WW3 (Kanye West song)

Last updated

"WW3"
KANYE WEST WW3 COVER.jpeg
Single by Ye
from the album In a Perfect World
Released
  • March 26, 2025 (2025-03-26)
RecordedMarch 2025
Genre
Length1:43
Label YZY
Songwriter(s) Dave Blunts
Producer(s)
  • Ye
  • Quadwoofer
  • Sheffmade [1]
  • Templecitygrounds [2]
Kanye West singles chronology
"Wheels Fall Off"
(2025)		"WW3"
(2025)		"Cousins"
(2025)

"WW3" is a song by American rapper Kanye West. It was released on March 26, 2025, as the lead single from his upcoming thirteenth studio album, In a Perfect World . It samples the song "I Get High (On Your Memory)" by Freda Payne. The song was produced by West, alongside Quadwoofer, Sheffmade, and South Korean production trio Templecitygrounds. A hip-hop song with elements of jerk rap, West raps about his controversies and antisemitism.

Contents

West first previewed "WW3" on March 15. It was incorrectly reported as being part of an update to his twelfth studio album, Bully (2025), which had been released that same month as an unfinished demo. The track was later confirmed to be part of In a Perfect World during a livestream with media personality DJ Akademiks, who announced the album under the title of WW3. An accompanying music video was included at the end of West's interview with DJ Akademiks on March 30, 2025.

Background

Prior to the release of "WW3", West released Bully V1, the demo version of his upcoming twelfth studio album, Bully (2025). This came after West announced that he wanted to cease his usage of artificial intelligence in his music. On March 15, 2025, he would post an image of a red swastika, stating that it was the cover art for his new album as well as a logo using the SS insignia of the Schutzstaffel for his group Sunday Service Choir. [3] [4] Afterwards, he'd tweet that his new sound is called "antisemetic [ sic ]". [5] [6]

"WW3" was first previewed by West on the website Twitter on March 15. [7] As he had yet to announce In a Perfect World, many believed the song was part of an update to Bully. [8] The song was referred to by fans as "Rari" and "Nazi" before its official name was revealed. [9] During a April 2025 show, Dave Blunts performed the song, including an unreleased verse meant to feature on the album version of the track. [10]

In a post-release interview with DJ Akademiks, where West had infamously appeared in a black Ku Klux Klan uniform, the latter revealed that he had two custom KKK robes commissioned, being identical black and white ones. [11] West had previously shown off his white costume with the caption "fit pic" on March 10; [12] its hood is reused for the single art of "WW3".

Composition

Gnome-mime-audio-openclipart.svg
"WW3"
A 24-second sample of "WW3" with multiple references regarding his antisemitism and personal life, notoriously with the line "But how am I acting like Hitler, when I am a fucking nigger?"
Problems playing this file? See media help.

A jerk rap song running one minute and forty-three seconds in length, "WW3" contains prominent samples of the Freda Payne song "I Get High (On Your Memory)". West begins the song by repeating the phrase "She wanna hop in a 'Rari". He also references his various controversies regarding antisemitism, ("I'm antisemitic fully/They saying I'm acting like Hitler/But how am I acting like Hitler/When I am a fucking nigger?"), [9] reveals that his friends urged him to "get off of Twitter" and that he voted for Donald Trump over Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election (which West himself ran in as an independent candidate), and questions those who went with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to his private island. [9] Halfway through the song, simplistic snare and clap drum machine patterns, along with a 808 bass, are introduced; West subsequently mentions his recreational use of nitrous oxide, a 2020 video of him urinating on a Grammy award, [13] him "rocking swastikas 'cause all my niggas Nazis", and that he reads two chapters of Hitler's book Mein Kampf before going to bed. [6] [9]

Release and reception

"WW3" was met with widespread criticism due to its lyrical content. In their piece regarding public reaction to the song, Complex referred to its lyrics as "atrocious". [9] Paul Thompson of GQ called it "a hyper-literal exercise in doubling down on [West's] recent public comments." He likened the song to "a near-perfect distillation of this moment in America: unfathomably dumb, proudly evil, but above all else, crushingly desperate." [14]

The song was also met with confusion from various public figures, including Adin Ross, who expressed shock at the song and suggested that West's friends needed to "submit someone to get a mental check" on him; [9] Ross would subsequently give a more positive reaction on a later stream with Kodak Black. [15] West would later sample Ross's initial reaction on a version of the song included on a leaked copy of In a Perfect World.

Outside of the RMNZ charts, it has previously reached number one on multiple Spotify viral charts. [16] [17]

On May 20, 2025, "WW3" was removed from all streaming services before an announcement on West's Twitter that he was "done being antisemetic". [18] The song was later re-released on May 22, with the words "Nazi", "Swastikas", "Mein Kampf", "Antisemitic", and "Hitler" being censored. [19]

Music video

West would debut the music video for "WW3" at the end of his interview with DJ Akademiks on March 30, 2025. The following day, he released the video to his Twitter account. It contains repurposed material from the TV miniseries Roots (1977), as well as several stills of interracial pornography and footage of a KKK gathering. [20] The video ends on a shot of a burning cross. [21]

Charts

Chart performance for "WW3"
Chart (2025)Peak
position
New Zealand Hot Singles (RMNZ) [22] 37

References

  1. ↑ "Instagram".
  2. ↑ "Instagram".
  3. ↑ Nevares, Gabriel Bras (March 16, 2025). "Kanye West Unveils Nazi-Inspired Logos For New Album "Bully" Cover Art & Sunday Service". HotNewHipHop. Archived from the original on March 19, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  4. ↑ Oatman, Alexis (March 16, 2025). "Kanye West Posts And Deletes 'Bully' Album Cover Featuring Swastika". HOT 97. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  5. ↑ Saponara, Michael (March 6, 2025). "After Years of Antisemitic Rhetoric, Ye Now Declares 'My New Sound Called Antisemitic'". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 11, 2025. Retrieved May 11, 2025.
  6. 1 2 "Kanye West Shares New Song About 'Rocking Swastikas'". March 16, 2025. Archived from the original on May 23, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  7. ↑ Qadir, Tabasum (March 25, 2025). "What Is Ye's 'World War 3' All About? Why Are Fans Going Utterly Bonkers Over It?". Netflix Junkie. Archived from the original on May 24, 2025. Retrieved May 11, 2025.
  8. ↑ "Ye's "WW3" Video Features 'Roots' Scene, Woman Being Whip..." Complex. Archived from the original on May 22, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Adin Ross Goes Off on Ye for Rapping About Hitler". Complex. Archived from the original on May 22, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  10. ↑ Horvath, Zachary (April 13, 2025). "Kanye West Claims He & Dave Blunts Are "Almost Finished" With "WW3" Album". HotNewHipHop . Retrieved August 4, 2025.
  11. ↑ Patrick, Holly (March 31, 2025). "Moment Kanye West arrives in black KKK robes for interview". The Independent.
  12. ↑ II, C. Vernon Coleman IIC Vernon Coleman (March 10, 2025). "Ye Stoops to New Lows With Ku Klux Klan Outfit". XXL Mag. Archived from the original on April 29, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  13. ↑ "Kanye Pees On Grammy, Asks "Every Lawyer" To View His Contracts". Stereogum. September 16, 2020. Archived from the original on August 9, 2024. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  14. ↑ Thompson, Paul (March 19, 2025). "It Brings Us No Pleasure to Report that Kanye West Made a Good Kanye West Album". GQ . Archived from the original on March 22, 2025. Retrieved March 24, 2025.
  15. ↑ "Kanye West Shows Love to Kodak Black & Adin Ross for Praising His "WW3" Single". HNHH. April 13, 2025. Archived from the original on May 11, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  16. ↑ Nevares, Gabriel Bras (May 4, 2025). "Kanye West's New "WW3" Single Becomes The Most Viral Song In Germany". HotNewHipHop. Archived from the original on May 22, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  17. ↑ Kabir, Sazid (May 11, 2025). "'WW3' by Kanye West Goes Viral Amidst Controversy, Reaches #1 on Spotify's Global Viral Chart". nomusica.com. Archived from the original on May 22, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  18. ↑ "ye on X: "I am done with antisemitism"". X (formely Twitter). May 22, 2025. Retrieved May 22, 2025.
  19. ↑ "WW3". Spotify .
  20. ↑ "Ye's "WW3" Video Features Repurposed 'Roots' Scene, Depicts Woman Being Whipped". Complex. Archived from the original on May 22, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
  21. ↑ Blake, Cole (April 13, 2025). "Kanye West Breaks Silence On Twitter With Disturbing NSFW "WW3" Video". HotNewHipHop . Retrieved August 7, 2025.
  22. ↑ "NZ Hot Singles Chart". Recorded Music NZ. April 25, 2025. Retrieved May 20, 2025.
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