Kanye West vents about co-parenting challenges on his new song “True Love” with XXXTentacion.
Kanye West has not shied away from letting everyone know that he intends to be the best father to his four children, but amid his custody battle with ex-wife Kim Kardashian, the rapper shares his feelings as he notes the limited time with his children makes him feel like he’s borrowing them from the Skims founder.
The rapper released a new song, “True Love,” on Friday, which features the late XXXTentacion where he opens up about the emotional turmoil joint custody has brought him.
“Wait, when you see the kids? I’ll see y’all tomorrow/ Wait when the sun set? I see y’all tomorrow/ Wait when I pick ’em up, I feel like they borrowed/ When I gotta return them, scan ’em like a barcode/ Wait, no hard feelings, but these feelings hard though,” he raps in one verse.
Kanye also directs concern for the children and questions who cares for their daily well-being while also hinting that their mother might be stopping them from wearing their father’s Yeezy branded shoes.
“Wait, who got the kids in those ‘What are thos??’/ Wait, why they can’t wear Yeezys with the cargos?/ Y’all know Nik? don’t like me, y’all take it too far, though/ At least have ’em in some Mike’s, he played for Chicago/ I only see three kids, who watchin’ Chicago?” he asked.
This is not the first time that Kanye West has raised concerns for the children, as he months ago accused Kim of using nannies to replace her role as the primary caregiver. He has also in the past bemoaned the custody arrangement as he called it unfair and not true to the word “joint custody,” nothing that he cannot see the children when he wants to, and his plans are always secondary to what Kim has planned for the children.
West had bought a house that sits directly across from Kim’s Hidden Hills estate to be closer to the children.
In the meantime, the rapper, who was previously on vacation in Japan for a few weeks with his new girlfriend, was recently seen with his elder daughter North West at a local restaurant in Los Angeles days ago. Days before, he also shared that he had shown up in a fire truck to take the children to school and spoke about creating memories with them.
The couple is divorced following a bifurcated divorce motion being granted to give Kim single status earlier this year. However, a few matters like the children, a prenup the couple has, and their asset division are yet to be straightened by the court.
Kanye West, who months before had declared he was unhappy with the arrangements, had called out Kim Kardashian for allegedly “kidnapping” Chicago for her birthday by not providing him with the address to the child’s birthday party. He had also shared that he did not want North West on Tik Tok as she was singing about being an “emo” girl and wearing make-up.
In the meantime, the song also features XXXTentacion reflecting on “True love” and lamenting the issues that can arise as he says it “shouldn’t be this complicated/ I thought I’d die in your arms.”
John Cunningham, a longtime friend, and collaborator of XXXTentacion, also spoke about Kanye hopping onto the song to complete it.
“Ever since X first started singing ‘True Love’ around the house in early 2018, it stood out to both of us as a special song,” he said in a press release. “While we weren’t able to finish recording the song at the time, four years later in January of this year I had the opportunity to meet Ye while he was working on Donda 2, and I played him the demo of it.”
“At the time it was only X’s vocal and my piano, but as soon as Ye heard it and started singing over the instrumental section in between X’s choruses, it felt like the song was always meant to be finished by him. As someone X has cited for years as one of his biggest inspirations both musically and more widely as an individual, Ye breathed a life into the song that I feel blessed to have been witness to. I couldn’t imagine being more proud of how this song came to be, both as a collaborator and as a friend trying to do right by the legacy of someone who was taken far before reaching their full creative potential,” Cunningham added.
At the end of the track, Kanye West, who has called out Kim for trying to paint him as a deadbeat father, promises his children, “Daddy’s not gone.”
