"Remote Control" is a song by American rapper

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

from his tenth studio album ''

Donda ''Donda'' is the tenth studio album by American rapper Kanye West, released through GOOD Music on August 29, 2021, with distribution handled by Def Jam Recordings, his last release with the label. West recorded much of the material at multiple ...

'' (2021). The song, which features vocals from fellow American rapper

Young Thug Jeffery Lamar Williams (born August 16, 1991), known professionally as Young Thug, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is considered to be an influential figure of his generation, with his music impacting the modern sound of hip ...

, was

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

by West alongside

Cubeatz Cubeatz (sometimes stylized as CuBeatz) are a German hip hop production and songwriting duo from Sindelfingen, consisting of twin brothers Kevin and Tim Gomringer. Originally embarking on their careers within German hip hop in the 2010s, they ...

Digital Nas Nasir Pemberton known professionally as Digital Nas or DN, is a Grammy-nominated American record producer, singer & songwriter. He initially began producing for underground artists and later rose to prominence for his work with Kanye West on his ...

Ojivolta Ojivolta are an American record production and songwriting duo, composed of Mark Williams and Raul Cubina Raul, Raúl and Raül are the Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan forms of the Anglo ...

88-Keys Charles Misodi Njapa (born March 5, 1976), better known by his stage name 88-Keys, is an American record producer and rapper from New York City. Biography Born in New York City to West African parents from Cameroon, he was raised in the Eastche ...

, Mike Dean and

Teddy Walton Travis Darelle "Teddy" Walton (born July 30, 1992, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American record producer, songwriter and DJ. He began music production by creating songs with his older brother, June, which gained traction on SoundCloud. Teddy has ...

Background

In April 2021, music producer

was invited to work with West in Los Angeles after West had heard some of his songs through

Mowalola Ogunlesi Mowalola Ogunlesi (born March 25, 1995) is a Nigerian-born fashion designer and singer working and living in London. She is known for working with a wide variety of textiles such as leather and PVC to produce non-traditional silhouettes inspired ...

, who is the design director for West's

Yeezy Gap Yeezy Gap (stylized as YEEZY GAP) was a fashion collaboration between Kanye West's Yeezy and American clothing company Gap announced in June 2020, with its first wave of clothing releasing a year later in June 2021. In January 2022 the brand ...

collaboration. Digital Nas gave West a folder of 150 beats, of which West freestyled over approximately 60 of them. Out of those 60 that made the album was two – "Junya" and "Remote Control", with four of them originally expected to make the track listing. Talking about the songs, Digital Nas said: "That sound was so mantra-like. It was just simple. It was like a feeling.

e and I E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...

call it monk music". Young Thug's feature on the track came about after warning West that their friendship would come to an end if he was not to be included on the album, saying "I just hit Kanye like, 'Bro, if I ain't on the album, we are not speaking". Young Thug clarified that his contribution to the song was not inspired or instructed by West.

Soulja Boy DeAndre Cortez Way (born July 28, 1990), known professionally as Soulja Boy (formerly Soulja Boy Tell 'Em), is an American rapper and record producer. He rose to prominence, after his self published debut single " Crank That (Soulja Boy)" peak ...

originally recorded a verse for the track, although he was not included on the final version of the song. Following the album's release, Soulja Boy shared a snippet of his verse on Instagram, with the caption of the post saying "Fuck Kanye". Soulja Boy expressed distaste towards West secretly taking his verse off, posting a series of tweets aimed at West, saying that "if he didn’t like the verse he should have said that". On November 5, 2021, in an interview with

N.O.R.E. Victor James Santiago Jr. (born September 6, 1977), better known by his stage names Noreaga and later N.O.R.E., is an American rapper. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Santiago first rose to prominence as one half of the East Coast hip hop du ...

on ''Drink Champs'', West said that he believed that Soulja Boy is one of the top 5 most influential artists, and when asked why he was taken off ''Donda'', West joked "You ain't hear that verse?". N.O.R.E. asked "The verse wasn't good?", and West followed up with "Nah, I'll tell you what though, Soulja Boy is the future, Future the future...". Soulja Boy responded to the interview, saying that West's words on ''Drink Champs'' stunned him and claimed that West had praised his verse in person.

Pt. 2

Following the album's first listening party, a fan asked West's

Kids See Ghosts Kids See Ghosts (stylized in all-caps) was an American hip hop duo composed of musicians Kanye West and Kid Cudi. Formed in 2018 during West’s Wyoming sessions, the duo released their eponymous debut album in June of that year, through t ...

cohort

Kid Cudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Y ...

via Twitter if he would be featured on the album, to which Cudi responded he was not. However, Cudi's vocals were later heard at the album's second listening session. Cudi would go on to detail how West subsequently reached out to him following the tweet, leading Cudi to record verses for "

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

" and "Remote Control". His verse was previewed at the second listening session on August 6, 2021, but was taken off the song when it was officially released on August 29, 2021, in favor for a sample from the 2012 animated short film ''Strawinsky and the Mysterious House'', known in Internet and meme culture for the "Globglogabgalab", a song sung by the character of the same name in the film. On October 27, 2021, the stem player was made available by West. The stem player included three previously unreleased tracks, as well as a version of "Remote Control" that re-adds Kid Cudi's original contribution. "Remote Control pt 2" was officially released as part of the deluxe version of ''Donda'' on November 14, 2021.

Personnel

– vocals,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

, songwriting *

– featured vocals, songwriting *

** Tim Gomringer – production, songwriting, keyboards ** Kevin Gomringer – production, songwriting, keyboards *

– production, songwriting, programming * Ojivolta ** Mark Williams – production, songwriting, keyboards ** Raul Cubina – production, songwriting, keyboards *

– co-production, songwriting * Mike Dean – co-production, songwriting *

– additional production, songwriting, programming *

Brandee Younger Brandee Younger (born July 1, 1983) is an American harpist. Younger infuses classical, jazz, soul, and funk influences to the harp tradition pioneered by her predecessors and idols Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. Younger leads her own ensemble ...

– harp Technical * Irko – mixing, mastering * Alejandro Rodriguez-Dawsøn –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

* Bainz – recording * Jonathan Pfzar – recording * Josh Berg – recording * Mikalai Skrobat – recording * Roark Bailey – recording * Will Chason – recording assistance *

Louis Bell Louis Russell Bell (born May 27, 1982) is an American record producer, vocal producer, songwriter, and mixing engineer. Bell's work includes production for Post Malone, Camila Cabello, Halsey, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, 5 Seconds of Summer, T ...

– vocal editing *

Cirkut Henry Russell Walter (born April 23, 1986), known professionally as Cirkut, is a Canadian record producer and songwriter. He has co-produced and co-written for Dr. Luke, Katy Perry, Becky G, Ava Max, Nicki Minaj, R. City, The Weeknd, Kesha, Cia ...

– vocal production

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Kid Cudi songs 2021 songs Kanye West songs Young Thug songs Kid Cudi songs Song recordings produced by Kanye West Song recordings produced by Mike Dean (record producer) Song recordings produced by Cubeatz Song recordings produced by Digital Nas Songs written by Kanye West Songs written by Young Thug Songs written by Kid Cudi Songs written by Digital Nas Songs written by Cubeatz Songs written by 88-Keys