On Sight

Album: Yeezus (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Kanye West opens his sixth studio album, Yeezus, with this pulsing, racy opener, which interpolates a melody from "He'll Give Us What We Really Need," an old track from the South Side of Chicago choir, Holy Name of Mary Choral Family. Lawyers for West's record label were still trying to track down the choir director and members of the choir to get clearance for the vocals days before the album release. The Def Jam label chiefs were so concerned about whether they would get rights to the track, that at the last minute they re-recorded the vocals with a different choir.
  • The song's beat, courtesy of French dance duo Daft Punk, is one of several on Yeezus inspired by Chicago house music. West told the New York Times: "I knew that I wanted to have a deep Chicago influence on this album, and I would listen to like, old Chicago house. I think that even 'Black Skinhead' could border on house, "On Sight" sounds like acid house, and then 'I Am a God' obviously sounds, like, super house."
  • The song's lyric, "A monster about to come alive again. Soon as I pull up and park the Benz. We get this b---h shaking like Parkinson's," attracted anger from sufferers of Parkinson's disease. Kathryn Whitford, who is Vice President of the American Parkinson Disease Association, slammed West's use of the condition as a punchline. 'We find these lyrics distasteful and the product of obvious ignorance," she told TMZ.com.

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