Kanye West: Runaway

In his 5th studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West explores the trials and tribulations of acknowledging how his actions hurt his significant other and how he admits his own personal faults regarding himself and how it affected his relationship in his hit song, “Runaway.” “Runaway” was unveiled at the VMAs in 2010. Kanye West is an American rapper, songwriter, producer, and fashion designer. West has released 11 studio albums but before he made music, he was a producer. West struggled to make it as a rapper in the early 2000s because record labels were not taking him seriously as a rapper; he was respected as a producer but not as a rapper. Slowly, things changed, and he went on to live a successful career releasing 11 studio albums since 2004.

“Runaway” is a song that as stated by West, has a double meaning. Starting off with a beautiful piano intro the song is very recognizable. The song has a double meaning because he can humble himself while he acknowledges his faults in himself and in the relationship. In the first stanza of his song he says, “And I always find, yeah, I always find something wrong/You been puttin’ up with my sh*t just way too long/I’m so gifted at finding what I don’t like the most” West hints that in his own fault he finds always finds something wrong but he is not the only one at fault because the person is putting up with him. In the chorus, he tells his lover to run from him, “Baby, I got a plan/Run away as fast as you can.” He is humbling himself from the big ego West is known to have and telling his lover to run away from him because he is at fault. He focuses on the negative and never feeling like anything is good enough. The most notable and my favorite part of the song is when he acknowledges that he messed up. Near the end of the song, he says, “Never was much of a romantic/I could never take the intimacy/and I know I did damage/’cause the look in your eyes is killing me/I guess you knew of that advantage/’cause you could blame me for everything/and I don’t know how I’ma manage/If one day, you just up and leave.” The vulnerability in West words for acknowledging that he was an asshole is something I found myself listening to and wish those words were once said to me. It is a verse I take personally because to me, it is a form of closure.