Cold (Kanye West Song)
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"Cold" (originally "Theraflu" and then "Way Too Cold"; stylized as "Cold.1" on the album) is a song by American rapper
Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...
, released as the second single from the album '' Cruel Summer'' (2012). The song, which features
DJ Khaled Khaled Mohammed Khaled (; born November 26, 1975), known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American DJ and record producer. Originally a Miami-based radio personality, Khaled has since become known for enlisting high-profile music industry ar ...
, was made available for purchase on the iTunes Store on April 17, 2012. Songwriting is credited to West, Chauncey Hollis, James Todd Smith and Marlon Williams, while production was handled by
Hit-Boy Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr. (born May 21, 1987), known professionally as Hit-Boy, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He first signed with fellow producer Polow da Don in 2007 as in-house production staff for his l ...
. Lyrically, the song features West boasting about his personal issues and touching on subjects such as his relationship with
Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (born October 21, 1980) is an American media personality, socialite, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the celebrity sex tape ...
, his breakup with Amber Rose, and his feelings on
Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...
and Kris Humphries. Additional vocals are included from DJ Pharris. The song received positive reviews from music critics, who praised West's lyrical performance and the boldness of his subject matter. The song contains an
interpolation In the mathematics, mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one ...
of "
Lookin' at Me "Lookin' at Me" is the third and final single released from Mase's debut album, ''Harlem World''. The song was produced by The Neptunes and featured Sean Combs, Puff Daddy. The single was yet another success for Mase, becoming his third consecutive ...
" (1997) as performed by
Mase Mason Durell Betha (born August 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Mase (often stylized as Ma$e), is an American rapper. Best known for his work with Sean Combs, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' Bad Boy Records, he signed with the label in 1996 ...
and
Puff Daddy Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Diddy, and formerly Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon, Combs worked as a ...
, and a sample of " Illegal Search" (1990) also performed by
LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip ho ...
. The song peaked at number 86 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, while it reached number 68 on the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart. "Cold" received single artwork designed by frequent West collaborator George Condo, designer of the cover of West's 2010 album ''
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' is the fifth studio album by the American rapper Kanye West. It was released by Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records on November 22, 2010. Retreating to a self-imposed exile in Hawaii after a period of ...
''. West performed the song at the 2012
Watch the Throne Tour The Watch the Throne Tour was a co-headlining concert tour by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West that began on October 28, 2011, in Atlanta and continued until June 22, 2012, with its final show scheduled in Birmingham. Originally scheduled f ...
, and at the 2012
BET Awards The BET Awards are an American award show that was established in 2001 by the BET, Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate Black person, Black entertainers and other minorities in music, film, sports and philanthropy. The awards, which ...
, along with singles "
Mercy Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French , from Medieval Latin , "price paid, wages", from Latin , "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, religious, social, and legal contexts. In the social and le ...
" and " New God Flow". A version with an alternative intro was performed live by him during
The Yeezus Tour The Yeezus Tour was the fifth concert tour by American rapper Kanye West, in support of his sixth studio album, '' Yeezus'' (2013). Announced with a promotional poster in September 2013, it served as West's first solo concert tour since the Gl ...
. The song drew controversy from Humphries, the brand Theraflu, and
PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal right ...
who criticized the content of West's lyrics, claiming the track glorified fur clothing.


Production and release

"Way Too Cold" was produced by Hit-Boy, a producer signed to West's label
GOOD Music GOOD Music (often stylized as G.O.O.D. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American independent record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. The label entered an exclusive long-term worldwide music distribution, distributi ...
, known for his production on " Niggas in Paris". According to Hit-Boy, he had "made the beat a couple months ago, just in a session messing around" and that West "just did the record maybe a week and a half ago. We actually don’t know if it's going to be on Khaled's album or ‘Ye's album. We just put it out because we felt like it was so urgent, people just needed to hear it." In an interview Khaled explained: "I was in the studio with 'Ye anyeand I was like, 'Let's do something for your album, and let's do something for my album,' and you can just release it for fun." The song was first released on the New York City radio station Hot 97 by
Funkmaster Flex Aston George Taylor Jr. (born August 5, 1967), professionally known as Funkmaster Flex, is an American DJ, rapper, record producer, and host on New York City's Hot 97 radio station. In 1992, he became host of the first hip hop radio show on Ho ...
on April 4, 2012. The cover artwork was designed by George Condo, who designed the artwork for West's album ''
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' is the fifth studio album by the American rapper Kanye West. It was released by Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records on November 22, 2010. Retreating to a self-imposed exile in Hawaii after a period of ...
'' and singles like "
Power Power may refer to: Common meanings * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power, a type of energy * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events Math ...
" and " Runaway". The first cover originally featured a bottle of Theraflu atop the woman's neck, was edited to remove the bottle before being released for digital download. On April 15, West announced on
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
that the name of the song had been changed to "Way Too Cold", and then finally "Cold". The track was then released as a single onto iTunes on April 17, 2012. Following its digital release, the song impacted
urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...
radio on May 8, 2012.


Music video

The music video was released on August 13, 2012 at the end of
DJ Khaled Khaled Mohammed Khaled (; born November 26, 1975), known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American DJ and record producer. Originally a Miami-based radio personality, Khaled has since become known for enlisting high-profile music industry ar ...
's " I Wish You Would" video. The video features an appearance by West's then-partner
Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (born October 21, 1980) is an American media personality, socialite, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the celebrity sex tape ...
and was directed by
Hype Williams Harold "Hype" Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video and film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adelphi Univ ...
.


Composition

"Cold" is a bass-heavy, bouncy track with West rapping prominently over a "furious beat". It includes West's "blunt thoughts on his romance with model Amber Rose", who was engaged to rapper Wiz Khalifa at the time, with lines like, "only nigga I got respect for is Wiz / And I admit I fell in love with Kim around the same time she fell in love with him". The second part of the quote alludes to his relationship with Kardashian and her estranged husband Kris Humphries. West boasts that Kris is "lucky I ain't had Jay drop him from the team", a line referencing his frequent collaborator
Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the ...
, who was part-owner of the
New Jersey Nets New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
, the
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team that basketball star Kris Humphries played for at the time. The song "is stuffed with boasts about the rapper's fashion cred, from boasting that he's had dinner with '' Vogue'' editor
Anna Wintour Dame Anna Wintour ( ; born 3 November 1949) is a British-American media executive, who has been serving as editor-in-chief of '' Vogue'' since 1988. Wintour has also served as global chief content officer of Condé Nast since 2020, where she o ...
to showing off a $6000 pair of shoes. The track features vocal assists from DJ Khaled and DJ Pharris, who close out the outro of the song with their boasting.


Reception

The song was met with positive reviews from music critics, who mostly had praise for West's lyrical performance and the boldness of his subject matter. Tom Breihan of
Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...
described the song as "a seriously strong performance, all hard snarls over a bleepy late-'90s-style beat" and that it "finds Kanye getting surprisingly personal, at least for a couple of lines, about his long-rumored relationship with Kim Kardashian." Rob Markman of
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
stated that "lyrically, Kanye delivers a fiery performance" on the track, and that "it's all pretty intriguing, considering Kanye has shied away from the media for almost two years now." Alex Gale of BET mused that the song features a "brash Kanye West going in furiously over a schizophrenic soundscape from Hit-Boy, the production maestro behind The Throne's 'Niggas in Paris.' Yeezy's bars are buzzworthy to say the least". DJBooth mused "arrogance is busting through the seams on the record, yet it is balanced enough to sound charismatic in a form that Mr. West has perfected." ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' wrote that the song was "surprisingly magnanimous" and that it features West in his "full-on braggart mode". In ''
Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
s list of the best 25 lines of the first half of 2012, West's line "And I'll admit, I had fell in love with Kim/Around the same time she had fell in love with him/Well that's cool, baby girl, do ya thang/Lucky I ain't had Jay drop him from the team" was listed as the second best. "Cold" debuted at number 92 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, ultimately achieving a peak position of number 86 on the chart. The song further reached number 68 on the US
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart. On September 23, 2020, the song was certified
gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
by the
Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA) for sales of 500,000 certified units in the United States.


Controversy

When "Cold" premiered, it was titled "Theraflu". A representative of Theraflu released a statement to
TMZ ''TMZ'' is an American entertainment-focused tabloid news organization owned by Fox Corporation. It made its debut on November 8, 2005, as a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested ...
which read "We in no way endorse or approve of the references or use of the image and likeness of Theraflu in this manner." Theraflu noted that this was not done at their request. In response to the line "Tell PETA my mink is draggin' on the floor",
PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal right ...
stated:
"What's draggin' on the floor is Kanye's reputation as a man with no empathy for animals or human beings. He's a great musician but doesn't seem to have the fashion sense to design anything more than caveman costumes. We keep hoping that one day he'll find his heart and join evolved style icons—including
Russell Simmons Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. He has p ...
,
Pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...
, and
Natalie Portman Natalie Hershlag{{efn, Some Hebrew sources claim that her birth name was "Neta-Lee Hershleg" ({{langx, he, נטע-לי הרשלג) and later, her first name was Americanized to "Natalie". {{Cite news , last=Shamir , first=Oron , date=August ...
—who have dropped animal skins."


Live performances

The song was first performed by West at the London stop of his 2012 Watch the Throne Tour, with West performing the song
a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...
. At the 2012 BET Awards, the song was performed with rappers
Big Sean Sean Michael Leonard Anderson (born March 25, 1988), known professionally as Big Sean, is an American rapper. He met Kanye West as a teenager, and signed with his record label GOOD Music, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings in 2007. He gained popul ...
,
Pusha T Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as one half of the Virginia-based hip hop duo Clipse, which he formed with his older brother No Malice, Malice. M ...
,
2 Chainz Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (formerly Tity Boi), is an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip-hop duo Playaz Ci ...
, as filed out one by one to deliver their verses from the song "Mercy", with West emerging to perform his verses from "Cold" and "New God Flow" afterwards. Though ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
s Randall Roberts noted that it wasn't "until West moved into his hit "Cold" that things got great". The track was performed with snow machines shooting out ice over the audience when West played a gig in
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...
on February 24, 2013. On November 20, 2013, when performing live on
The Yeezus Tour The Yeezus Tour was the fifth concert tour by American rapper Kanye West, in support of his sixth studio album, '' Yeezus'' (2013). Announced with a promotional poster in September 2013, it served as West's first solo concert tour since the Gl ...
at the Barclay's Center, West used a vocal track of " Cold as Ice" by Foreigner for an intro to his performance of "Cold". The same version was performed live again by West when he took the tour to
Perth Arena Perth Arena (known Naming rights, commercially as ) is an entertainment and sporting arena in the city centre of Perth, Western Australia, used mostly for basketball matches. It is located on Wellington Street, Perth, Wellington Street near the ...
on September 6, 2014 and as part of his headline set for
Glastonbury Festival 2015 The 2015 Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts was held from 24 to 28 June 2015. On 17 June 2015, it was announced that the Foo Fighters had cancelled a number of appearances, including the Friday night head ...
.


Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes for '' Cruel Summer'' (2012). *Produced by Hit-Boy *Recorded by Noah Goldstein at Jungle City, NYC *Mixed by Mike Dean at Jungle City, NYC *Mix assisted by Keith Parry *Additional vocals by DJ Pharris


Chart performance


Certifications


References


External links


"Cold"
at Kanye West's Official Website {{authority control 2012 singles GOOD Music singles Kanye West songs DJ Khaled songs Music videos directed by Hype Williams Song recordings produced by Hit-Boy Def Jam Recordings singles Songs written by Hit-Boy Songs written by Kanye West Songs written by LL Cool J 2012 songs