Paul McCartney: Kanye West Made My ‘All Day’ Melody ‘Seriously Urban’

Paul McCartney revealed in a new interview that he didn’t expect Kanye West to sample one of the Beatles great’s unused melodies to form the rapper’s 2015 hit “All Day,” and that he was even more surprised by the resulting track. “It’s a great record, sonically it’s brilliant, but quite a few people said, ‘You can’t be connected with this, there’s, like, 40 N-words,” McCartney said during a taping of Radio 4’s Mastertapes (via Radio Times).

“All Day” was borne out of the same sessions that resulted in the Rihanna collaboration “FourFiveSeconds.” In the interview, McCartney mentioned that he whistled West the 1969 melody that was originally inspired by a Pablo Picasso’s painting Man With a Guitar. The bassist figured West wouldn’t use the melody… until he received West’s song a few months later.

“I get this track back, a thing called ‘All Day’: he’s taken my melody and he’s made it seriously urban, which is funny because the lyrics use the N-word – a lot! ‘How long have you been at the mall? All day, n-word,'” McCartney said.

Because of the explicit nature of the lyrics, there were those around McCartney who said the former Beatle should disassociate himself from “All Day,” but McCartney defended West’s single and his use of the N-word.

“People like Oprah, who’s a little conservative about that stuff, said, ‘You shouldn’t do it, even black people shouldn’t use that word. I said, ‘Yeah, but it’s Kanye! And he’s talking about an urban generation that uses that word in a completely different way,'” McCartney said. “It’s the context. So I was actually pleased with it.”

In the Mastertapes interview, McCartney also revealed that West recorded his vocals into an iPhone. “I love Kanye, and he loves me,” McCartney said. “He’s a monster, he’s a crazy guy who comes up with great stuff so he inspires me.”