Good Life (Kanye West song)


"Good Life" is a song by American rapper Kanye West released on October 2, 2007 as the third single for his third studio album Graduation. The song features vocals by singer T-Pain and was produced by West and DJ Toomp. It contains a sample of the keyboard outro to "P.Y.T. " performed by Michael Jackson. The song features additional drum programming by Timbaland and additional production by Mike Dean, as well as background vocals by John Legend and Ne-Yo.
The song's lyrics see West celebrating the finer things in life and acknowledging his success. "Good Life" peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number twenty-three on the UK Singles Chart. The music video was premiered on MTV Jams on September 11, 2007. The song earned two nominations at the 50th Grammy Awards for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song, winning the latter. It was nominated for Best Collaboration and Video of the Year at the 2008 BET Awards, managing to win the former.

Composition and recording

The song samples the keyboard outro of the single "P.Y.T. " performed by Michael Jackson, combined with layers of synths from Omar Edwards. Producer DJ Toomp revealed that the song's creation started off with West playing with the sample and being like: "Yo, I always wanted to do something with this... I want to hear it in a different key" and Toomp played with the sample as well. John Legend and Ne-Yo sing the final refrains of "Good Life". The lyrics focus on life being good and West celebrates his success. West spins lyrics from 50 Cent's single "In Da Club" that originally were about Lloyd Banks giving 50 advice to being about 50 giving West advice instead. It was revealed by T-Pain that even though he recorded multiple different hooks, none of them sounded right to West and he ended up making the hook out of a composite that was made up of all the hooks that had been recorded by T-Pain. Working on the track in the studio was viewed as feeling like a party by Toomp and he also said that there was a lot of the GOOD Music crew in the studio for it.
In a 2019 interview with Revolt, DJ Toomp commented on the creation of the song;
"Kanye came with the sample and I started making the beat around it. We wanted a professional keyboardist to bless that shit. John Legend was singing on the hook in one version. We went through about four different artists before we decided T-Pain was going to do the hook. Watching him go through so many different artists and different hooks, I learned about taking your time and not settling with what you hear the first time."

Music video

The music video for "Good Life" was directed by Jonas & François with animation by So-Me. The video premiered on September 11, 2007 as MTV Jams' "Jam of the Week". It features West and T-Pain performing with animated backdrops on a white background and often mouthing the words of the song lyrics, which appear in large letters. The version of the song used in the video contains an additional twenty-four seconds that the album version does not have. The music video features a cameo from rapper/model LoLa Monroe. On set, West had to persuade T-Pain to listen to "Good Life" again before the shooting began.

Chart performance

"Good Life" debuted at number sixty-three on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs during the chart week of September 22, 2007, where it eventually peaked at number three, becoming West's second top ten single from Graduation on the chart. For the chart week of September 29, 2007, "Good Life" was the "Hot Shot Debut" of the week on the Billboard Hot 100, as it entered at number fourteen due to strong digital downloads. The song climbed to the seventh position, becoming West's second consecutive top ten Hot 100 single from Graduation as well as T-Pain's sixth top ten single. "Good Life" debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number thirty-nine and has peaked at number twenty-three. The single generated a strong reaction from the MuchMusic Countdown, where it reached number-one. "Good Life" was able to reach number thirty-three on the UK Singles Chart before it was officially released in the UK until November 5, 2007. Upon its release, the single was able to rise and peak at the twenty-third position on the chart.

Accolades

"Good Life" received a total of 13 nominations for music awards and ultimately won eight of them. Among the awards won by the song were Best Collaboration at the 2008 BET Awards, Best Rap Song at the 2008 Grammy Awards and Best Special Effects in a Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.
YearCeremonyAwardResult-
2008BET AwardsBest Collaboration
2008BET AwardsVideo of the Year
2008BET Hip Hop AwardsBest Hip-Hop Video
2008BET Hip Hop AwardsTrack of the Year
2008BET Hip Hop AwardsBest Hip-Hop Collabo
2008BMI R&B/Hip-Hop AwardsAward Winning Songs
2008Grammy AwardsBest Rap Song
2008Grammy AwardsBest Rap/Sung Collaboration
2008MTV Video Music AwardsBest Special Effects
2009ASCAP Pop Music AwardsMost Performed Songs
2009ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music AwardsAward Winning Rap Songs
2009ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music AwardsAward Winning R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
2009People's Choice AwardsFavorite Hip-Hop Song

Media usage

The song was used in the ending credits of the HBO television series Entourage during season 4, episode 11, titled "No Cannes Do." In the final moments of the episode, Kanye West makes an appearance and lets Vincent Chase and his crew use his plane to fly to Cannes as the song "Good Life" faded into the credits. On August 31, 2017, Sammie released the song "Good Life" featuring Rick Ross, which includes an interpolation of the lyric "Welcome to the good life".

Track listings

CD single
  1. "Good Life" – 3:27
  2. "Can't Tell Me Nothing" – 4:07
CD single
  1. "Good Life" – 3:30
  2. "Good Life" – 3:24
  3. "Can't Tell Me Nothing" – 4:09
  4. "Good Life" – 3:56
Digital download
  1. "Good Life" – 3:27
  2. "Can't Tell Me Nothing" – 4:07

    Personnel

Information taken from Graduation liner notes.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australia Urban 39
US Billboard Hot 10079
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 38
US Hot Rap Songs 11

Certifications

Release history