Listen to “Off the Grid” by Kanye West
There is a handful of rough gems across the 100-plus minutes of Donda, Kanye West’s long and complicated 10th album that was uploaded to streaming services without his approval over the weekend. Among them is the relatively charged bruiser “Off the Grid,” where Kanye lets Playboi Carti and Fivio Foreign become prophets for a gospel he once delivered so effortlessly. Kanye has been trying to find a balance between confidence in yourself and confidence in God for his entire career. Now, he enlists Carti and Fivio as young disciples to thread that needle and spread the message alongside Kanye’s hook.
The standard hurried drill beat works well behind everyone, as Carti bounces in and out of pocket with his broken delivery. Yet it’s Fivio who owns this track, coming through with the strongest verse on the album. His lengthy performance weighs luxurious boasts with religious overtones, and in the process becomes the ideal avatar for Kanye’s vision, sounding eerily similar to the Kanye of old. “They call me a product of my environment/I tell them, ‘Nah, I’m what God produced,’” he raps, echoing Kanye’s own tireless thesis.
Homepage Kanye West photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Universal Music Group