Kanye West is a hot topic online today—Twitter, Facebook, and music blogs are buzzing about a leak of the long-awaited studio cut of “Mama’s Boyfriend.” The song, which West performed for the first time at Facebook headquarters last summer (“it took me 33 years of my life to write it, and it means a lot to me,” he told the FB crowd), is an intimate look at the world through his eyes as a little man being raised by a single parent. His greatest threat? Men who wanted to date the woman in his life—his mom. The lyrics cut right to the chase:
He walked in our lives, I was only five
Superman pajamas, I was super duper fly
Sitting here like why, at least he hooper-size
You know I scrutinize, like who this newer guy
I’m my mama boyfriend, I’m her little husband
I was the man of the house when there wasn’t
Trying to get to know me homie, just kill the charm
You ain’t interested in me, you just tryna f*** my mom
We are the voices of our parents bad choices
The aftermath of divorces, the kids of bitter split-ups
Content-wise, Kanye’s dealing with pretty heavy stuff. Stylisitcally, the song is more akin to “Gold Digger” and other tracks from the Late Registration era—it’s poppy and melodious, sounding less like the violent, ominous tunes from his excellent 2010 release, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Perhaps that’s why Kanye held on to it, or perhaps the track’s message is hard to deliver in light of the fact that his mother, Donda West, passed away from complications during surgery in 2007.
Check out the song here:
As of now, there is no news whether the song will be on Kanye’s next album, a collaboration with Jay-Z. (Read about it here.) Are you a fan of “Mama’s Boyfriend”? How do you feel about the song’s message? Share your thoughts.
