The surprising 2024 song Kanye West called his favourite
Kanye West’s tastes have been known to change wildly through the years, so one can never take his opinion at face value. But, notwithstanding that, the song that he declared in 2024 to be his favourite ever caused a bit of a stir.
A video was posted online that year, in which Ye is with his son Saint West. The boy asks his dad what his favourite ever song is, to which Ye replies with one of his own. That’s somewhat questionable in its own right, but even within the context of Kanye’s back catalogue, his choice certainly didn’t seem like one of his best.
Of all the many songs to choose from, Ye picked out ‘Fried’ as his favourite. Hardly a classic of Ye’s many songs, ‘Fried’ appeared on the ¥$ album, Vultures 2, which he made as part of his superduo with Ty Dolla Sign. It’s a trap song, and it hardly set the world alight. People weren’t that into it.
The song reached number 87 on the US charts, although it did better in some other countries. But, still, it was hardly a massive triumph, although the album it sat on did reach number two in America. The critics certainly didn’t love ‘Fried’, though. The critical reaction was tepid, at best.
Given the manner in which Ye made this comment – that is, in a video with his young son – it is unclear how seriously people should take it. But some people did, and they didn’t agree with his choice.
Even if Ye had felt compelled to choose one of his own songs, which, to be fair, was not as his son had framed the question, ‘Fried’ still seemed like an odd choice.
Ye had previously given a more interesting answer to the question of his favourite ever song, as in 2016, when he told Harper’s Bazaar that it was Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’ – both the original and the cover were released in 1968, only six months apart.
As for his own songs, Ye had also previously pointed towards a different track as being his favourite. He has been known to highlight ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing,’ which appeared on his third album Graduation.
‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’ was received better by the critics than ‘Fried’ was, while it picked up a Grammy nomination, too. It still is unlikely to top most people’s list of best Ye songs, but it seems a better candidate than ‘Fried’.