All of the Lights
"All of the Lights" is a song by American rapper Kanye West, released as the fourth single from his fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010).
It was produced by West and features additional vocals from several other recording artists, including John Legend, The-Dream, Drake, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Elton John, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson, Tony Williams, La Roux, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, Kid Cudi, and Rihanna; the latter two are credited on the official music video and single version, but not on the album version.
"All of the Lights" was universally acclaimed by music critics, who complimented its detailed, maximalist production and dramatic theme.
The song's accompanying music video, directed by Hype Williams,[2] featured strobe-lit performances of Rihanna and West, as well as Kid Cudi.
"All of the Lights" was written by Kanye West, Jeff Bhasker, Malik Jones, Warren Trotter, Stacy Ferguson and Terius Nash.
Fourteen artists lent their voices as background vocals to the song: Alicia Keys, John Legend, The-Dream, Drake, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Elton John, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson, Tony Williams, La Roux, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, and Rihanna, who also sang the song's hook and is labeled as a featured artist on the single version.
[9] Songwriter Malik Yusef revealed that the original demo for the song contained a sample of Muhammad Ali saying "The champ is here"; Yusef attempted to create rhymes around it, but ended up telling the engineer to remove the sample to clear space on the song.
[5] Even though not fully leaked, "All of the Lights" was featured for the first time on Runaway—a 35-minute film about West's "true labor of love" which was released on October 23, 2010.
AllMusic's Andy Kellman stated "At once, the song features one of the year’s most rugged beats while supplying enough opulent detail to make Late Registration collaborator Jon Brion's head spin".
[21] Alex Denney of NME called it "the sleb-studded centrepiece", commenting that "In anyone else’s hands it’d be an A-list circle-jerk of horrid proportions, but through Kanye’s bar-raising vision it becomes a truly wondrous thing".
[28] Zach Baron of The Village Voice found the song's lyrics relevant to the "year of economic suffering", writing that "West interrupted his own wealthy anomie to pen 'All of the Lights,' an incongruously star-stuffed song about a disoriented parolee trying to beat a restraining order and see his daughter, working out a brief reunion with her estranged mother: 'Public visitation, we met at Borders'".
[29] Chicago Sun-Times writer Thomas Conner viewed that "as crowded as 'All of the Lights' is [,] it maintains an almost operatic drama, telling a tale of adultery and its aftermath that winds up being quite moving".
[30] The Guardian's Kitty Empire cited the song as "the album's most magnificent high", writing that it "backs up operatic levels of sound with great drama".
[34] Tampa Bay Times named it the second best pop song of the decade, proclaiming "Everything Kanye West has ever believed himself to be came to life in this song: The stadium-sized horns, the chilling Rihanna hook, the snarl of cockiness in his voice, the insane list of uncredited cameos .. It’s the moment King Midas figured out how to use his touch.
[2][38] It features strobe-lit images of Rihanna and West, Kid Cudi in a red leather suit, and visual references to Gaspar Noé's 2009 film Enter the Void.
