American singer Louis Prima has a posthumous feature on the song due to a sample of his music being included; this isn't the only time a dead artist's work is sampled on the album, since a guitar riff from Kurt Cobain is sampled on "Cudi Montage". Prima's appearance didn't mark the first feature by a posthumous artist on one of West's tracks, since he had previously credited posthumous features to Curtis Mayfield on "The Joy" and Otis Redding on Jay-Z collaboration "Otis" respectively. The staff of Complex reached out to Anthony Sylvester to find out how Prima became featured, which Sylvester explained by saying:
It all happened very quickly, within the last week. Kanye and his people were gracious with sharing the recording with us, and acknowledging the contribution of Louis Prima to the song. They were very, very receptive to the idea that, for all intents and purposes, Louis was featured. I don’t know if they had it in their minds before, or if it was simply something that we thought on our side. I didn’t really expect to go anywhere. And then the next day, there it was. It really speaks to the graciousness of Kanye and his people, I must say.
Gospel singer Shirley Ann Lee's song "Someday" had been sampled for the opening of West's Ye track "Ghost Town" before it was sampled in "4th Dimension". The song isn't the only one on Kids See Ghosts to have a connection to the track, as "Freeee " was released as the sequel to "Ghost Town".
Release
"4th Dimension" was released on June 8, 2018 as the third track on Kids See Ghosts. On the day of the album's release, multiple tracks were mislabeled on streaming services, including "4th Dimension", which was mislabeled as the seventh and final track on the album, "Cudi Montage". With "4th Dimension", Louis Prima set the record for the longest break between BillboardHot 100 hits, at 57 years, four months, and two weeks; Prima last appeared on the Hot 100 on February 13, 1961, with the song "Wonderland by Night". The record was previously held by the late Bobby Helms, at 54 years, 11 months, and two weeks with his Christmas song "Jingle Bell Rock".
Reception
The song was met with rave reviews from music critics. Michelle Kim of Pitchfork pointed the Prima sample out as where West "somehow manages to turn that festive holiday tune about literal sleighs into a haunting loop of chanting voices". West's sampling skills were praised by Christopher R. Weingarten of Rolling Stone as well, with him writing in response to West using the Prima sample "He already made Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Michael Jackson sound brand new on a handful of hits, and now he manages to do the same with a 1936 joint by big-band jazz great Louis Prima, turning "What Will Santa Claus Say?" into an unsettling, funky Greek chorus to West and Cudi’s old-fashioned rap boasts." The song's "off-the-wall hilariousness" was viewed by Kieran Read of Redbrick as being an example of when "West himself miraculously taps into the essence of the fabled 'old Kanye'" on Kids See Ghosts.
Samples
The song contains a sample of a section from Shirley Ann Lee's track "Someday". The section sampled consists of Lee's producer discussing song structure in spoken word, which Sidney Madden of NPR believes is a nod to the "all killer no filler" seven-song structure of West's five 2018 albums: The song also contains a sample of Louis Prima's 1936 holiday song "What Will Santa Claus Say ". Although he was sampled, Prima is credited as a featured artist in the song.
Commercial performance
Upon the release of the album, "4th Dimension" reached number 42 on the US Billboard Hot 100, standing as the second highest charting song from it in the United States. It marked the first song with Louis Prima included to chart on the Hot 100 since his track "Wonderland by Night" in 1961. The song debuted at the similar position of number 46 on both the ARIA Singles Chart and UK Singles Chart.
