Fans of Paul McCartney and Kanye West may have been skeptical when news surfaced that the pair was working on music together. So far, though, the results of their collaboration have been well-received. "All Day," "Only One" and "FourFiveSeconds" featuring Rihanna are making waves on the pop charts and bringing the rock and hip-hop communities together once again. McCartney spoke to NME about what sparked the partnership. Macca said he started to understand the rap genre more after seeing Jay Z and West in concert last year. "I was expecting it to be, 'Oh, it's great, it's hip-hop, it's loud ...,' but I hadn't until then got the urban poetry aspect," he said. "Like, Bob Dylan is a poet. And so is Jay Z, and Kanye."
The artist strives to stay relevant in the ever-changing pop landscape. In order to do so, McCartney likes to see what other acts are doing on tour.
"If I'm gonna do a tour I like to go and see what other people are doing. I didn't wanna bring my tour out and be amazingly old-fashioned. So if people are going, 'Oh, man, Beyoncé, she was killer!' I like to go there and go, 'Yeah, we can do better than this,'" he said.
West recently made some comments about their collaboration, comparing his role in the partnership to that of John Lennon's when McCartney was in The Beatles.
"We just went in and we vibed out," he told Ryan Seacrest. "As you can see, I might be a little bit more 'angst' than Paul. And remember the last time when Paul had somebody really 'angst' working with him, the type of music they made?"
The rapper clarified his remarks, making sure people knew he was not comparing himself to Lennon.
"Hey, everyone, America, I'm not comparing myself to John Lennon," he said. "I'm just saying I'm 'angst' a bit like John Lennon.
"All Day," "Only One" and "FourFiveSeconds" will all appear on West's upcoming album So Help Me God.
