"Good Morning" is a song by American hip-hop recording artist and record producer Kanye West. It was released as the first song on the track-listing of his third studio album Graduation (2007). The track was produced by West and contains samples from the recording "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by English singer and pianist Elton John. As the opening number, "Good Morning" introduces both the musical and lyrical aspects of Graduation. The track harbors a keyboard-laden, electronic soundscape and poignant, introspective atmosphere. The song's verses largely are built on self-aggrandizement laced with self-criticism and explores lyrical concerns pertaining to anti-establishment. Its lyrics also express several motivational declarations and contain numerous pop-culture references. "Good Morning" received generally favorable reviews from contemporary music critics, who praised the production as well as West's wordplay.
Though not released as a single, an animated music video was produced for "Good Mornding." The video was directed by Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami--who had designed the album artwork of Graduation and the cover art for its singles--and features the use of cel-shaded animation. The short animated feature was met with widespread acclaim and is often cited as one of West's most artistic music videos. It was included in the 'best-of' lists of publications such as Billboard and Complex and has been showcased in multiple art museums. In addition to the music video, a special video clip was also made for "Good Mording." The video clip first premiered on a screen inside an auditorium during an album listening session West held for Graduation in New York City at the New World Stages on August 28, 2007. It was one of seven video clips that were designed by Kanye West and edited by film editor Derrick Lee exclusively for the session. The video clip features a montage of scenes taken from the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Video Good Morning (Kanye West song)
Background
"Good Morning" was written and produced by American hip-hop recording artist and record producer Kanye West. The musical composition serves as the opening track for West's third studio album, Graduation (2007). Due to being the album's introductory track, the song's original title was "Good Morning (Intro)," but subsequently was changed. Unlike its predecessors, rather than a fake Bernie Mac intro or a Broke-Phi-Broke interlude, the album-opener instead begins Graduation with vocals from West. On "Good Morning," Kanye West himself establishes the academic theme of the third studio album. His verses demonstrate the introspective lyricism, witty metaphors, and aspirational declarations that anchor Graduation. Musically, the wary opening track starts the album on a sparse, downbeat note with sonic restraint, as it features subtle instrumental nuances and understated production.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the production of "Good Morning" is West's use of dreamy vocal samples from the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by English singer and pianist Elton John. Incidentally, Elton John had professed a desire to work with Kanye West during an interview with Rolling Stone on August 25, 2006. Elton John imparted that he wanted to bring his songs and melodies to hip-hop beats. It was while he was discussing his forthcoming autobiographical studio album The Captain & the Kid. As a concept album, it acts as the sequel to his ninth studio album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, which just so happens to contain the very song that West samples. Years later, the two artists did in fact collaborate with one another on Kanye West's fifth studio album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), which Elton John described as "genius." Elton John played the piano and was one of many in a long roster of recording artists who provided background vocals for the fifth track "All of the Lights," which was subsequently released as the album's fourth single.
The song was first heard by music listeners when the digital radio station BBC Radio 1Xtra hosted an exclusive "Audience With Kanye West" venue at the BBC Radio Music Theatre in London on August 13, 2007. West guided a specially selected audience through Graduation, playing the album in its entirety directly from his MacBook Air laptop via a speaker system. The premiere was part of an extensive promotional campaign that West embarked on for his third album during a trip to the United Kingdom. Two weeks later, "Good Morning" was played as an opener when West hosted an album listening session for Graduation in New York City. The late-night album listening session was held at the New World Stages on August 28, 2007. Inside an auditorium, West explained the influences and aspirations that went into the making of his third album. Throughout the night, he played previews of its songs from start-to-finish without interruption, some with video accompaniment to match. When West played "Good Morning," scenes from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey were broadcast on a screen while lights flashed in sequence with the thumping beat of the track.
Maps Good Morning (Kanye West song)
Recording
Recording sessions for "Good Morning" took place at Sony Music Studios in New York City and at The Record Plant in Hollywood, California. The track was then mixed at the Chalice Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. The song's spatial arrangement, delicate melodies, and minimalist sonic atmosphere continues the quietly complex approach to hip-hop production that West started on Finding Forever the seventh album of his label associate, close friend, and fellow Chicago hip-hop artist Common. Beginning in early 2006, West had handled the recording and production of Common's album simultaneously with his own Graduation. For the production of "Good Morning," West integrates wafting falsetto vocal samples into the chorus section. They are from the 1975 recording "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by the English pianist, singer-songwriter and composer Elton John. "Good Morning" also has additional vocals provided by Australian singer Connie Mitchell of the dance music group Sneaky Sound System as well as soul singer and former GOOD Music recording artist Tony Williams. Additionally, "Good Morning" includes an interpolation of vocals that were provided by rapper Jay-Z. At the end, Jay-Z briefly recites lyrics taken from the opening bars of "The Ruler's Back," the rapper's own introductory track for his sixth studio album, The Blueprint (2001). Similar to Finding Forever, the album's production had largely been handled by Kanye West. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jay-Z detailed some backstory in regards to his small contribution to "Good Morning." From a creative stance, West was apparently quite enthusiastic about the incorporation of his a capella into the track. Jay-Z explained, "You have to really care about the music ... he was bragging about having the a capella. He's like, [Kanye impression] 'Yo, that's how I spun it, 'cause I had the a capella.' I'm like, wow. The things he cares about! That's not a big thing, but in his mind, 'I had the a capella, so I was able to put that in there without any drums.'" Although he does provide the additional vocals, Graduation marks the very first studio release by Kanye West not to feature a full-fledged guest verse from Jay-Z.
Composition
"Good Morning" is a mid-tempo hip hop track that lasts for a duration of three minutes and fifteen seconds. The song is composed in the key of F major and set in the time signature of common time, with a moderate tempo of 85 beats per minute. It follows a basic sequence of F-C-Dm as its chord progression during the chorus, while the verses alternate between D minor and C major triads. Most of the harmonic content of the composition revolves around the two-chord alternation which serves as the main chord pattern. The track has a minimal and downbeat electronic instrumentation which consists of drums, keyboards, and background vocals. "Good Morning" begins with a medium tempo as Kanye West utters a controlled "uh" before he unleashes the track's subversive, floor-trembling bass drum. The song's opening section then involves steady percussion from echoed-out, muted, metronomic cowbell strikes while its thumping boom-bap drums are laced with an arpeggiated synthesizer drone. The track is awash in keyboards that harbor new-age elements accompanied by more music at the arrival of the atmospheric refrain. Its refrain consists of a mixture of the cascading ambient keyboards, droning synth-pad arpeggios, hazy electronic effects, and wafting vocal harmonies by an astral backing choir. "Good Morning" is simplistic in its chorus, where West repeats the title of the track time after time, accentuated by the haunting yet ethereal, chant-like coos and fills. The descending, oohing vocals serve as a celestial pop hook that helps engender the song's atmosphere. The wafting hook is composed with the use of vocal samples in the falsetto register from the recording "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by English singer and pianist Elton John. "Good Morning" elevates itself from the gentle refrain to an outro that features the voice of rapper Jay-Z, who utters lyrics from "The Ruler's Back." The musical composition reaches its conclusion with the pairing of Jay-Z's additional vocals to otherworldly synth lines.
The lyrical content of "Good Morning" continues the education theme that was established by Kanye West's previous studio albums The College Dropout (2004) and Late Registration (2005). Both of the first two installments of West's planned album tetralogy began with an opening track that involves a school administrator who labels him a disappointment. By contrast, "Good Morning" starts off Graduation with West ascendeding to the next level of success and the next phase of his career. West uses the song as a commencement address and announces that his third album functions as his dissertation, making an analogy in which he likens his music to academia. Furthermore, he compares conquering life's struggles and challenges to graduating from a university when he professes that: "You graduate when you make it up out of the streets."
West's lyricism is slick and keenly aggressive in the song's three straightforward eight-bar verses as his style of rappinhg exhibits the more gradual approach to flow that he used throughout Graduation. The verses are primarily structured on self-aggrandizement undercut with harsh self-criticism and discusses lyrical concerns related to anti-elitism and anti-establishment. Along with several motivational declarations, the lyrical content is also home to energetic, amusing wordplay laced with numerous pop-culture references. They pertain to actress Rosie Perez, the 1989 Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing, civil rights leader Malcom X, and the classic 1980s science fiction film series Back to the Future. West lays bear the forward-looking aspect of the album when he rhymes, "Good Morning, look at the valedictorian/scared of the future while I hop in the DeLorean." At the same time, the interpolation of the line, "Hustlers, that's if you're still livin', get on down..." from Jay-Z's sixth studio album The Blueprint is one of many touching callbacks to the footsteps that once propelled West forward as a hip-hop artist in the past found throughout his introspective third album Graduation. The widespread acclaim of The Blueprint brought Jay-Z's record label Roc-A-Fella Records more attention to West's production skills. The record influenced countless other hip-hop producers and established Kanye West as a major figure in mainstream rap music.
Reception
"Good Morning" received generally favorable reviews from contemporary music critics. John Wash for Hot Press called the musical composition "glorious." He elaborates that the track's "dark, neurotic beats may form the backdrop, but the deliciously cheesy sampling lifts the song firmly into the pop spectrum." Natalie Weiner from Billboard magazine regards "Good Morning" as one of Kanye West's most uplifting anthems, saying, "The Elton John sample, combined with Kanye's anti-establishment fervor, will make anyone feel better about their relative lack of diplomas." On behalf of URB Magazine, a reviewer distinguishes the composition as a "promising opener" and complimented the cleverness of the DeLorean lyric. RapReview's Jesa Padania also considered "Good Morning" to be a strong way to start the studio album and expressed affinity for the song's simple yet soulful hip-hop beat. Chase Hoffberger from The Austin Chronicle gave praise to the innovative manner in which West samples Elton John for the track's production. Sound & Vision reviewer Jeff Perlah views "Good Morning" as an example of how Kanye West "continues to bounce hip-hop into exciting new realms that are artful."
The Michigan Daily writer Brian Chen claimed that the track "stands among the best of West's productions, combining gospel howls, synthesizers and strings, all over a bone-crushing bass." Rajveer Kathwadia for RWD Magazine listed "Good Morning" as one of the best songs on Graduation. While he holds the belief that its West's musicality that's a true measurement of his talent, he commends Kanye's improvement as a rapper and marked the Malcom X lyric as the album's standout line. Likewise, Rolling Stone writer Evan Serpick called the Malcolm X reference as a "classic one-liner." Dave Heaton from PopMatters also highlighted West's clever word play, writing, "Bad puns have been the foundation of West's lyrical approach since the beginning, and it works." In a less enthusiastic review, Japie Stoppelenburg of No Ripcord describes "Good Morning" as a "concise but slightly blunt effort." Stoppelenburg goes on to say that "the track is innocuous and respectably fun, but it never really steps out of its modesty like so many of Kanye's earlier tracks have." In a retrospective, Brendan Klinkenberg of Complex commented on the opener:
"... 'Good Morning' is [West's] cleanest opener, on his cleanest album; the perfect first step to what would be the capstone to the College trilogy, and the last time he would privilege cohesiveness in his catalogue. In his words, Graduation is his dissertation, and its first track is its thesis. 'Ye would take over the world, watch it crumble around him, then get more artistically daring with each subsequent release--Good Ass Job would never show up, and he would abandon the things that make this song great: its focused, three-verse structure, gently building beat, and sweet sense of melancholy. 'Ye would go on to burn his influences and talent down for scraps, and began to create weirder, bigger things. One thing he never lost, though, was his ability to start an album."
Complex magazine ranked "Good Morning" at number eighty-seven on their list of West's one-hundred best songs. A columnist from Paste bestowed "Good Morning" with much acclaim and ranks it as West's sixtieth best album track. He declared, "'Good Morning' isn't West just waking himself up to the next level of his evolution, it's West waking up the world to its next legend." Pigeons & Planes placed "Good Morning" at number twelve under their list of West's twenty-five best songs that weren't released as singles. Highsnobiety cites "Good Morning" as the sixth best song on Graduation, remarking that its sonic cues "[make] good on Kanye's narrative catharsis. Somehow, through all the bullshit, we made it to graduation day, and yes, it sounds this damn triumphant." Portland rapper Aminé, who cites West as a musical influence, said that "Good Morning" is one of his favorite songs. He stated, "'Good Morning' was a song that just made me feel good and I could still turn it on today. It was one of the first times where I started to hear bright, positive, hip-hop."
Musicvideo
Background
Though not released asa single, a three-minute animated music video was produced for "Good Morning." Kanye West commissioned the music video to be directed by Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. He had overseen the art direction of Graduation and was behind the cover art designs for the album and its accompanying singles. The collaboration came about when West visited Murakami's Kaikai Kiki Co. studio in Roppongi Hills during a brief trip to Tokyo, Japan in the midst of touring the year prior. Often called "the Warhol of Japan," Murakami's surrealistic visual art is characterized by cartoonish creatures that appear friendly and cheerful at first glance, but possess dark, twisted undertones. Regarding his collaboration with the artist, West remarked, "Murakami, his work has been stunning to me because pop art is really expressive, representative and expressive and emotional, and it looks like something you can do yourself. [But] you cannot do no Murakami shit yourself. You cannot do this at home. He has this studio out in Japan that has thirty artists working at one time. I love Japanese culture and I was always into art, and Murakmi is a god in the the art world."
For the music video, the technicolor designs of the album artwork for Graduation are brought to life through the use of cel-shaded animation. The short animated feature expresses colorful, pastel imagery that take cues from Takashi Murakami's affiliation with superflat, a post-modern art movement influenced by Japanese manga and animé. The video was produced by Murakami's production company Kaikai Kiki Co. in conjunction with Oriental Light and Magic, the Japanese studio responsible for the 3D animation of the Pokémon film franchise and the 2001 animé film, Inuyasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time. Meanwhile, the storyline of the music video was written by West, himself a self-professed animé fan. An edited version of the video was first displayed in an F.Y.E. commercial used for promotion of Graduation days before the album's release date. A clip of the animated music video was leaked onto the Internet on November 12, 2007. The music video had found its way online by means through a fan's camera after a private screening at the Geffen Contemporary in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, California. West premiered the full version of the music video and made it available for purchasing on the iTunes Store on August 26, 2008.
Synopsis
The story of the music video centers around Dropout Bear, Kanye West's anthropomorphic teddy bear mascot. Dropout Bear first appeared sitting on a set of gymnasium bleachers on the cover art for his debut album, The College Dropout. He later appeared dressed in a collegian outfit, a blazer with a school insignia, on the album cover of West's sophomore release, Late Registration. Dropout Bear acts as the main protagonist while his journey takes place throughout a fictional futuristic metropolis known as Universe City. In the surrealistic video, Dropout Bear overcomes various trials and tribulations as he races through the city in an effort to reach his college campus in time to attend his graduation ceremony. The story begins on a rainy day with Dropout being woken up by his alarm clock. After brushing his teeth and donning a varsity jacket, he runs out of his apartment to his car, modeled after a DeLorean. When the car's engine dies, Dropout Bear is forced to find an alternative means of transportation. Dropout first attempts to hail a taxi cab but it speeds right past him, soaking him with puddle water. He then tries to get aboard a metro rail but just misses it, slamming his face into the door of a subway car right before it pulls away.
Left with no other options, Dropout is reduced to pursuing his goal on foot. As he races down sidewalks, Dropout is chased down by a monstrous storm cloud that swallows him whole. He's transported to a bizarre pocket dimension populated by multi-eyed, living, technicolor mushrooms. Dropout evades lightning bolts and a tornado before falling throw a hole and being regurgitated by the storm cloud monster back onto the city streets. Eventually, Dropout reaches the university and makes it to his ceremony just in time to stand before his colleagues, a wide variety of anthropomorphic creatures like himself. He sheds his attire to reveal a graduation robe and academic cap and receives his bachelor's degree in hip-hop music. The visual narrative concludes with Dropout Bear being blasted out of a cannon. He's shot from the university, through the heavens, beyond the stratosphere and into another galaxy as depicted on the back cover of Graduation.
Reception
Upon its official release, the "Good Morning" music video reached number-one on the iTunes Store music video chart in the United States just a day later. The short animated feature was met withgeneral acclaim from fans, critics and media outlets and is often regarded as one of West's best, most artistic videos. Adam Itkoff from The Source gave the video high praise, saying that West's visual collaboration with Takashi Murakami is a testament to the way that his imagination can catalyze illustrious pieces of art. The Ringer hailed the music video for "Good Morning" as Kanye West's best music video of all time. Complex magazine cites the animated feature as West's eighteenth best music video, writing, "Murakami's art is incredible from a still viewpoint, but when presented in the form of his few full-length cartoon features, it practically explodes off the screen." To honor of his achievement of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, women's fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar compiled a list of West's nine most essential music videos. The video for "Good Morning" was at number eight on the list, with columnist Madeline Kelly declaring West is worthy of the recognition and that there's no denying his talent. Sharing similar sentiments, MTV placed "Good Morning" at number fourteen on a list of West's top twenty-five most innovative videos.
For their list of The 10 Best Art and Music Collaborations of All Time, writer Jennifer Wood of Complex magazine ranked Takashi Murakami's direction of the music video for "Good Morning" at number eight. On November 11, 2013, the animated music video was also included on Pop Art: 13 Awesome Artist-Musician Collaborations, a catalog that was compiled by Billboard magazine. The publication lists joint ventures between visual artists and musicians over the past decades. Billboard cites West's stylized work with Murakami as one of thirteen pairings in the realms of music and high-art that are amazing moments in true art-pop. On his part, Takashi Murakami has benefited significantly from his artistic collaboration with Kanye West. It opened up his contemporary artistry to a new generation of young music listeners. Although his monogram project with the fashion house Louis Vuitton had brought him international mainstream attention five years earlier, Murakami acknowledges the fact that the millennial youth audiences that have gravitated towards his work learned about him through his joint efforts with musicians such as Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. The short animated feature has since become one of the few music videos ever to be showcased in several prestigious art museums, including the Brooklyn Museum in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, California.
Video clip
In addition to the animated music video, a special video clip was created for "Good Morning" prior to the release of Graduation. It was displayed for the very first time as an opener when Kanye West hosted a late-night album listening session for Graduation in New York City at the New World Stages on August 28, 2007. West presented the gapless playback session inside an auditorium with an evocative light-show across a stage that featured theatrical smoke machines, laser beams, stage spotlights and other special effects. The elaborate spectacle was all set in almost perfect time with the music. While the music played, a large screen positioned in the middle of the stage flashed a montage of imagery edited to sync up with "Good Morning." They are taken from scenes of the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just as was the case with the audio track, West went for a minimalist aesthetic in regards to the sequence of visual cues. The video clip for "Good Morning" was one of seven that were designed by Kanye West and Derrick Lee exclusively for the event. Derrick Lee was the the editor of the music video for "Flashing Lights" and was able to edit all seven video clips in the span of three days. Kanye West later made the video clip available for viewing on his official blog on March 20, 2008.
![Kanye West - Graduation [CREDITS] | #WKND](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sug24DzJ4mTF2fOxggY5OME5UkCd-E8pbU4UI_mP836PGFTyGUNeVYADArcPJHlY2WczTojLOMy_Xe6iSYUqNdh1vmDo8sTxwajRdyVXPoyZ8-xCedEV2pjgR4b5w-w8lsx7KqtH95szjXeMg=s0-d "Kanye West - Graduation [CREDITS] | #WKND")
Live performances
On April 4, 2008, West gave a live performance of "Good Morning" during a six-song setlist at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. The concert was held in celebration of the opening of the "© MURAKAMI" exhibit by Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. The comprehensive retrospective features over ninety Murakami pieces and artwork that draw from street culture, high-art and traditional Japanese painting, and includes painting, drawings, sculpture, wallpaper, installation and animation. Kanye took the stage took the small stage surrounded by smoke and flashing lights below a large screen emblazoned with Murikami's artwork to perform before a mostly older audience.
West performed "Good Morning" every night as the opener of the set-list of his Glow in the Dark Tour, which began on April 16, 2008 at the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington. West would often begin his concerts by playing a leitmotif of "Stronger," implying that he'd start the show with a performance of the hit single, only to segue into a live rendition of "Good Morning." The composition is but one of the many, various songs taken from West's first three studio albums that West utilisises for his conceptual concert. They serve to form a space opera storyline that tells the tale of how a stranded space traveler struggles for over a year making attempts to escape from a distant planet that his ship crash-landed on while on a mission to bring creativity back to Earth. In the narrative, West does a live performance of "Good Morning" after waking up from hyper-sleep to find himself stranded. He performed on a barren stage in front of a large LED screen that depicts scenes from the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Near the end of the tour's North American leg, with singers and a percussionist/DJ behind him, West performed "Good Morning" during the final night of Lollapalooza on August 3, 2008 in his hometown of Chicago, where he co-headlined the festival with Nine Inch Nails. Kanye West provided a live rendition of "Good Morning" during his headlining performance at Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore, Maryland on August 10, 2008. Much like his Lollapalooza appearance in Chicago the weekend prior, West and Nine Inch Nails were both scheduled as headliners on different stages at the same time at opposite ends of the park. At the start of the concert, following a brief instrumental, West walked onstage and launched into his performance of the song. West was alone on the stage engulfed in smoke and fog in front of a live musical band and background vocalists who added percussive textures and harmony to the track.
Cover versions
"Good Morning" has been covered and remixed by other hip-hop artists. A remix for "Good Morning" was produced by The Kickdrums for inclusion on Sky High, a remix mixtape that was mixed and compiled by DJ Benzi and Plain Pat. The mixtape features remixes by various DJs and record producers of songs taken from West's first three studio albums. It was made in anticipation of the release of his fourth studio album 808s & Heartbreak (2008). The remix project was commissioned by Kanye West himself the year prior. He handed over a cappellas and other session tapes to DJ Benzi, who then spent his time trying to match different and DJs and producers to certain tracks. Like every of the other tracks, "Good Morning" (The Kickdrums Remix) had at least five revisions recorded before being completely finished. The song's refrain contains guitar-driven production in addition to melancholic croons. The remix also features an additional verse from then-newly signed GOOD Music recording artist Big Sean.
Hip-hop artist Evidence has used samples of the drums from "Good Morning" to produce the instrumental track "Good Evening." It was for his fourth instrumental hip-hop album Green Tape Instrumentals. The controlled "uh" that West utters at the beginning of the song was sampled by mashup producer Kids & Explosions. He uses a loop of the vocal sample for the track "Everything" on his debut album Shit Computer. Vitamin String Quartet composed a string-laden cover version of "Good Morning" for the opening song of their tribute album, The String Quartet Tribute to Kanye West. In a manner similar, Rockabye Baby! featured an interpretation of "Good Morning" as the opening track of their tribute album, Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Kanye West. Intended for infants, the gentle cover is a wordless lullaby instrumental, substituting keyboards and drums in favor of xylophones and bells. The track was later featured on Good Day, Goodnight, their five-year anniversary 2-CD compilation release. The compilation album contains the most requested songs from their previous releases, including "Good Morning," in addition to several exclusive new tracks.
Personnel
Information taken from Graduation liner notes.
- Songwriters: Kanye West, Elton John, Bernie Taupin
- Producer: Kanye West
- Recorders: Andrew Dawson, Anthony Kilhoffer
- Mix engineer: Andrew Dawson
- Assistant engineers: Bram Tobey, Jason Agel, Nate Hertweck, Matty Green
- Keyboards: Andy Chatterley
- Additional vocals: Jay-Z, Tony "Penafire" Williams, Connie Mitchell
References
External links
- "Good Morning" Music Video on YouTube
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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