Kanye West - Real Friends

From his triumphant Glastonbury appearance being hijacked by professional shithouse Lee Nelson’s stage invasion, to his televised BRITs performance suffering from more bleeped-out words than a pre-watershed South Park episode, the build-up to ‘Swish’ has been plagued by calamity. It’s sort of fitting that in true ‘oh Kanye’ fashion, the befuddled drop of ‘Real Friends’ on Friday night almost overshadowed the track itself.It’s part of ‘Real Friends’’ charm, though, that such showy statements could even threaten to overshadow it. Where ‘All Day’ was the harsh, cocksure return that fed fuel to the flames of Kanye’s infinite haters, ‘Real Friends’ is almost the polar opposite. Softly spoken and introspective, it’s a side of Kanye that’s usually kept tucked away on album tracks – for Ye to put it forward as the first of his new ‘G.O.O.D. Friday’ offerings, knowing full well the attention that would garner, seems evidence that he’s lowering his defences for the first time in years.“Couldn’t tell you how old your daughter was,” he admits, “couldn’t tell you how old your son is.” It’s not a power-play though – more a begrudging admission that, actually, as age and an ever-spiralling career take over, he’s losing touch with those closest to him. Not that he really minds his changing priorities: “I got my own junior on the way, dog; plus I already got one kid.” It’s that heart and soul that shine throughout ‘Real Friends’ – should the detractors care to follow Ye’s suit in dismantling their walls, they might just find a side here they never expected from the Greatest Living Rockstar On The Planet.