"Back to Me" (stylized in uppercase) is a song by the American hip hop superduo

¥$ ¥$ is an American hip hop supergroup composed of rapper Kanye West and singer Ty Dolla Sign. With the two maintaining a strong relationship during 2023, West invited Ty Dolla Sign to record songs in Tokyo, Italy, and later Saudi Arabia. During ...

, composed of rapper

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

and singer Ty Dolla Sign, featuring American rapper Freddie Gibbs. It was produced by the superduo along with

88-Keys Charles Misodi Njapa (born March 5, 1976), better known by his stage name 88-Keys, is an American record producer and rapper from New York City. Biography Born in New York City to West African parents from Cameroon, he was raised in the Eastches ...

, AyoAA and

Wax Motif Danny Chien (born 20 November), better known by his stage name Wax Motif, is an Australian DJ and producer based in Los Angeles, United States. Career Wax Motif's work has drawn critical acclaim and support from Diplo, Major Lazer, A-Trak, G ...

. The song contains a sample of "

Rock Box "Rock Box" is a song by the American hip hop group Run-DMC. The song was produced by Larry Smith and Russell Simmons and released by Profile Records in March 1984. Following the popularity of their previous two singles " Hard Times" (1983) a ...

" by

Run-DMC Run-DMC (also spelled Run-D.M.C.) was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of ...

Composition

The song features a "crisp drum break" and "ethereal vocal samples", as well as a sample and interpolation of the character

Jay A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family (biology), family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For examp ...

's line from the film ''

Dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

'' (1999): "Beautiful, naked, big-titty womеn just don't fall out the sky, you know?" Steven J. Horowitz of '' Variety'' stated that "The rolling drums and bleating bass line of 'Back to Me' recall the patter of '

Runaway Runaway, Runaways or Run Away may refer to: Engineering * Runaway reaction, a chemical reaction releasing more heat than what can be removed and becoming uncontrollable * Thermal runaway, self-increase of the reaction rate of an exothermic proce ...

Critical reception

The song received generally positive reviews, with particular praise towards Freddie Gibbs' performance. Gabriel Bras Nevares of ''

HotNewHipHop ''HotNewHipHop (HNHH)'' is an online publication that covers daily news about hip hop and pop culture, including streetwear, sports, and sneakers. In addition to its editorial content, HotNewHipHop also produces the video serieses; ''How to Roll ...

'' described Gibbs in the song as "displaying why he's one of the best spitters in the game right now" and additionally remarked about the song: "Say what you will about Ye, his collaborators, and the ugly parts of this rollout, release, and platform, but talking strictly about the music, the effort here is undeniable." In a negative review of ''Vultures 1'',

Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis ( el, Αλέξης Πετρίδης; born 13 September 1971) is a British journalist, head rock and pop critic for the UK newspaper ''The Guardian'', as well as a regular contributor to the magazine '' GQ''. In addition to his mus ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' stated that the standard of Kanye West's lyrics is "thrown into stark relief by a exceptionally snappy guest verse from Indiana MC Freddie Gibbs on Back to Me". Jayson Buford of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' commented, "Freddie Gibbs, another eccentric loudmouth, shows up on 'Back to Me' and although the production on that song sounds like the ending to an

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series, Gibbs's verse is strong." ''HotNewHipHop''s Aron A. wrote that "Freddie Gibbs delivers the verse of the album, if not the year so far on 'Back To Me.' He swiftly turns Ye's cheeky interpolation of Jay's 'beautiful big t*tty women just don't fall out the sky you know' into a katana-sharp verse that's equally playful and gruff with bars like, 'Turn a bird bitch to my '' X'' like I was Elon.'"

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's Fred Thomas commented, "A robust verse from Freddie Gibbs comes close to salvaging the otherwise uncalled-for filler of 'Back to Me'". Reviewing ''Vultures 1'' for ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group. ...

'', Scott Glaysher commented the song is "where things get a little strange, not necessarily for Kanye, but by listeners' standards" and in regard to the use of the line from ''Dogma'', "Ye and Ty Dolla's creative output gets a little mundane when they simply repeat the actor's soundbite with some programmed drums underneath." He described Freddie Gibbs' verse as "fierce, the sheer energy".

Charts

References

{{Freddie Gibbs 2024 songs Kanye West songs Ty Dolla Sign songs Song recordings produced by Kanye West Song recordings produced by Digital Nas Song recordings produced by Mike Dean (record producer) Songs written by Kanye West Songs written by Ty Dolla Sign Songs written by 88-Keys Songs written by Digital Nas Songs written by Mike Dean (record producer) Songs written by Nic Nac