Kanye West and Paul McCartney were a surprising team-up that created excellent music. However, their collaboration wasn’t the first time they met. While it would make sense for Kanye to want to get some music pointers from the legendary musician, the rapper appeared to be more interested in Sir Macca’s knighthood.
Paul McCartney said Kanye West was curious about being a knight when they first met
McCartney and Kanye first crossed paths at a Met Gala that honored his daughter, Stella. McCartney was excited to meet the American rapper, and the feeling was mutual. However, the “Heartless” rapper appeared more interested in his knighthood than his extensive discography of iconic music.
“With Kanye, I’m always so excited that he knows who I am, and he’s come up. I’m a fan of his,” McCartney told GQ in 2012. “I met him and ‘Jay Zed’, as we call him, at the Met Ball that Stella was being honored at. I never know what to say. They were just saying, ‘Hey man, you’re really a Knight!’ Their perspective on that, as Americans, as ex-Project guys – for them, a knight is like Sir Lancelot. It’s always funny as I’m just Paul, one of the guys.”
Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997
Paul McCartney and The Beatles made the U.K. the center of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1960s, and he continues to release music today. His contributions earned him the honor of a knighthood in 1997. In an interview with Wired, McCartney said he received news of his knighthood in a letter but had to keep it on the down low. When he was knighted, he recalled feeling “trusty” toward the queen, who was wielding a heavy sword near his head.
“You have to kind of walk in and then look at her, and then walk straight ahead, and then just bow your head a little bit,” McCartney explained. “The queen takes a sword. At this point, you have to be very trusty. She can do anything with that sword. One shoulder, the other shoulder, and then she says, ‘Rise, Sir Paul McCartney.’”
Ringo Starr was knighted in 2017, but John Lennon and George Harrison never had the opportunity before they died. Other musicians who have been knighted include Elton John, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones, Bono, and George Martin.
McCartney and Kanye released a hit song together
Between 2014-2015, Kanye West and Paul McCartney released three songs together: “All Day”, “Only One”, and “FourFiveSeconds”. While all three received fairly positive reception from critics and audiences, “FourFiveSeconds” was the biggest hit of the three as it also included Rihanna. It peaked at No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
The two met for a recording session in 2014 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, California. In an interview with GQ, McCartney said he was caught off guard by his songwriting style, which included the pair telling stories and occasionally playing an instrument while Kanye recorded everything on his phone.
“I had my bass ready in case we were going to get more serious,” McCartney shared. “I thought we might actually sit down and write a song in the way I was used to writing a song—actually craft something there and then. It turned out we were creating an ‘ingredient pool,’ which is how he does it.”