Gold Digger (Kanye West song)

"Gold Digger" is a song by American rapper Kanye West, featuring singer Jamie Foxx, from West's second studio album, ''Late Registration'' (2005). The song includes additional vocals from Plain Pat and Don C. West created the beat in Atlanta. He and Jon Brion produced the song. It was originally set to be recorded for Shawnna's debut studio album, '' Worth Tha Weight'' (2004), but the song was later passed on to West. On July 5, 2005, it was released to American rhythmic contemporary radio stations by Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam as the second single from West's album. The song set a record for the most digital downloads in a week, selling over 80,000.

A pop rap song, "Gold Digger" samples Ray Charles's " I Got a Woman" (1954), mainly the line "she give me money when I'm in need". Lyrically, Foxx sets the stage by detailing how he was taken by a ''gold digger''; West sings/raps in each verse about the behaviors and characteristics of a gold digger yet playfully refuses to call the woman in question as such outright. The song received widespread acclaim from music critics, who often praised the composition. Some complimented the lyrical content and Foxx's feature, while a few critics highlighted the sample. The song was named to year-end lists for 2005 by multiple publications, including ''Eye Weekly'' and '' NME''. Numerous outlets have placed it on retrospective lists, such as VH1 and ''Rolling Stone''. At the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won Best Rap Solo Performance and also received a nomination for Record of the Year.

"Gold Digger" topped the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, ARIA Singles Chart, and NZ Singles Chart, becoming West's second number-one single on the Hot 100, and his first on the latter two charts. The song reached the top 50 in nine other countries, such as Ireland and the United Kingdom. On ''Billboard''s 60th anniversary in 2018, it was ranked the 63rd biggest Hot 100 hit of all time. Having since been certified octuple platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the song places among the highest certified digital singles in the US. It has also been awarded quadruple and triple platinum certifications in Australia and the UK by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and British Phonographic Industry (BPI), respectively.

An accompanying music video was released in the summer of 2005, directed by Hype Williams. Throughout the video, pin-up girls and moving magazine covers appear alongside West and Foxx. It was nominated in multiple categories at 2006 MTV award shows, including Best Male Video and Favorite Video at the MTV Video Music Awards and MTV Asia Awards, respectively. West performed the song at the MTV Video Music Awards, Grammy Awards, Brit Awards and ''Saturday Night Live''.

The music video was released on YouTube on Kanye West’s YouTube channel on the 16th June 2009. Singer John Legend also makes a cameo. As of Today, the track has over 320 million views and has over 1.7m likes on YouTube.

Background and recording

West produced "Gold Digger" with record producer and composer Jon Brion. Brion had achieved fame from his distinctive production work for artists and film scores for auteurs, though was lacking experience in hip hop. West became a fan of singer-songwriter Fiona Apple for whom Brion had produced; while watching the 2004 film ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'', he appreciated Brion's score. The pair became connected via their mutual friend Rick Rubin; West quickly phoned Brion and they instantly formed chemistry with each other. West enlisted him to work on ''Late Registration'', marking Brion's first involvement in a hip hop project, with the decision creating confusion across his fanbase. Brion imagined people commenting that West has "gone off his rocker" and envisioning him making "an art record with some crazy, left-field music guy", clarifying this not to be "the case whatsoever". The producer recalled West taking charge of production with his strong vision and mentioned the rapper's "quick, intuitive decisions".

In late 2003, West previewed an early version of "Gold Digger" with singer John Legend in New York City (NYC). Many surmised that West conceived the song after watching Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film ''Ray'', contrary to how he actually created the beat at Ludacris' house in Atlanta, Georgia, before the film's creation had begun. West originally came up with the song for Shawnna's 2004 debut studio album '' Worth Tha Weight'', though she passed it on to him; his A&R representative Plain Pat said her reasoning was unknown. The chorus was originally written by West from a female's point of view, until West wrote the first two verses for himself in 2004, the second of which was performed live by him early that year when touring for his debut album ''The College Dropout''. West initially planned to re-use a verse from his unreleased track "Drop Dead Gorgeous" for the third verse, before penning a new verse shortly before the release of "Gold Digger". Plain Pat remembered the song's mastering location and regular studio being "right next to each other" at Sony Music Studios in NYC, saying that the team went "back and forth for a week" as they walked over to master content after it was recorded and the process ended when "we cut the final part".

During West's meeting with Canadian DJ A-Trak at Sasquatch! Music Festival, the rapper presented a rough version of the song to him. West felt the song was too "poppy" and sought out a style more akin to hip hop, to which A-Trak reacted by coming up with the idea of adding scratches, with confidence of what sample should be used. West reacted positively to the idea and it was mentioned when recording of the song would soon be finished in Los Angeles; the DJ recorded the scratches very late in the process, after the rapper flew him out to the county. After West watched ''Ray'' with his friend John Mayer, he thought of the idea to have Foxx sing an interpolation of Charles's " I Got a Woman" (1954) in place of the song's initial sample, in case it failed to be cleared. He recorded many takes; one version featured him singing from start to finish, but it was retracted since his vocals did not match properly with the instrumentation. The singer once recorded an explicit ad-lib, though he demanded for it not to be used. Brion composed some extra sounds for "Gold Digger" to finish the basic track during his first session with West, recalling that the rapper was clearly aware of what elements he liked and how he complied: "Great, we'll focus on those things." A sample of "I Got a Woman" was used for the final version, alongside Foxx's interpolation.

Composition and lyrics

Musically, "Gold Digger" is a bouncy pop rap song, having a basic sound in contrast to the majority of ''Late Registration''. The song is built around a looped sample of "I Got a Woman", written by Renald Richard and its performer Ray Charles. "Gold Digger" prominently features handclaps and drums that recycle patterns from ''The College Dropout'' track "Get Em High". The song begins with Foxx's interpolation of "I Got a Woman"; he first sings the line "She takes my mon-eeee". It features scratches of a "get down" vocal that were contributed by A-Trak, appearing within the choruses. A synth coda is also included on the track, as well as additional vocals by Plain Pat and Don C.

In the lyrics of the song, West raps about being tricked by a woman. West spins the originally written hook "I'm not sayin' I'm a gold digger, but I ain't messin' with no broke niggas", rapping: "I ain't saying she's a gold digger/But she ain't messin' with no broke niggas!" He accompanies the scratches during the choruses, commanding a girl to "go 'head, get down". West jokes about money-grabbing groupies on the song, as well as requesting for a prenup chant. Later on, West lets out the story of a black man that breaks up with a black woman for a white girl after becoming wealthy.

Release

"Gold Digger" was released to US rhythmic contemporary radio stations as the second single from the album on July 5, 2005, through Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam. On August 2, a 12" vinyl was released for the song by Roc-A-Fella. "Gold Digger" was eventually included as the fourth track on West's second studio album ''Late Registration'' on August 30, 2005. On September 19, the song was released on a CD maxi single across Europe, through Roc-A-Fella. A CD was later issued for it in France on November 27, 2005, by Def Jam.

When released on the album, the song was made available for digital download. "Gold Digger" sold over 80,000 digital downloads through legal music services, such as iTunes and Napster, within a week. At the time, the song broke the record for the most digital downloads in one week and also scored the fastest download sales ever, feats that were both previously held by Gwen Stefani's " Hollaback Girl" (2005). It was the top selling song on iTunes in 2005. In 2018, "Gold Digger" was streamed 21.2 million times in the United Kingdom, ranking as the most streamed song from 2005 in the country.

Reception

The song was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, mainly being praised for its composition. Jonah Weiner of ''Blender'' hailed "Gold Digger" as the album's best song, depicting it as letting out "the levels of talent separating West from that guy at the 7-Eleven". He noted how West crafted "a thumping beat" from handclaps and the Charles sample, over which he "jokes about greedy groupies". ''The Observer'' writer Kitty Empire saw the song as going against the elaborate style of most of ''Late Registration'', saying it is "deliriously straight up and bouncy". Sean Fennessey of ''Pitchfork'' stated that the song is simple "but not subtle", delving strongly into obviousness with Foxx's interpolation of Charles and recycled drums, but "succeeding with humor and reverence". Writing for '' Uncut'', Simon Reynolds commented that although he would have been fond of it sampling Shirley Bassey's " Goldfinger" (1964), the "Charles loop powers this gritty groove". Reynolds asserted that the beginning has "a faux-blues whinge" from Foxx, while West later observes with dry humor.

''The Guardian'' critic Alexis Petridis observed that the song features "the odd sound" of Foxx's Oscar-winning impersonation of Charles, alongside the singer being sampled. ''USA Today''s Steve Jones appreciated the song's humor, pointing out that West speaks of "women who will burn a hole in a man's pocket" beside the Charles sample that is accompanied by Fox impersonating him. In ''Tiny Mix Tapes'', Matty G vastly preferred the singer's interpolation of Charles to his past imitation of Al Green. At the ''Los Angeles Times'', Robert Hilburn wrote that the song is self-explanatory and has a theme of "marvelous mischievousness", similarly to how ''Rolling Stone'' reviewer Rob Sheffield viewed West as using it to indulge his style of humor. Jon Pareles'' praised West's "cool arrogance" on the song, noticing him funnily commanding a chant. Azeem Ahmad voiced a less positive response in ''musicOMH'', commenting that it "hits you with standard pigeon bashing" like a male version of girl group TLC's "No Scrubs" (1999), though affirmed the Charles sample provides "the feel of a rejuvenated Negro Spiritual song". ''Entertainment Weekly'' journalist David Browne saw an example of predictable paranoia from West in him "warning against a 'Gold Digger'" over a "taut, grunting beat" and a sample of Charles. Veteran critic Robert Christgau wrote for ''The Village Voice'' that the song is "marked by cognitively dissonant" Foxx's interpolation of the work also sampled, while "misogynistic clichés" are laid on until "the oppressed black male" West defends suddenly abandons a non-gold digger for a white woman.

Copyright dispute

In April 2013, singer David Pryor's children Trena Steward and Lorenzo Pryor filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against West for allegedly sampling the "get down" chants from his band Thunder & Lightning's 1974 track "Bumpin' Bus Stop" on "Gold Digger" and also reciting the line on the chorus. The lawsuit reportedly acknowledged the song had been released back in 2005, though mentioned that David Pryor was in a convalescent hospital then with harsh mental and physical disabilities, such as senile dementia and prostate cancer. David possessing no knowledge of his voice having been exploited for commercial profit once he died in 2006 was also acknowledged, as well as how Steward and Lorenzo Pryor lacked the information to file the lawsuit until 2012. The two asked the judges to halt sales of the song, further requesting for "millions of dollars" in royalties. West and various record labels, including Roc-A-Fella and The Island Def Jam Music Group, were accused of being part of a 15-year "illegal copyright infringement scheme and criminal enterprise involving the unauthorized, willful sampling of plaintiffs original copyrighted music on a massive scale" in the lawsuit. In August 2014, California federal judge Beverly Reid O'Connell threw out the majority of the claims, insisting that distorted short samples meant the work would not easily be recognized.

Accolades

In the 2005 edition of Shea Serrano's ''The Rap Year Book'', "Gold Digger" was listed as the most important song of the year. ''Eye Weekly'' named the song the best single of 2005, with James Simons highlighting West's "good-natured humour and last-line admission of male guilt". He also said people seemed to be too excited by "the squawking Ray Charles sample and characteristic claps" to notice how rap's apparent savior "had just added to tsoverflowing Trifling Bitch Songbook", concluding that "when Kanye drops gold like this, everyone digs it". The song was voted in at number one on ''The Village Voice''s Pazz & Jop poll for 2005, scoring 145 points. The results of a poll taken by ''Eye Weekly'' of critics across Canada that year chose it as the second best single, with 1,442 points. On a ''Rolling Stone'' readers' poll, the song was voted the third best single of 2005. ''Dagsavisen'' gave the song the same ranking for the year, while it was placed fourth on '' NME''s list of the best tracks. On other lists of 2005's best singles, the song was ranked at number 10 by ', number 12 by Playlouder, and number 14 by ''Stylus Magazine''.

In the 2014 issue of '' XXL'' that celebrated 40 years of hip hop, the song was chosen as one of the five best singles of 2005. On ''Entertainment Weekly''s list of the best single each year from 1990 to 2014, it was named the best of 2005. To celebrate their 16-year anniversary in 2016, NPR selected a favorite song from each year since they started, picking "Gold Digger" for 2005. In 2008, the track was ranked at number 20 on VH1's list of the greatest hip hop songs ever. The track was selected as the sixth best song of the 2000s decade by the network, while ''Rolling Stone'' picked it as the decade's 29th best. "Gold Digger" was placed at numbers 34 and 40 on respective lists of the best songs of the 2000s by ''Slant Magazine'' and ''NME''.

In 2018, ''Rolling Stone'' named the song the 36th greatest of the 21st century. ''Highsnobiety'' ranked it as West's fifth best song two years later; Bianca said his "innate musical knowledge" is demonstrated via Foxx's interpolation of Charles's work and "a surprise synth-coda" that appears to nod to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" (1972). In 2014, ''NME'' listed the track as the 93rd greatest song of all time, while it was also hailed as one of the greatest of all time by ''Time'' in 2011. "Gold Digger" is included in the 2015 version of Robert Dimery's book ''1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die''. The song won Best Rap Solo Performance at the 2006 Grammy Awards, standing as one of West's three wins there. At the same ceremony, the song received a nomination for Record of the Year, an award it ultimately lost to Dixie Chicks's "Not Ready to Make Nice". In 2006, the song was awarded Best Collaboration and Hot Rap Track at the BET Awards and ''Billboard'' R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, respectively.

Music video

An accompanying music video debuted in the summer of 2005. It was directed by frequent West collaborator Hype Williams, who also directed the visual for his previous ''Late Registration'' single " Diamonds from Sierra Leone". The video was the first of West's to feature cameos from signees to his record label GOOD Music; they further made appearances on his albums and at his shows. It was released to YouTube on June 17, 2009.

Shot in a widescreen letterboxed format and using lighting, the music video begins with a cameo from Foxx and includes prominent appearances from pin-up girls. Fictional moving magazine covers that feature video vixens are also present throughout, interspersed with various colors and scenes of West dancing. GOOD Music artists Consequence and John Legend are both charmed by women that move easily; the former spends his time with one in a dark room. A woman that appears alongside West at points is also show in some shots on her own, during which she acts angrily and holds a bright light that she shakes heavily towards the end.

On a 2018 list of the best music video from each year since 2000, ''ShortList'' named the visual the best of 2005, with Niloufar Haidari saying that it "is a joy to watch" because of Foxx's presence and the "exceptional use of colour and lighting". That same year, ''Complex'' named the clip as West's 20th best music video. The staff of the magazine praised West's "dance moves" and his "bold color choices", concluding by labeling the video "a perfect match" for "Gold Digger". The music video won the BET Award for Video of the Year at the 2006 BET Awards, and received nominations for both Best Male Video and Best Hip Hop Video at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. The visual was nominated for Favorite Video at the MTV Asia Awards 2006

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