The one legendary song that came from Kanye West’s sleepy studio session
Kanye West’s fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is considered one of the artist’s best bodies of work, and a lot of interesting stories about the project’s creation have emerged since its release. The album featured guest appearances from some of the most legendary MCs including the likes of Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Pusha T and Kid Cudi.
It has since emerged that even Drake was meant to appear on the project. Still, in spite of his absence, the album was praised by fans and critics alike, and one of its most memorable songs was ‘All Of The Lights’.
Released as the project’s fourth single, ‘All Of The Lights’ saw Kanye recruit the best and most talented vocalists, calling upon John Legend, Charlie Wilson, Elton John, Rihanna and others to sing their hearts out on the song. However, in an interview on Apple Music’s Deep Hidden Meaning Radio show with Nile Rogers, singer-songwriter The-Dream gave some insight into his involvement with the track and told a funny story about Kanye.
As many know, the album was recorded in Hawaii. However, Ye was still flying back to the US on a regular basis to check in on other artists and get feedback about the project. One of those people was Beyoncé, who was working with The-Dream in 2010.
Opening up about how he initially got involved with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, The-Dream explained to Rogers, “I was doing 4 in New York for Beyoncé. We were working on 4, and Kanye happened to come by the studio. Ye didn’t know I was there, and he was like, ‘Oh, happy you’re here. I got something I want you to listen to and see if you can put a hook on this thing.’”
The track was ‘All Of The Lights’, and West didn’t need The-Dream to fly to Hawaii, but instead was happy to use the facilities of Roc the Mic — the Manhattan studio Beyoncé was using to record 4.
Recalling the studio session, The-Dream told Rogers, “So, we got the booth working, brought the engineer down, recorded. And after the first take, which ended up being the song that you hear now, he said, ‘Nah, nah, nah, nah, try another one.’”
However, after an hour of being pedantic about the perfect take, The-Dream and Beyoncé soon realized that Kanye had dozed off. Humorously remembering the moment he realised West was no longer awake, The-Dream concluded, “I got to like number eight of the song I did. I look out; Kanye West is asleep. And I’m like, I’m looking through the glass like, ‘Yo, is he asleep?’. B was like, ‘Yeah, he’s kind of knocked out.’ I’m like, ‘What?’”
Kanye may have been asleep. Still, after the session, he used the vocals, and The-Dream did appear on the final version of the track.