Kanye West has always needed a muse to get the best out of him and steer him into a creative direction for his sound. One person who has influenced him more than anybody else over the last decade is his soon to be ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, who has unlocked a loving side to Ye.
When Paul McCartney worked with West, he revealed how he would use Kim as inspiration in the studio. He said, “We had two or three afternoons where we just hung out together in a Beverly Hills hotel in the bungalows out the back, and he had his engineer and was set up with a couple of microphones in case anything happened.
“I was tootling around on guitar, and Kanye spent a lot of time just looking at pictures of Kim [Kardashian] on his computer. I’m thinking, ‘Are we ever gonna get around to writing?!’ But it turns out he was writing. That’s his muse.”
Perhaps his most famous romantic inspiration was his breakup with Amber Rose. It was the spark he needed to make, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which is the rapper’s unequivocal magnum opus in our book. However, Kardashian has been a constant presence in his songwriting from even before their relationship began in 2012.
That album also features ‘Lost In The World’, which sees Kanye collaborate with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and originally written as a poem for Kim that he later turned to a song. At this time, they were just friends, and it would be another couple of years before their romance would flourish.
When the album celebrated its tenth anniversary last year, Kim posted on social media, “Happy 10 year anniversary to Kanye’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ album. For those that don’t know the story behind ‘Lost In The World’…Kanye couldn’t come up with some of the lyrics but then realised he had them in a poem he had written me that was my birthday card he gave me for my 30th birthday. He took the poem he wrote me and made it the song. I keep everything!”
He also penned a song about her when Kardashian was still married to basketball player Kris Humphries, although that lasted only 72 days. On the track, ‘Cold’, he raps, “And I admit I fell in love with Kim, Around the same time she fell in love with him, Well that’s cool baby girl, do your thing, Lucky I ain’t had Jay drop him from the team.”
Ye also wrote about her in the song, ‘My Perfect Bitch’, just four months after they started dating; however, he never released it. Perhaps, it didn’t surface because of the title, which she presumably didn’t enjoy being referred to as.
In 2018, he released ‘XTCY’, which paints West in a bad light as he details the dark thoughts that littered an ecstasy trip and features a picture of the Kardashian/Jenner sisters on the cover art. He sings, “You got sick thoughts? I got more of ’em, You got a sister-in-law you’d smash? I got four of ’em”. Admittedly, this song is hardly an ode to Kim, but the track wouldn’t exist in a warped yet, affectionate way without her.
Perhaps, the finest moment Kardashian inspired is ‘Bound 2’, which she starred in the video alongside him on a motorcycle that captures their love visually. The line, ‘One good girl is worth a thousand bitches’, epitomises Kanye’s endless love for her, which he still expresses now, even if their relationship is over romantically.
Check out the list of best songs by Kanye West, which wouldn’t breathe in the ether if it wasn’t for Kim Kardashian, below.
The best Kim Kardashian inspired Kanye West songs
- ‘Lost In The World’
- ‘Cold’
- ‘Bound 2’
- ‘I Won’
- ‘Freestyle 4’
- ‘FML’
- ‘Knock You Down’
- ‘Wolves’
- ‘XTCY’
- ‘No More Parties In LA’
- ‘Saint Pablo’
- ‘All Mine’
- ‘Wouldn’t Leave’
- ‘No Mistakes’
- ‘Closed On Sunday’
