When I first listen to a song, the immediate thing I always notice is the emotion invoked by the artist and myself. How a song makes me feel. If I am listening to a track with a basic production, mindless lyrics, and no emotion, I am immediately taken out of the experience of the song – if I wanted this type of music I’d listen to Nav. There are also many talented artists who put so much emotion into their projects, that it can come off as too much – see Speeding Bullet to Heaven by Kid Cudi one of my favorite artists. For Kanye, he is a lot more likely to fall on the latter of the two sides when it comes to music. He is constantly innovating and changing his sound to challenge traditional music standards. As a result, he can become too emotionally involved with his music to the point where it turns fans off. His most recent solo LP, Ye, is one that many consider to have this issue. I; however, disagree with this sentiment. Ye, to me, is a perfect balance of emotion and musical innovation to keep me enthralled with what he is doing, but also not turn me off by being too experimental and emotional. I actually find this album to be the most underrated record in his discography. But to this day, Ye remains Kanye’s worst critically acclaimed album (though it is worth noting that these ratings average around 6.5/10, so for that to be the worst of 10 LP’s is quite incredible). Despite all these mediocre reviews of the album, one track in particular stands out on every review – Ghost Town.

There is a general sentiment that Ghost Town is already seen as a top 10 Kanye song of all time, despite the album being out less than a year. There’s a unique element to this track that puts it up against the likes of Runaway and Through the Wire for me. That element is overwhelming sense of happiness and optimism that flows from the production and lyrics. Ghost Town is unique in the fact that I believe it can be seen as Kanye’s happiest song of the last 5 years – going all the way back to Yeezus. The production on this record is very atmospheric – it floats into the listener’s ears and dances with the gorgeous vocal performances. All five artists appearing on this track – one coming in the form of a sample – contribute their own unique styling and sound to the record. So without further ado, let’s dive into what makes this song Kanye’s pure expression of freedom and optimism.

The track opens with a haunting sample from 60s recording artist Shirley Ann Lee. “Some day I’ll, I wanna wear a starry crown.” This is speaking to the general desire of success and satisfaction that is prevalent in Kanye’s music dating back to tracks like Spaceship on The College Dropout. Kanye wishes to achieve a state of unprecedented success. The opening verse, sung by October’s Very Own PARTYNEXTDOOR, continues these sentiments, but the desires are more refined. While success and being at the center of media attention drove Kanye in his earlier years, now he desires to “lay down, like God did, on Sunday.” Ghost Town deals with heavy themes of isolation from the public eye, and the complications involved with being a media figurehead – a desire to escape. Hence, the meaning behind the title “Ghost Town.” These ideals of isolation and personal freedom are furthered later in the verse with lyrics like “Some days I wanna hit the red dot on everybody,” and “I’m smokin’ marijuana, Now that I’m livin’ high, I do whatever I wanna.” This entire LP, along with the four other GOOD Music projects released summer 2018, were done in the privacy of Kanye’s Wyoming house. This environment lends to the nature of the track and the general desire to escape presented in the lyrics. The first verse really works to highlight the drive to liberation presented throughout the entire record.

From liberation from the media and the public eye, the song moves to liberation from the self. One of the major backdrops surrounding this project’s release was the revelation by Kanye of his Bi-Polar disorder. Even gracing Ye’s album cover in text reading “I hate being Bi-Polar, it’s awesome,” this debilitating mental disorder serves as a common theme throughout the entire album. Kid Cudi’s beautiful hook highlights this theme even more. “I’ve been tryin’ to make you love me. But everything I try just takes you further from me.” At first glance, this seems to be another reference to Kanye’s relationship to the media, but it is more likely that it is a reference to himself and his Bi-Polar disorder. Cudi and Kanye both struggle from this mental illness which is defined by spells of manic highs and depressive lows. People with this condition often have difficultly expressing love for theirselves, as it can be difficult to get a grasp on their own mental state. It can be the case, that when this happens any movement towards loving yourself becomes increasingly difficult. Cudi’s chorus highlights how difficult this action of loving oneself becomes, when you are trapped in this mental state. This idea plays into Kanye’s beautiful verse on the record.

Kanye’s verse on this track is my second favorite Kanye verse of all time – behind his final verse on Gone and in front of the first verse from Saint Pablo. There’s something about his raw, and to a point kinda bad, singing that is perfect for me. Going back to the invocation of emotion I mention to start this analysis, I can feel Kanye’s emotions being poured out in this verse. The verse starts with Kanye referring to his hospitalization in 2016. “On a pack of Fentanyl.” Fentanyl is a powerful and addictive painkiller that is “50 times more dangerous than heroin” (the Guardian). It is incredibly dangerous, and mixing it with other drugs has taken the lives of many popular musicians – Prince and Tom Petty to name a couple. Kanye became addicted to it as part of his treatment after being hospitalized. This drug is one of the many things Kanye attributes to his manic behavior. From here, Kanye addresses his Bi-Polar behavior once again by claiming they “wrote you off.” The only person writing off Kanye was himself, as he realizes you make your own destiny and art. He then visualizes a future where “Someday the drama’ll be gone.” Ghost Town will then serve as his legacy of freedom. He has broken through the bad publicity, and the Kanye he is presenting here is the one everyone will know. Next, drawing to his controversies, as he so often does, Kanye hits us with the line “talk like I drank all the wine.” This is in reference to the multiple times he has stolen the mic at an awards show, and made a fool of himself. After this, he leans into his controversies some more, while also recognizing his dualistic nature, with the line “years ahead but way behind.” My favorite line in this verse. Kanye is referencing how his music has always been ahead of its time. Any song or project Kanye creates the music industry always mimics. As he said Saint Pablo, “I know I’m the most influential.” But, he also addresses how he is seen as “way behind.” This is in regards to his support of Donald Trump and his terrible comment on “slavery being a choice.” No matter what he does he is trapped in a dualistic reality echoing his Bi-Polar nature. He then continues the verse with another reference to how many prescription drugs he is on, as a result of his disorder. He says no truth is a halfway one – people are only clouded in thought, and this cloud is formed by prescription drugs, society, or other ideas. Finally, he concludes the verse by referencing Einstein’s theory of special relativity. “Caught between space and time.” The theory suggests that both space and time are actually one in the same thing. This idea works to break Kanye’s Bi-Polar disorder, as all is not divided into two parts – all is actually one. He realizes that he isn’t where he thought he wanted to be in life, but he knows one day he can and will reach it. He feels free.

Closing out the track we have the now infamous outro by 070 Shake. This closing took myself and many others by surprise when the LP first dropped. 070 was a complete unknown, and she came in and destroyed the outro. Her voice is so angelic and pure I’m almost moved to tears listening to it. The production at this point of the track is also incredible. There’s this super weird laser blast that plays over the beat (my friends and I call it the “Han Solo blaster effect”). The outro's production just has a spacey, happy sound, and I love it. The lyrics revolve around the idea of childhood freedom. As a child, we are not aware of the struggles and difficulties of life we gain growing up. She repeats the line “And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free.” This is in line with the thought process of an adolescent child. Nothing bothers them, they aren’t held back by society, or in Kanye’s case the media and his disorder – they are free. And Kanye is saying that we are still these kids. The most famous line from this song is “I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed, yeah and nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free.” This is metaphor for self-harm many people enact on theirselves to see if they still feel something. The line “nothing hurts anymore,” shows that Kanye has broken through the point of feeling and is free. This is Kanye’s mindset at the end of the song. He is no longer bogged down by the media, his mind, or anything else. He has achieved what he always wanted. He will now return to the childlike state he had in his youth, with family and friends surrounding him.

Finally, it is also important to the note the role psychedelic drugs played in the creation of this album and track. Kanye makes multiple references to psychedelic drugs throughout the duration of the album. On the song Yikes, he even raps “I done died and lived again on DMT.” DMT is one of, if not the most, powerful psychedelics known to man. It creates incredible visuals, and is described as the closest thing to a near-death experience possible. DMT, like all psychedelics, destroys a person’s ego, and makes you see the world in one interconnective sphere. Kanye’s experiences on this song mimics a “trip” that one would experience on a psychedelic. The feelings of freedom, a reflection on your life and how you act, and a new vision and drive of where you want to go in life, are all common elements of this song and a psychedelic trip. Psychedelic rap has become increasingly common in the past few years. Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper is one of the best projects of the past decade, and helped bring psychedelic rap into the mainstream. This along with other projects, like the immediate follow-up to this album Kids See Ghosts by Kanye and Kid Cudi, are helping to pioneer a new type of sound in hip-hop. The role of psychedelics on this track, and LP as a whole, should not be overlooked. As artists continue to experiment with these drugs as they did in the 60s and 70s, more unique, experimental, and personal projects will come out like Ye – I greatly anticipate this new wave of music.

Ghost Town is a freeing track. It’s a look at the demons that have plagued Mr. West for so long. He is finally dispelling these thoughts – internal and external – and becoming the person he wants to be. After this project’s release, Kanye continued to be politically involved, but not for as long or as controversially. It is known that he will often perform controversies to promote albums, but this song makes me think those days are finally over. Recently, he has been performing his Sunday Services, as part of his renewed faith in Christ. Actions like this, his use of psychedelics, and this overall project makes me believe Kanye is trying to become a better person – a freer person. Ghost Town is Kanye’s final expression of the self and his ultimate stride to freedom.

Sources:

Genius. 6-1-18. "Ghost Town Lyrics". https://genius.com/Kanye-west-ghost-town-lyrics .





Noisey by Vice. 6-26-18. Bassil, Ryan. "Acid On Me Like the Rain: Mapping Psychedelia's Big Pop Culture Moment". https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/9k8498/psychedelia-anxiety-generation-y-kanye-frank-kacey-musgraves-tao-lin .



