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Listen to Kanye West’s new down-to-earth track Real Friends

Chris Leo Palermino
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Rapper Kanye West is getting back down to earth on his new track Real Friends. Released this afternoon on Soundcloud, ‘Ye raps on a too real, universal theme: friends and family only contacting you when they need a favor. West and his wife Kim Kardashian announced the new song on Twitter this afternoon. And Kim K also announced another significant piece of news: G.O.O.D. Fridays, West’s tradition of releasing a new track on Fridays begun when he was promoting his 2010 LP My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is back

https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/685353669286440960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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Real Friends, a simple track at heart, has longtime fans excited as it has elements of early Kanye West circa 2004’s The College Dropout. The track, which also features rapper Ty Dolla $ign, is mostly just him rapping on a subject close to his heart with only light production. One thing’s for sure: it’s definitely a step away from his last full-length, which was the electronic-influenced 2013 record Yeezus.

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Along with Real Friends, West released a snippet of No More Parties in L.A. featuring fellow rap superstar Kendrick Lamar today. That song mocks women in the L.A. party scene: “Hey baby you forgot your Ray Bans,” begins Lamar on the song’s first verse. “And my sheets still orange from your spray tan.”

The Soundcloud release didn’t go as smoothly as planned: West acknowledged on Twitter that he accidentally uploaded the wrong version of Real Friends to his account before taking it down. When he uploaded the final version, he asked “rippers” to make sure that they used the updated version.

Un momento, there was a slight distortion in the main loop within Real Friends.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 8, 2016

It will be back up shortly. When it’s back up all rippers please rip the new one instead.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 8, 2016

New version is up. Please please erase the old one I wasn’t satisfied with the sound quality.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 8, 2016

It looks like Real Friends, No More Parties (and possibly Facts, which he released last Friday) will be on his highly anticipated seventh record SWISH. While there isn’t a release date for the record, we’ll be surprised if it’s not out by the end of 2016. He’ll also be performing at the Governor’s Ball Music Festival in New York City this June.

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Chris Leo Palermino
Chris Leo Palermino
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…
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