"Life of the Party," a standout from Kanye West's 10th album Donda, is among the best tracks of West's recent career. Drake first leaked a version of the track on his OVO Sound Radio show in 2021. The version Drake played featured a winding verse where West talks his Make America Great Again hat, the erosion of certain friendships, and takes shots at Drake himself. The version that made it to Donda is much more heartfelt. The amended verse is about the teacher that helped inspire West to make music and generally taking a much more positive approach to the verse than the other one. Now, a reference track featuring Pusha T rapping that verse has resurfaced.
It is an open secret that Kanye West does not write all of his raps. This dates back nearly twenty years, as West's writing process has always been thought of as a collaborative one. His closest collaborators in the early days of his career were Rhymefest and Consequence.
Kanye West's development of his 2010 opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy featured so many people that it has long been a running joke that you could have sneezed in the same room as him while he was recording a song and ended up with a credit somewhere on the album. But, as much as fans understand West's writing history, many of them hope that, at the very least, the songs that feel most personal are handled by West himself. That does not quite appear to be the case for "Life of the Party."
Kanye West Pusha T Relationship
This is not the first time the reference track has been discussed, as it first leaked in September 2023. But, it has taken on new life after Push recently distanced himself from Kanye West. He recently said that he doesn't view the once-lauded rapper as "a man." He also stated that the only thing they ever agreed on was music.
Fans who've grown disillusioned with West's recent output and antics often cite "Life of the Party" as one of his last great songs. A reference track does not always mean that the person rapping the verse also wrote it. Some rappers send verses to a peer to get an idea of how to make it flow over a beat.
The caption attached to the above video implies that Push also wrote the verse. That would be disappointing for those who place it among West's best late-career output. Pusha T does have a writing credit on the track, but his involvement beyond this reference track is unclear. As for Push's work outside of what he did with West, Clipse's long-awaited comeback album, Let God Sort Em Out, is officially due to release on July 11.
