][15] When the album was released, West referenced featuring artist Jay-Z in the booklet's list of 'Thanx' by crediting: 'Jay 4 blowin me up'.[11] Despite amusic video never being released, part of the song is played during the ending of the second version of three videos for West's 2004 single "Jesus Walks", which comes one position before it on the album's track list.[16][15] Ivy performed apoetry style rendition of his verse for theSeason 5 opener ofRussell Simmons presentsHBODef Poetry in 2006, which was only performed live and never part of any release by the rapper.[17] The verse being performed by Ivy for this opener was appropriate, since he considers it to be a poem.[3]
"Never Let Me Down" received positive reviews from the majority of music critics, though most tended to have praise for West's work and express negativity towards Jay's contributions. Paul Cantor ofBillboard had mixed views towards the song, describing Jay's presence as being where he "phones in a verse about making number one albums", but praising the rest of it for being "about overcoming racism and undefeatable odds".[18] Rob Mitchum ofPitchfork felt negatively about Jay's contributions too, labelling his appearance as him "already sounding groggy from retirement".[19] Jay's content was viewed as paling in comparison to that of West by Dave Heaton ofPopMatters, since he described the song as "where Jay-Z rhymes about attaining status and power, Kanye one-ups him with a show-stopping attack on racism and meditation on death".[20] The staff ofHipHopDX actually put Jay forward as being better than West on the song but didn't lack praise for either rapper, writing that "Jay-Z drops 2 incredible verses on [Never Let Me Down] with Kanye not far behind delivering the verse of his career."[21] It was viewed by Sal Cinquemani ofSlant Magazine as being one of the album tracks where West "proves he can flow with the best of them".[22]
HotNewHipHop placed it at number 48 on their list of West's 50 best songs.[23] OnComplex's list of his 100 best songs, the track was ranked at number 82.[24] "Never Let Me Down" was listed byBillboard as being the second greatest Jay and Kanye collaboration in August 2011, post-release of their collaborative albumWatch the Throne.[25]Time named it the second best song of 2004.[26]
The video of West rapping "Never Let Me Down" to Pharrell from 2003 actually surfaced online within the same week as the tenth anniversary ofThe College Dropout and it was regarded as a classic track by this point.[4] Ivy's appearance on it has been regarded as one of the most significant moments of his career.[27] West's lyrics: "I get down for my grandfather/Who took my mama/Made her sit in that seat where white folks didn't want us to eat/At the tender age of six, she was arrested for the sit-ins/And with that in my blood, I was born to be different" were viewed bySpin in 2014 as showing "heavenly inspiration and scrappy determination", which was claimed for West to still be showing nine years later in his 2013 track "I Am a God".[7] When Ben Westhoff ofThe Guardian published an article in April 2015 that ranked the album at number one in West's discography, the song was the end of what he called "as powerful a sequence as I've ever heard on record".[28] Ivy blogged in celebration ofThe College Dropout's 13th anniversary on February 10, 2017, and shared the original page with his lyrics scribbled down, alongside various notes.[17]
Information taken fromThe College Dropout liner notes.[11]
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[29] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
| "Never Let Me Down (Cinematic)" | |
|---|---|
| Song byKanye West | |
| from the albumThe College Dropout Video Anthology | |
| Released | March 22, 2005 |
| Recorded | 2004 |
| Genre | Hip hop |
| Length | 5:15 |
| Label | |
| Songwriters | |
| Producer | West |
On the 22nd of March, 2005,The College Dropout Video Anthology was released, which features a bonus audio CD with a "cinematic" version of "Never Let Me Down" as a track on its bonus CD,[30] alongside the bonus CD of the 2005Japanese special edition. The version is mostly an instrumental, excluding all verses, specificallyJay-Z, who does not have a writing credit on this version. The only vocals kept were the chorus.
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