Ghost Town

Ghost Town is the sixth song from Kanye West's eighth studio album ye (2018). The song features vocals from PartyNextDoor, Kid Cudi, and 070 Shake. It was produced by West; co-produced by Mike Dean; and additionally produced by Francis and the Lights, Benny Blanco, and Noah Goldstein. The song is also composed around a sample of "Take Me for a Little While" by The Royal Jesters and partially around "Someday" by Shirley Ann Lee.

The song contains a juxtaposition of lyrics; while Kid Cudi sings of heartbreak and rejection on the song's chorus, 070 Shake sings an iconic outro about and "feeling free."

Background

Shortly after release, 070 Shake revealed to Pigeons & Planes that the song was finished "the same day it came out." She also shared that her vocals were recorded a while beforehand before resurfacing at the last minute:

I had done a reference for it, and then I guess he forgot about it. We put that reference on another song, then Kanye did his own reference for that ‘free’ concept. At the end we were talking and asking, ‘Is this the one right here?’ And I kind of mentioned ‘Ghost Town,’ and said maybe we could use something from that. He listened to the reference again, and said ‘Oh yeah, this is the one.’ So ‘Ghost Town’ almost didn’t make it.

Sunday Service speech

In a streamed January 2019 Sunday Service performance, Ye spent several minutes giving a speech on mental illness, the song's message, and cancel culture.

Don't it feel good when you know you can never be canceled? They cancel culture. They can't cancel the culture. Not the vultures. I feel so free. Just being me. I didn't take all this time--(?) to listen to you. So imma do what I wanna do. Imma do what I wanna do. And I know sometimes people be looking so confused but uh--it's basically two buttons in this game called life, love and fear. And some of us are programmed to be more scared than others. But I represent that overcoming fear and still being here. They say "you can't do that, you can't do this, you can't do that, you'll lose your career!" But I'm still here. I put my hand on the--keep my hands on the stove! Let me bleed. Let me bleed. That's when I'm free. When we're the (kids we used to be.) When we're the kids we used to be. I put my hand--hand on the stove (to see if I still bleed.) That's what this song meant to us -- to me, Tony, and Shake, and Kim when we wrote this in Wyoming. And we said, "baby, don't you bet it all, on a pack of fentanyl." It started, and my line, it started hailing in Wyoming. Right when we said "don't bet it all, on a pack of fentanyl" All the medication that numbs us, that separates us, that closes us off from the spirit. So for me, I'm about seven months, no medication. I put my hand on the stove, see if I still bleed. Everybody, they want the art from the artist, but anytime they do anything erratic... they just gonna pull up full documentaries, all -- and they gon' come with the Michael documentary, and they gon' come with the doc--we can enjoy all their music all we want. I thought I weren't gonna go there today but uh. But we gon' tell (?) artists, (?) take all the Givenchies out of the Louvre. (?) Let's take out all the art. 'Cause all of a sudden all the--every artist is supposed to be perfect, right? Or act normal. They say, "you acting crazy!" Oh, that's not an act. I act normal. I act (?). We all are paid actors anyway. You know when you're two years old screaming, whole restaurant's (?) "Teach him how to act!" This program -- program, program. Imma keep it easy, I'm not gon' go too far. But I feel free. And I--and you know, other people tell me, "you make me feel free. You remind me of me. Everything I should be. Everything they told me not to be." "But don't use this, use this, don't use-n-no-no-no!" Somebody said you should, or I should. How you gon' tell somebody else what they should do? Follow, I follow what I feel, I follow-follow what I feel, I follow-follow what I feel. Follow, follow, what we feel--follow. I ain't gon' do too much of that. But 2018, that was a tumultuous year. So to be here in 2019 with y'all and embraced in these arms... we overcame so much, now we absolutely know everything is possible. Not anything, everything is possible.

Lyrics

[Intro]
Someday, someday
Someday I'll, I wanna wear a starry crown

[Verse 1]
Someday, someday, someday
I wanna lay down, like God did, on Sunday
Hold up, hold up
Someday, somedays, I remembered this on a Sunday
Backway, yeah, way, way, burning, mhm-mhm
Uh, somedays, I'm gonna tell everybody
Somedays I wanna hit the red dot on everybody
Somedays, ohh (Heatstroke)
Everyday I'm livin' high, I'm smokin' marijuana
Everyday I'm livin' high, I do whatever I wanna, oh, yeah

[Chorus]
I've been tryin' to make you love me
But everything I try just takes you further from me

[Verse 2]
Someday we gon' set it off
Someday we gon' get this off
Baby, don't you bet it all
On a pack of fentanyl
You might think they wrote you off
They gon' have to rope me off
Someday the drama'll be gone
And they'll play this song on and on
Sometimes I take all the shine
Talk like I drank all the wine
Years ahead but way behind
I'm on one, two, three, four, five
No half-truths, just naked minds
Caught between space and time
This not what they had in mind
But maybe someday

[Chorus]
I've been tryin' to make you love me
But everything I try just takes you further from me

[Outro]
Woah, once again I am a child
I let it all go, of everything that I know, yeah
Of everything that I know, yeah
And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free
We're still the kids we used to be, yeah, yeah
I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed, yeah
And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free
We're still the kids we used to be, yeah, yeah
I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed, yeah
And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free
We're still the kids we used to be, yeah, yeah
I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed, yeah
And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free
We're still the kids we used to be, yeah, yeah
I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed, yeah
And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free

Credits

• Performed by Kanye West, PARTYNEXTDOOR
• Written by Carmen Reece, MIKE DEAN, Noah Goldstein, PartyNextDoor, Carole Bayer Sager, Cydel Young, Danielle Balbuena, Dexter Mills, Francis Starlite, Jahron Anthony Brathwaite, Jorden Thorpe, Kanye West, Kenneth Pershon, Malik Yusef, Shirley Ann Lee, Terrence Boykin, Trade Martin
• Produced by Kanye West, MIKE DEAN, Francis and the Lights, Benny Blanco, Noah Goldstein
• Samples "Take Me for a Little While" by The Royal Jesters (1965)
• Samples "Someday" by Shirley Ann Lee (2012)