On New Year’s Eve, Kanye West dropped a single called “Only One,” a song featuring Paul McCartney on keyboard with lyrics that take the perspective of his mother, Donda West, who passed away in 2007. The song opens with her greeting West, using “Mari,” short for his middle name Omari. Touchingly the song finishes with lyrics exhorting West to “tell Nori about me.”
It’s all very sweet and personal and exposes West’s thoughts on the loss of his mother in relation to the birth of his child that he hasn’t revealed prior to now. Below are West’s hand-written lyrics to the song plus images shot for the single by photographers Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. The song is now available on iTunes.
[UPDATE: Most free versions of the song now have been removed, including ours. You can still listen to the song at KanyeWest.com.]
