When Kanye West’s interview with Charlamagne tha God was released last week, a lot of attention was paid to some of West’s more outlandish statements about Obama, Jay Z, Donald Trump, and even his own fashion line. But one of the most fascinating and surprisingly unnoticed moments occurred at the very beginning.
Yeezy spent most of the first couple minutes of the interview complaining about one very specific thing: the lack of radio play for his last album. He cited that fact first when asked about factors that led to his breakdown.
“Khaled got this song, Drake got this song on the radio, it’s playing to death. ‘Saint Pablo’ ain’t playing,” he lamented. “The cultural impact is incredible, but I’m looking for other forms of validation. Of course, ‘Father Stretch [My Hands Pt. 1]’ is in the club and on the radio a bit—it went to number one. But… it’s frustrating. Ever since the Taylor Swift moment, it’s never been the same, the connection with radio... [I]f you’re an artist and you signed to a major label, you want to be on the radio, especially if...you’re one of the most famous people on the planet… It seems like radio should be impacted.”
Ever since the taylor swift moment, it's never been the same, the connection with radio.
A look at “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1,” though, reveals something very interesting. The song is, at 2:16, more than a full minute shorter than most hit singles. The lyrics are very crass—the song’s line about bleaching private parts quickly became infamous. And the track has a very abrupt ending that works in the context of The Life of Pablo, since it moves directly into “Pt. 2.” When listening to “Pt. 1” by itself, however, the wrap-up seems strange and sudden.
So the fact that the song overcame all that to become the second most successful song on the album on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 37 (“Famous” peaked three spots higher) is a tribute to the power of Ye. And if we look at “Saint Pablo,” which didn’t chart at all, the reasoning behind the lack of spins is even more clear.
To begin with, even the song’s existence is confusing. It wasn’t a part of TLOP at first—instead, it was added months after the album’s original release—and the track was originally put on Apple Music apparently by mistake. The song is over six minutes long, and contains long stretches without drums, all factors that make it very unlikely to fit easily alongside a batch of three and a half minute feel-good anthems with nonstop trap drums.
As for the other singles on the album? “Real Friends” was a promotional single, released a month before the album. As such, it came and went quickly, only getting to No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Famous,” the album’s true lead single and its most successful track, eventually went double platinum.
“Fade” was the album’s third and final single. It wasn’t given to radio stations until September, 2016, a full seven months after TLOP first came out. Sonically, the song is heavily indebted to house music, a genre that had its heyday decades ago—not exactly the stuff of current chart smashes. As a result, it only got to No. 47.
Is Ye right about losing footing with radio because of the Taylor Swift incident? Spin did some fact checking, and found a mixed bag. Two of West’s biggest hits ever, “Niggas in Paris” and “Mercy,” happened post-Taylor. In addition, they correctly note, Kanye’s music got less commercial after 808s & Heartbreaks, and pop radio as a whole got much more white.
For Kanye West to want radio play with improbable songs is fine. Hell, I want a Pulitzer (then again, maybe not). But expecting pop radio to love songs that don’t fit their format, and to be disappointed when it doesn’t happen, is the kind of thing we might expect from someone who likes to feel as if powerful forces are arrayed against him, even when they’re not. Oh, wait.
