"Ghost Town" is a song by the American rapper Kanye West from his eighth studio album, Ye (2018). It features a guest appearance from the Canadian singer PartyNextDoor and additional vocals from the American rappers Kid Cudi and 070 Shake. West produced "Ghost Town" with assistance from Mike Dean, Francis and the Lights, Benny Blanco, and Noah Goldstein. It was recorded for West and Kid Cudi's collaborative album Kids See Ghosts (2018), but was moved to Ye shortly before its release on June 1, 2018.
A hip-hop track with rock elements, "Ghost Town" is based on samples of "Take Me for a Little While" by the Royal Jesters and "Someday" by Shirley Ann Lee, while the chorus interpolates the Dave Edmunds recording of "Take Me for a Little While". Music critics described "Ghost Town"'s tone as psychedelic. It portrays West's mind unraveling, connecting to Ye themes of mental illness, and he gargles unfinished thoughts. PartyNextDoor and Kid Cudi sing the intro and chorus, while during the outro, 070 Shake belts about numbness.
"Ghost Town" received acclaim from critics, who considered it one of Ye best tracks. They praised the production and 070 Shake's outro, though West's verse drew mixed responses, with some criticizing his singing ability. Multiple publications, including Consequence and NME, named "Ghost Town" one of the best songs of 2018. West and Kid Cudi released a sequel, "Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)", that features Ty Dolla Sign and interpolates the original's lyrics in Kids See Ghosts on June 8.
"Ghost Town" peaked at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and in the top 20 in New Zealand and the UK. It has been certified double platinum and platinum in the US and the UK by the Recording Industry Association of America and the British Phonographic Industry, respectively. West and Kid Cudi performed "Ghost Town" on Saturday Night Live in 2018 and at the Coachella Music Festival in 2019. BadBadNotGood and Jungle performed cover versions in 2018.
Background and development
A link was shared by West via his blog on February 7, 2009, to a cover version of his 2007 single "Can't Tell Me Nothing" by American pop project Francis and the Lights. They first collaborated on the latter's single "Friends" in 2016 alongside Bon Iver, and West has a cameo in the accompanying music video. Along with "Ghost Town", Francis and the Lights contributed production to the tracks "I Thought About Killing You" and "All Mine". He handled additional production for the former of the three, alongside Benny Blanco and Noah Goldstein, while Mike Dean co-produced it and West served as the lead producer.
In a November 2016 interview with NOW Magazine, Canadian musician PartyNextDoor cited West as someone he wanted to produce and write at the level of, while also stating that he was influenced by West when he was younger. Following the release of his third EP Colours 2 in June 2017, PartyNextDoor tweeted on July 20 of that year that he had new music on the way with West, and Apple Music simultaneously responded via Twitter. At the time, it was unknown what project the two were recording for, and PartyNextDoor had only previously contributed to West's work by co-writing "Waves" in 2016. PartyNextDoor later tweeted a picture of the two of them talking on July 22, 2017, the first photographic evidence of their collaboration. Alongside "Ghost Town", PartyNextDoor provided vocals and songwriting for Ye's track "Wouldn't Leave", though he wasn't properly credited until the album's credits were updated on streaming services on June 15, 2018.
Initially an unknown SoundCloud user, American hip-hop artist 070 Shake refused to sign with anyone other than West. 070 Shake ultimately signed to his record label GOOD Music in 2016 and recalled West advising her "to ultimately be 100 percent open when you're creating and let your mind wander," as well as to not "set any boundaries for yourself." The song and fellow album track "Violent Crimes" both include vocals from 070 Shake. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she stated that after the song, a lot of people were contacting her by phone and recalled being "like, 'How did you get my number?' and shit." When listening to the song for the first time, 070 Shake labeled the feeling "surreal" and said she placed focus on taking the whole moment in so she would not have regretted failing to take it in properly after the time, while 070 Shake opined that being on a record with West felt "crazy".
A promotional video was displayed on West's official website from the Ye listening party that was set to "Ghost Town" and "I Thought About Killing You", though the website was ultimately updated on October 22, 2019. West assembled the listening party on the night before the album's release in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is the same place that it was recorded by him. Kevin Parker of Tame Impala initially believed that he was credited as a co-writer on the song instead of "Violent Crimes", until he was informed that the latter was played at the listening party. Parker had allegedly sent a number of samples to West for Ye, but assumed that they hadn't made the cut after not hearing back from him. West began to come to Jackson Hole often from early 2017 onwards, months after his stay in the hospital. After he left the hospital, notes were made by West about his experiences and feelings. As part of the album's songwriting process, West gave his notes to various writers for them to help add structure to his thoughts. When discussing his songwriting process during an interview with The New York Times on June 25, 2018, West revealed that co-writer Malik Yusef was responsible for the lyrics "Sometimes I take all the shine/Talk like I drank all the wine." Before combining rap with rock, West and Kid Cudi had shown admiration for rock artists.
Composition and lyrics
Musically, "Ghost Town" is a hip-hop track that is often noted for its rock elements. The song includes a sample of "Take Me for a Little While", written by Trade Martin and performed by the Royal Jesters, within its leading bass, drum, and keys combination. The opening of the track features a sample of "Someday", as performed by Shirley Ann Lee. Guitars are included within the song, which some writers viewed as psychedelic. In particular, "Ghost Town" has been noted for taking rock influence from Kid Cudi's work, with a "strong presence of guitars" that Will Lavin of Joe.co.uk called "very reminiscent of a couple of tracks" from his second studio album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010). The Atlantics Spencer Kornhaber commented that the song features "psychedelic, space-soul, and prog sounds." West's tone is dazed, with him using the same verse melody as that of his Pusha T-featuring single "Runaway" (2010). In the outro, laser sounds are featured.
The song presents the mind of West going through the process of unraveling, with the ongoing speculation that his mental health is often poor. Mental illness is a common theme on Ye; the song is linked to the subject matter of the album that West's mind is unraveling. PartyNextDoor sings about feeling so good that it is dangerous. West's verse in the song sees him gargling multiple half-finished thoughts as he opens up his mind. The lyrics of West's verse include a reference to the opioid painkiller fentanyl. While singing the chorus of "Ghost Town", Kid Cudi interpolates vocals from rock and roll artist Dave Edmunds' 1979 version of "Take Me for a Little While". The outro is performed by 070 Shake, featuring her singing about freedom and numbness in a manner that has been described as belting. 070 Shake explained that she used a metaphor for numbness with the line, "Put my hand on the stove, to see if I still bleed."
Release and recording "Ghost Town" was released on June 1, 2018, as the sixth and penultimate track on West's eighth studio album, Ye. However, West tweeted out an early track list of the eponymous debut studio album by Kids See Ghosts, a hip-hop duo consisting of him and Kid Cudi, on May 15 of that year, and this showed the song as originally being scheduled for release on the album. It was slated to be released as the fourth track, though the shuffling of tracks between albums recorded by West led to the song being released on Ye instead. The song's follow-up was released by Kids See Ghosts under the title "Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)" on June 8, 2018, also being led to by the shuffling.
In an interview with Pigeons & Planes, 070 Shake revealed that the song was finished hours before the album's listening party on May 31, 2018, and recalled reference tracks being recorded: "I had done a reference for it, and then I guess he forgot about it. We put that reference on another song, then Kanye did his own reference for that 'free' concept." She explained in the interview that it came close to not making the album's final cut during the recording sessions: "At the end, we were talking and asking, 'Is this the one right here?' And I kind of mentioned 'Ghost Town' and said maybe we could use something from that." 070 Shake elaborated, revealing that after listening to the reference again, West "said, 'Oh yeah, this is the one.'" She concluded, stating, "So 'Ghost Town' almost didn't make it." According to 070 Shake, she wrote the reference track after first arriving in Wyoming, and West had forgotten about it due to him being "very focused on a lot of other things, other songs and stuff , and it just left his mind a little bit." Recording for Ye started after West made controversial comments about slavery in a TMZ interview earlier in May 2018 that led to the album being re-done afterward.
Critical reception
"Ghost Town" was met with acclaim from music critics, often being ranked as one of the album's highlights. Meaghan Garvey of Pitchfork pointed to the track as "yes clear highlight," while she regarded the outro by 070 Shake and Kid Cudi's refrain as being better than West's verse, especially noting that 070 Shake's "performance is unexpectedly magnetic." Carrie Battan from The New Yorker named the track as the best song, pointing out its elements of soul and pop punk, though she viewed the track as "the finest example of hip-hop's current fascination with rock music" and praised the outro by 070 Shake for showing that her "androgynous, pubescent voice is used to create a bridge between the joyous and the morbid." Outside of "I Thought About Killing You" and "Yikes," The Independents Christopher Hooton billed the track as the album's "only other remotely good song." Hooton continued, viewing it as being salvaged by 070 Shake "with a stunning, anthemic and sincere vocal over a crunchy guitar riff." Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone complemented the song for being the only track on Ye that "stands on its own" and also directed praise towards 070 Shake's vocals, though concluded by writing that the song has "genuine heart – enough heart to make you wish Kanye could find a way out of his current creative trap." Douglas Greenwood from NME described the song as the album's "penultimate and perhaps strongest track" and argued that it "owes a great deal to its euphoric, rocky outro" from 070 Shake, with him viewing the outro as "a moment of real clarity on a record that's immediately impactful." Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Alex Suskind highlighted the song as one of Yes "few bright spots," commenting that it "resembles My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy opus 'Runaway'" and Suskind directed praise towards the lyrical content. Adam Rothbarth of Tiny Mix Tapes commented with praise for Kid Cudi's "purposely gnarly" refrain, West's "elegant vocal performance" and the production of the song. However, Rothbarth opined that the production "sets the perfect foundation for 070 Shake's cyclical" outro and cited the outro as one of the highlights of Ye.