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Kanye West Wiki
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Bittersweet Poetry is a song by Kanye West that was released as a Japan-exclusive bonus track to Graduation (2007). As the title implies, it is a bittersweet track about loving but also hating your loved one. John Mayer performs the song's chorus, which is in itself is an interpolation of "Bittersweet Poetry" by Chairmen of the Board.[1]

Background and lyrics[]

Although the track is tacked on as a bonus track to Graduation, it was actually one of the first songs that were made for Late Registration (2005).[2] It didn't make it on the album simply because Ye felt like the song did not fit that album's soundscape.[3] Ye and John had seen the film Ray (2004) together, after which they went to the studio and made "Bittersweet" featuring Keyshia Cole.[4] The two had collaborated in the past with the track "Go!" off Common's sixth studio album Be.[5]

The line "now this Hennessy, uh, it's gonna be the death of me," was a bit prophetic since Ye crashed the 2009 VMAs not long after he was photographed with a bottle of Hennessy.[6] Although this casted Ye as an outcast by the media, he ultimately made a grand return with the legendary album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010).

Credits[]

References[]

  1. "Bittersweet Poetry" by Kanye West on Genius.
  2. "West Shows Off 'Diamonds' With Jay-Z" by Billboard Staff. Billboard. April 22, 2005.
  3. "After the hip-hop hype" by Julian Benbow. Boston. September 11, 2007.
  4. "Kanye West and John Mayer recording Bittersweet" by kencmon on YouTube. Uploaded on April 10, 2006. (Copyright blocked as of September 2022.)
  5. "Kanye West And John Mayer Collaborate But Won't Elaborate" by Cory Moss. MTV. November 18, 2004.
  6. Annotation of "Now this Hennessy, uh, it's gonna be the death of me" from "Bittersweet Poetry" by Kanye West on Genius.
  7. https://www.whosampled.com/Kanye-West/Bittersweet-Poetry/
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