"Facts" (stylized in all caps) is a song by American rapper Kanye West. It was released as the lead promotional single for his seventh studio album The Life of Pablo (2016) on New Year's Eve 2015, through West's GOOD Music label and Def Jam Recordings. The song was written by West himself, alongside Cyhi the Prynce, Noah Goldstein, Nicholas Smith, and Drake, alongside fellow American rappers Future and Lil Wayne, and record producer Southside, who produced the song alongside Metro Boomin. It was later re-recorded and re-released on The Life of Pablo as "Facts" (Charlie Heat version), featuring additional writing and production credits from Charlie Heat. Lyrically, the song is a diss track aimed at footwear company Nike.
Upon the release of "Facts", it received mixed-to-negative reviews from music critics, and its Charlie Heat-produced version specifically was seen as one of the album's worst songs. Commercially, the original track charted at number 50 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart in the United States, while the Charlie Heat version charted at number 151 on the UK singles chart and peaked at number 4 on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart in the US. It was additionally certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for equivalent sales of 500,000 units in the United States.
As soon as the song was released, there was speculation of whether or not it would end up on the track listing of West's upcoming album, but in the end, an alternative version did instead, titled "Facts" (Charlie Heat version). When Charlie Heat was asked about his name being on the album credits in an interview with Complex, he said it was "[a] dream manifested right in front of my face." On the kickoff show of West's Saint Pablo Tour in Indianapolis on August 25, 2016, West performed "Facts" (Charlie Heat version) live, but cut the performance of it short, avoiding the sympathetic mention of disgraced comedian Bill Cosby.
Throughout the track, West raps with the flow that Drake used in his 2015 single "Jumpman" with Future and the two artists are actually credited as co-writers. For both its intro and outro, the song includes a sped-up sample of 1989 track "Dirt and Grime" by Father's Children. It also contains sound effects from the video game (1991) throughout, including one of Street Fighter II's announcer yelling 'Perfect!' that is also sampled in "Pt. 2" from the same album as "Facts" (Charlie Heat version).
"Facts" sees West spin the line: "But the Yeezys jumped over the Jumpman" from his 2012 single "New God Flow" with Pusha T to: "Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman". Kanye brags about the success of his wife Kim Kardashian's Kimoji app with the lines: "Plus Kimoji just shut down the app store, uh!/And we made a million a minute, we made a million a minute".
"Facts" (Charlie Heat version) was featured on West's seventh studio album The Life of Pablo rather than the version of "Facts" initially released, with all the samples being kept in the version and the only difference being an alternative backing beat, produced by West, Metro Boomin, Southside and Heat.
Though many of the tracks on The Life of Pablo were updated in June 2016, "Facts" (Charlie Heat version) was not subject to any changes.
Very shortly before the track was released, Kardashian made the world aware that her husband was about to come out with new music via Twitter and put '#FACTS' at the end of her tweet, but did not officially announce it as the title of West's release. Less than ten minutes prior to this, GOOD Music member Cyhi the Prynce had tweeted out the same hashtag, but with no direct reference to Kanye at all; Cyhi is a credited writer on "Facts". Since it was released as a promotional single, the song was only made available for free streaming on SoundCloud instead of sites like iTunes or Amazon Music.
This version was first heard live along with the rest of an early version of West's 2016 album at Madison Square Garden on February 11, 2016, as part of his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show in collaboration with Adidas. West hushed an antiâÂÂMichael Jordan chant during this premiere. The next morning, the song was announced as part of the album.
Heat saw an increase in fame due to his involvement.
Spencer Kornhaber with The Atlantic described the song as West "[reminding] people of why he matters in the first place".
This version received mixed-to-negative reviews from music critics. "Facts" (Charlie Heat version) was branded by James Rainis of Slant Magazine as being "just a lot of tough talk from someone who just made the questionably accurate declaration that heâÂÂs $53 million in debt" and he also accused West of ripping off Future. Highsnobiety Jake Indiana voiced the belief that the song possesses "more than a few sonic similarities" to 2 Chainz's Kanye WestâÂÂfeaturing 2012 single "Birthday Song", but criticized "Facts" for "entirely lacking the fun, sense of humor, and witty lyrics that make [the earlier single] so delightfully bad (in a good way)". The track was placed by Complex on a list of the worst songs on the best albums of 2016, writing: "["Facts"] got a new beat from Charlie Heat, making it listenable for the first time, but "better" and "listenable" don't warrant any song's inclusion on one of the best albums of the year."
"Facts" is clearly a diss track aimed at Nike, with lines such as: "If Nike ainâÂÂt had Drizzy man they would have nothing" and "Nike, Nike treat employees just like slaves/Gave LeBron a billi' not to run away" being rapped throughout it. Speculation had it upon release of the song that Drake is being dissed within it, but the content isn't actually insulting him by citing references. Bill Cosby and Steve Harvey are both referenced with the lines: "Do anybody feel bad for Bill Cosby?/Did he forget names just like Steve Harvey?" and West caused outrage shortly after the release of "Facts" by declaring Cosby as innocent of sexual assault, despite the lines appearing to be a insult towards him.
Marcus Jordan posted his reaction to the anti-Nike content via Twitter on January 2, 2016, only two days after the track's release. Basketball player LeBron James had an interview regarding this diss, in which he acted in a way that was described as: 'predictably diplomatic, backing Nike and avoiding any direct disagreement with the popular rapper, producer, and designer'. On January 8, two days after James had been interviewed, West himself clarified that there was no beef between the pair of them. West took to Twitter on February 9, 2016, to offer an apology to Michael Jordan and insisted that his beef was with Mark Parker.
Upon the release of the original version, it solely charted at number 50 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. Upon the release of the featuring album, "Facts" (Charlie Heat version) debuted at number 4 on the US Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and spent a total of three weeks on the chart. It also charted at number 151 on the UK singles chart, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for equivalent sales of 500,000 units in the country.
"Facts" was fact-checked by Jordan Lipsitz of Bustle magazine. Matthew Strauss of Inverse was inspired to look at the history of bad songs by West.
Credits adapted from West's official website.