Billboard is celebrating the 2010s with essays on the 100 songs that we feel most define the decade that was — the songs that both shaped and reflected the music and culture of the period — with help telling their stories from some of the artists, behind-the-scenes collaborators and industry insiders involved.
“You got the power to let power go?” With a parting remark at the end of Kanye West’s 2010 boundary-smashing rap-rock comeback “Power,” the embattled artist at the height of his infamy poses a question that has only grown more prophetic in the social media celebrity era that has followed: If your power is built on a legion of followers, could you even give it up if you wanted?
Though he’s had to navigate a litany of controversies since, in 2010, West’s seemingly invulnerable image was showing its first signs of cracking after a tumultuous series of personal misfortunes and public missteps. With the redemptive single “Power,” Kanye flipped the script to turn his fall from grace into the trials of a hero’s journey.
The track was crafted during West’s much-mythologized Hawaii recording sessions for eventual fifth LP My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, where a host of rap’s heavy hitters converged to construct an unimpeachable body of work that would prove West’s unparalleled talent and reinstill his credibility to the masses after a certain misguided mic-snatching gaffe at the 2009 VMAs and the divisive response to 2008’s 808s & Heartbreak. For his comeback single, West took a chance on a lesser known Texas producer Symbolyc One, or S1, whose skeleton beat was delivered by longtime West collaborator Rhymefest.
“Ye immediately flew me out to Hawaii once he heard it,” S1 remembers. Upon arrival, he was amazed at the collaborative process, admiring how “Kanye assembled the best of the best under one roof to create. The best ideas would always win, no matter who it came from.”
Building out the production ended up being a massive undertaking that West has alleged to have taken up to 5,000 hours. With the unimaginable man hours came successive revelations: engineer Andrew Dawson’s sampling suggestion of King Crimson’s apocalyptic prog-rock screed “21st Century Schizoid Man” giving the song an inter-generational aura, Mike Dean’s sneering guitar riff embodying West’s inner turmoil, and vocalist Dwele’s interlude heightening the song’s murkier, suicidal-verging subtext. Above it all, West delivers verses with a fire that shows he’s not only vying for the crown but fighting for his life.
“Power” wasn’t quite the summer-ready debut single when it dropped in May 2010, but it served a larger purpose by allowing West to reframe the headlines surrounding him while exposing the toxic, corrupting nature of fame. Though it peaked at No. 22 on the Hot 100, it experienced an extended stay over the summer when a remix featuring Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz initiated the first GOOD Fridays series, a now-iconic string of weekly releases preceding Dark Fantasy that West has attempted to revive on subsequent album cycles for 2016’s The Life of Pablo and 2018’s ye.
The song also continued to defy expectations, whether it was its stunning, thematically rich “moving painting” music video, its immediate placement as the go-to movie trailer musical accompaniment — to which S1 confirms “the syncs are still insane” — or the coveted Saturday Night Live performance slot, despite releasing a single that plainly states “F— SNL and the whole cast.”
For S1, it was also a moment that showed West understood the stakes and rose to the occasion. He reflects, “Even beyond the strong production and lyrics, with the concept and title being named ‘Power,’ I feel the impact and longevity of this song is infinite.”
The full-circle redemption tour offered a valuable lesson in atonement to the outspoken artist, who has had to weather one self-inflicted controversy after another ever since. Though his battles have escalated from pop music infighting to real world political ramifications, the seemingly endless cycle has only been intensified by the advent of online stan culture where a lack of accountability from devout followers gives an artist unchecked power. Nearly ten years, numerous presidential campaign announcements and varying brushes with cancellation later, the point of contention surrounding Kanye isn’t whether or not he has the authority, but rather how he’ll wield it.
And yet, the most endearing aspect of “Power” is the hard-earned salvation of Kanye’s reputation at a pivotal juncture in his career. At the eve of a new decade with his legacy tarnished and largely unfulfilled, West rewrote the narrative, and changed the course of the music industry as a continually groundbreaking force that could not be stopped.
