Southside was in the studio during Luger's production work on the song, which led to him being involved with West's 2011 Jay-Z collaboration "Illest Motherfucker Alive".
[4] The album version has an additional verse by Big Sean and is included on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as an iTunes bonus track.
Described as a "a nine-minute melancholy demo song", it was supposedly recorded while West was in a self-imposed exile to Hawaii due to the backlash he received after interrupting Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
[6] Christian Hoard of the Rolling Stone gave the song a rating of three and a half out of five stars, writing in his review of the song: "'I'm Socrates, but my skin more chocolaty,' shouts Kanye, who goes on to detail several feats of attention-whore behavior — cruising in Ferraris, rocking fur coats, walking into high-end restaurants with no shoes on.
But the sound is remarkably warm, a gospel-style mix of heartfelt crooning (from Beyoncé and... Charlie Wilson) and plush accompaniment that's perfect for worshipping at the altar of Yeezy.