Power (Kanye West song)

"Power" (stylized as "POWER") is a single by American hip hop recording artist Kanye West, released as the first single from his fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The song features additional vocals by Dwele and is co-produced by Kanye West and Symbolyc One. The song features a sample of "21st Century Schizoid Man" by English progressive rock band King Crimson, "Afromerica" by American funk band Continent Number 6, and "It's Your Thing" by funk band Cold Grits. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards.

Music video

The New York Times previewed a clip of the music video directed by artist Marco Brambilla, featuring Irina Shayk, Jessica White and African-American albino fashion model Diandra Forrest. The Power video commences with a portrait-view headshot of Kanye West staring intensely into the camera with illuminated eyes and wearing a large, low-hanging gold chain necklace with an equally large pendant of Horus. As the music begins, the camera slowly pans out in one continuous take to reveal West standing at the end of a hallway of black columns, and surrounded by partially-dressed female characters. Some kneel before him; some embrace; four figures wear ibex-like horns; and some are inverted, pouring water that flows upward. Two horned, staff-bearing figures, loosely resembling interpretations of Isis and Hathor, stand on either side of West; each slowly strikes the ground with their staff, in time to the music. The Sword of Damocles hangs over the rapper’s head, while other slowly-moving figures appear ready to strike West with blades. The various figures within the painting are presented in poses similar to the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana of the Etteilla occult tarot deck, including: The Devil; Judgement; The Lovers; The World; Freemasonry; The Hanged Man; The Ace of Swords/Sword of Damocles; The Page of Swords; The Seven of Wands; and The Queen of Cups.

Live performances

Kanye West performed this song at the 2010 BET Awards atop a mountain-like prop, with a video compilation of footage shot on top of a mountain playing in the back. West performed it on Saturday Night Live on October 2. While, on the original record, the rapper says "Fuck SNL and the whole cast", these verses were dropped in favor of new lyrics. For the first time in the show's history the signature black, instrument filled stage gave place to an all-white, backlit canvas. This performance was heavily publicized and received some rave reviews. Gregory Ellwood wrote "Note to Lorne Michaels: Whatever West had to do to let you break form and come up with such a visually stunning and impressive performance was well, well worth it. This is memorable television. Hands down." "West's SNL performance proved once again that no matter what's going on in his personal life, he is an artist and will continue to take chances in the music industry—ultimately breaking new ground," wrote Megan Masters, adding "Kanye West is a comeback king." Kevin O'Donnell wrote "West delivered one of the show's most unique performances of all-time." On October 4 West tweeted "Here's the tweet you all knew was coming... Love to SNL and the whole cast! West also performed this song live at the EMAs 2010, in Madrid, during 30 Seconds To Mars's performance of their song "Hurricane", which features the singer in a second version.

Media usage

"Power" was used in a Hip-Hop routine on the hit dance show So You Think You Can Dance in its seventh season. The song was heavily featured in promotional trailers for David Fincher's film The Social Network. It was also featured in season 4, episode 5 of Gossip Girl entitled "Goodbye, Columbia", as well as in the trailer for the 2011 Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro film, Limitless. Fox's The Chicago Code uses the song in its TV spots as the rapper is from Chicago. Also, Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers uses the song as one of his at-bat songs.

Background

Originally this song was produced by Symbolyc One. The beat to the song was initially given to Rhymefest, only having West to listen to the song and express interest in it. The song was recorded in Hawaii. The song was supposed to be released for digital download in early June, but for an unexplained reason it was canceled. On May 28, 2010, an unfinished version of the speculative first single was leaked onto the internet. "Power" samples "21st Century Schizoid Man" by the British rock band King Crimson and Afromerica by Continent Number 6. Kanye West stated in his first Ustream broadcast that the single included elements from his previous songs "Amazing" and "Jesus Walks". On June 30, 2010, the single was released on iTunes for digital download with a different album cover, also designed by the same artist that drew the last album cover. The cover art for the song "Power" was produced by American visual artist George Condo.

Remix

"Power (Remix)" was released as a free single through Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Fridays program.

In an interview with Hot 97, West said the official remix was to feature Jay-Z and would be released on August 13, 2010, but was premiered on August 20, 2010 on Hot 97 by Funkmaster Flex. The song which features Jay-Z also feature vocals and production from Swizz Beatz. Swizz Beatz produced the second half of the song sampling Snap!'s hip house hit, "The Power."

Chart performance

During the week entereing 8 July 2010, "Power" charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 22; named as the week's Hot Shot Debut. On 4 September 2010, the single also debuted on the UK Singles Chart and UK R&B Chart at number 36 and 10 respectively, before falling to number 42 on its second week in the chart. On 18 September 2010, the single fell 38 places to number 80; marking its third week within the Top 100. Following the release of the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the single re-entered the chart at number 57 and as of 23 October 2010 has spent a total of five weeks within the Top 100.