“Life of the Party” by Kanye West (ft. André 3000)

In the intro to “Life of the Party”, Kanye West implies, on the surface, that what its title is based on is him being in an especially celebratory mood in the aftermath of surviving a life-threatening experience. 

You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for Kanye West's Life of the Party at Lyrics.org.

And Andre 3000 subsequently commences the first verse on another profound note, giving a shoutout to both his own and Kanye’s late mothers. He then proceeds to note that he’s losing faith in “Heaven”, as in if such does exist he should be allowed to communicate with his dead mother, who by default reasoning would be one of its residents. But Dre also understands that maybe such as already transpired in more indirect ways.

Andre goes on to deliver an extended verse. And its thesis sentiment, most simply put, features him missing his departed mom. Indeed 3000 stepped to this song based on the  understanding of Donda, the album it was supposed to be featured on, being a project dedicated to Kanye’s late mother. 

So accordingly, that’s how the rapper fashioned his verse. In fact Kanye goes on to commence his own verse along such a theme also. Furthermore, it has been noted that concerning the title of the song, it also points to another Yeezus track where he used the phrase to big up Donda West.

Kanye is on Fire

Now one very interesting thing about Life of the Party, from a critical perspective, is that Kanye actually drops a better verse therein than any we have come across thus far in our analysis of Donda

Indeed we’re treated to a passage reminiscent of the days of Yeezy past, where West goes on for bars and bars and bars yet managing to captivate the listener’s attention throughout. 

And no, we’re not saying that his verse is perfect in that regard. But at the same time yes, we will agree that it is a bit perplexing as to why Yeezus’s bitter enemy, Drake, whose reportedly even dissed therein, would go about releasing a Kanye song that’s considered to be more memorable than most of Donda. The most logical explanation would be that, since said release was in fact a leak, Drizzy did so to somehow piss Kanye off.

The Drake Topic

That noted, the most outstanding parts of West’s verse are considered to be those in which he raps about Drake. Now it should be noted that whereas these references are being labeled as disses, the first one in particular doesn’t read so. 

In that regard, all Kanye is discernibly saying about Drizzy is something like he connected him to high-end fashion designer Virgil Abloh, a long-time associate of West’s whom Drake has become more recently familiar with. 

And on that note, let it be known that the three of them have had a complicated relationship going back to the late-2010s. Verily by the looks of things, it’s so complicated that even ’til now Yeezy finds it somewhat challenging to explain.

Meanwhile the second reference reads more like a standard diss, somehow. Here, Kanye seems to imply that he sent Drake something like a personal threat, and in response Drizzy “sent that message to everybody”. 

So the implication there would be that Drake is intimidated by Kanye and/or doesn’t know how to keep matters privately, or something like that. Indeed if these statements are in fact disses, they’re like the mildest ones we’ve come across in a minute.

In fact before making the aforementioned statement, Kanye alludes to him and Drizzy once being major homeys. So if anything, what he is putting forth is something like Drake being a snake.

The Conclusion of “Life of the Party”

The song ultimately concludes with an outro delivered by the late DMX (1970-2021), one of the pioneers of turn-of-the-century East Coast gangsta rap. However X was also known for his ability to drop heartfelt, emotional, down-to-earth songs. 

And what he is doing in this case is biggin’ up his mom and, by extension of the narrative relayed, we can say all dedicated single mothers in general. Indeed by the time all is said and done, if anything Life of the Party has to be considered a mother-tribute piece, which are sort of common in the world of rap music. 

And no, Kanye himself does not faithfully stick to that topic. But you have to give him credit for setting such a tone with the overall creation of Donda. And also, we have to give Drake credit for making this track available to the general public in the first place. Perhaps he was just like, ‘yo, this sh-t is hot’, and ‘beef aside, people need to hear it’.

Lyrics to Kanye West's "Life of the Party"

Facts about “Life of the Party”

Despite the recently-departed DMX’s aforenoted contributions to Life of the Party, he is not recognized as a co-headliner but rather additional vocalist.

Andre 3000, as a member of the ATL duo Outkast, is a rapper whose career even predates that of Kanye West. Both vocalists are acknowledged as writers of this song, with Kanye also earning production credit. 

And other musicians who both wrote and produced Life of the Party are as follows:

  • BoogzDaBeast
  • Dem Jointz
  • The Twilite Tone

This song was leaked on 4 September 2021.  Another odd aspect of said leakage is that Drake actually did so while promoting his own album, Certified Lover Boy, which came out the day prior.  But all things considered the labels that supported the creation of this song would have been the same as those behind Donda, which are Def Jam Records and Yeezus’s own GOOD Music.

Life of the Party

Is this Kanye West’s first Collaboration with Andre 3000?

No. Kanye and Andre have collaborated in the past. They worked together on the former’s 2016 track 30 Hours, in which the latter acted as a background vocalist.

André 3000's comments on "Life of the Party"

1 Response

  1. the local kanye fan says:

    thank you

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