No Mistakes

Album: Ye (2018)
Charted: 36
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Songfacts®:

  • "No Mistakes" kicks off with sampled Slick Rick vocals from his 1988 cut "Hey Young World" before Yeezy's Kids See Ghost partner Kid Cudi and soulful crooner Charlie Wilson jump in on the chorus. Kanye has collaborated with Cudi and Wilson on multiple times in the past including with both artists on the 2010 track "Good Friday."
  • Kanye reflects during his verse on his inner demons, negative press, and financial issues – all things he's battled with since his 2016 hospitalization.

    Oh, I got dirt on my name, I got white on my beard
    I had debt on my books, it's been a shaky-ass year


    Later on in his verse, Kanye addresses Drake following Drizzy's "Duppy Freestyle" where he took shots at both Kanye and G.O.O.D. Music's Pusha-T.
  • Slick Rick's "believe it or not" vocal interjections continue to pop up periodically throughout the track, while the piano sample that plays throughout the song is from "Children Get Together" by the Edwin Hawkins Singers.
  • Violinist and composer Caroline Shaw, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for her a cappella piece "Partita for 8 Voices," contributed vocals and production to "No Mistakes." Shaw previously featured on two The Life of Pablo tracks "Wolves" and "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2". She also co-produced in 2015 a remix of "Say You Will", a track from West's 2008 album, 808's & Heartbreak.

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