# Fade (Kanye West song)
**"Fade"** is a song by the American rapper [Kanye West](https://www.edgepedia.org/kanye-west), released as the closing track of his seventh album *The Life of Pablo* (2016) and featuring additional vocals from [Post Malone](https://www.edgepedia.org/post-malone) and Ty Dolla $ign[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21542-the-life-of-pablo/). Built on [Chicago house](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-house) samples, it was issued as a single on September 9, 2016 through Def Jam, and its music video, starring Teyana Taylor, premiered at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/fade-mw0002979777) • [3](https://time.com/4470155/kanye-west-fade-music-video-vmas-2016/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist / album | Kanye West, *The Life of Pablo* (2016), track 18, the album's closer[4](https://coogradio.com/2016/02/track-by-track-album-review-the-life-of-pablo-by-kanye-west/) |
| Featured artists | Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign (additional vocals)[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21542-the-life-of-pablo/) |
| Length / release | 3:14; released as a single on September 9, 2016, Def Jam[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/fade-mw0002979777) |
| Samples | Fingers Inc's "Mystery of Love" (Larry Heard), Rare Earth's "(I Know) I'm Losing You", Hardrive's "Deep Inside", and Barbara Tucker's "Beautiful People"[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21542-the-life-of-pablo/) • [5](https://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/14/kanye_west_s_new_album_the_life_of_pablo_a_track_by_track_breakdown.html?via=gdpr-consent) |
| Music video | Premiered at the 2016 MTV VMAs on August 28, 2016; directed by Eli Russell Linnetz, starring Teyana Taylor[3](https://time.com/4470155/kanye-west-fade-music-video-vmas-2016/) • [6](https://www.thefader.com/2016/08/28/kanye-west-fade-video-vmas) |
| Chart peaks | No. 50 on the UK Official Singles Chart (8 weeks); No. 6 in its debut week on the Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart[7](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/kanye-westpost-malonety-fade/) • [8](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2016/Billboard-2016-09-17.pdf) |
## Composition and samples
"Fade" is a house-influenced track. The Guardian described it as woozily interleaving two house classics, Fingers Inc's "Mystery of Love" and Barbara Tucker's Masters at Work-produced "Beautiful People", with a snatch of barked vocal from Rare Earth's cover of the Temptations' "(I Know) I'm Losing You"[9](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/14/kanye-west-the-life-of-pablo-review-you-can-see-why-his-immodesty-rubs-people-up-the-wrong-way). Slate's track-by-track guide called it "pure house" after *Yeezus*'s adventures in acid house, opening with the Rare Earth sample before pairing it with a sample of Hardrive's "Deep Inside"[5](https://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/14/kanye_west_s_new_album_the_life_of_pablo_a_track_by_track_breakdown.html?via=gdpr-consent). Hardrive was a 1990s production alias of the house producer Little Louie Vega, and "Deep Inside" is itself substantially based on samples from "Beautiful People", which Vega produced with his [Masters at Work](https://www.edgepedia.org/masters-at-work) partner Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez[10](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-hardrive-deep-inside/).
The hook is carried by Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign. Pitchfork's review noted that West "rigs the mix so that Malone, somehow, sounds more important than both" of the sampled sources[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21542-the-life-of-pablo/). The song's lyrics address a fading love, and a scholarly analysis presented at the IASPM conference describes the lyrics and music as somewhat simple, addressing a loss felt on both sides[11](https://iipc.utu.fi/iaspm2019/Fleshner.pdf).
West first played the collaboration, then attached to the album then titled *SWISH*, at his [New York Fashion Week](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-fashion-week) show, where the audience included [Anna Wintour](https://www.edgepedia.org/anna-wintour), Seth Meyers, Lorde, and [Kim Kardashian](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-kardashian)[12](https://time.com/4037005/kanye-west-new-song-fashion-show/).
## Release and chart performance
*The Life of Pablo* was released on February 14, 2016, with "Fade" as its final track[13](https://music.apple.com/us/song/1443063995). The album's rollout was unusually fluid: West premiered it at [Madison Square Garden](https://www.edgepedia.org/madison-square-garden) on February 11 alongside his Yeezy Season 3 fashion presentation, then continued altering mixes and the tracklist after the Tidal release, and his label later announced the album was a "living" album with new iterations due[14](https://time.com/4293586/pops-biggest-stars-are-reviving-the-album-by-reinventing-it/).
As a single, "Fade" entered the UK Official Singles Chart at number 65 on September 22, 2016 and peaked at number 50 the following week, spending eight weeks in the top 100[7](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/kanye-westpost-malonety-fade/). In the United States, it debuted at number 6 on the [Billboard](https://www.edgepedia.org/billboard-magazine) + Twitter Top Tracks chart dated September 17, 2016, becoming West's 12th top 10 on that chart, after the video's VMA premiere[8](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2016/Billboard-2016-09-17.pdf).
## Music video
The video premiered on August 28, 2016, during West's appearance at the [MTV Video Music Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/mtv-video-music-awards), and was then made available exclusively on Tidal[3](https://time.com/4470155/kanye-west-fade-music-video-vmas-2016/) • [6](https://www.thefader.com/2016/08/28/kanye-west-fade-video-vmas). It stars the singer [Teyana Taylor](https://www.edgepedia.org/teyana-taylor), then 25 years old and signed to West's G.O.O.D. Music label, performing an '80s-inspired dance routine in a gym, followed by a shower scene with her husband, the NBA player [Iman Shumpert](https://www.edgepedia.org/iman-shumpert)[3](https://time.com/4470155/kanye-west-fade-music-video-vmas-2016/) • [15](https://time.com/4472363/teyana-taylor-fade-kanye-west/). In the closing moments, Taylor's face transforms into a cat's head, and she and Shumpert, with a newborn baby between them, strike poses amid a group of lambs.[6](https://www.thefader.com/2016/08/28/kanye-west-fade-video-vmas)
The video was directed by [Eli Russell Linnetz](https://www.edgepedia.org/eli-russell-linnetz), who had also worked on the "Famous" video, with creative vision credited to West and choreography by Guapo, Jae Blaze, and Derek "Bentley" Watkins[6](https://www.thefader.com/2016/08/28/kanye-west-fade-video-vmas). Linnetz told The New York Times that the ending was "foreshadowing bigger things to come", and listed the video's influences as the 1983 film *Flashdance*, [Grace Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/grace-jones), John Carpenter films, "Dancing With the Stars", the [NBA Finals](https://www.edgepedia.org/nba-finals), and "'70s and '80s porn"[16](https://pitchfork.com/news/67970-kanyes-fade-video-director-the-last-image-is-foreshadowing-bigger-things-to-come/). TIME described the visual as a sensual, Flashdance-inspired video, and its debut drew wide attention to Taylor's dancing[3](https://time.com/4470155/kanye-west-fade-music-video-vmas-2016/).
## Critical reception
Critical opinion of the track varied. The Guardian counted it among the album's high points, calling the sample combination "startling" and proof that when *The Life of Pablo* is good, it is very good[9](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/14/kanye-west-the-life-of-pablo-review-you-can-see-why-his-immodesty-rubs-people-up-the-wrong-way). Yahoo Music's track-by-track review called the hypnotic, house-ready "Fade" the most distinguished song on the album[17](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/no-kanye-wests-the-life-of-pablo-is-not-a-044706895.html). Others were cooler: The Independent ranked it 14th of 18 tracks, writing that the house beat was tasty but the track felt written to accompany a catwalk show, and called it a strange, tangential end to the album[18](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/ranking-the-tracks-on-kanye-west-s-the-life-of-pablo-now-the-dust-has-settled-a6906976.html). Varsity, the Cambridge student paper, found the closing track catchy and club-ready but lyrically insubstantial[19](https://archive.varsity.co.uk/806.pdf).
Its role as the album's closer was a recurring point of discussion. Sputnikmusic called it "an unlikely closer" that works a groovy house beat into a hook from Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign[20](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/69834/Kanye-West-The-Life-of-Pablo/), and MusicCritic noted the oddity of West concluding the album with a three-minute, 14-second song that moves more like a Ty Dolla $ign and Post Malone collaboration than a solo offering[21](https://musiccritic.com/kanye-west/the-life-of-pablo/). One reviewer observed that the track ends by cutting off abruptly rather than fading out, an irony given its title[22](https://www.musicrelatedjunk.com/2016/02/review-of-life-of-pablo-by-kanye-west.html).
## References
1. [Jayson Greene (2016). The Life of Pablo Album Review. Pitchfork.](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21542-the-life-of-pablo/)
2. [Fade – Kanye West, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/fade-mw0002979777)
3. [Raisa Bruner (2016). Watch Kanye West's Steamy, Sweaty, NSFW Music Video For 'Fade'. TIME.](https://time.com/4470155/kanye-west-fade-music-video-vmas-2016/)
4. [Track-by-Track Album Review: The Life of Pablo by Kanye West, Coog Radio](https://coogradio.com/2016/02/track-by-track-album-review-the-life-of-pablo-by-kanye-west/)
5. [Your Guide to Kanye West's The Life of Pablo—All 18 Tracks of It, Slate](https://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/14/kanye_west_s_new_album_the_life_of_pablo_a_track_by_track_breakdown.html?via=gdpr-consent)
6. [Ben Dandridge-Lemco (2016). Watch Kanye West's New Video For "Fade". The FADER.](https://www.thefader.com/2016/08/28/kanye-west-fade-video-vmas)
7. [FADE – Kanye West/Post Malone/Ty, Official Charts Company](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/kanye-westpost-malonety-fade/)
8. [West's 'Fade' Flies In, Billboard, September 17, 2016](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2016/Billboard-2016-09-17.pdf)
9. [Alexis Petridis (2016). Kanye West: The Life of Pablo review. The Guardian.](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/14/kanye-west-the-life-of-pablo-review-you-can-see-why-his-immodesty-rubs-people-up-the-wrong-way)
10. [Hardrive "Deep Inside", Insomniac](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-hardrive-deep-inside/)
11. [Kanye West and the Uncanny: Eerie and Familiar Associations, IASPM 2019](https://iipc.utu.fi/iaspm2019/Fleshner.pdf)
12. [New Kanye Alert: Hear the Song He Debuted at His Fashion Show, TIME](https://time.com/4037005/kanye-west-new-song-fashion-show/)
13. [Fade – Song by Kanye West, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/song/1443063995)
14. [Pop's Biggest Stars Are Reviving the Album by Reinventing It, TIME](https://time.com/4293586/pops-biggest-stars-are-reviving-the-album-by-reinventing-it/)
15. [8 Things You Should Know About Teyana Taylor, the Star of Kanye's 'Fade' Video, TIME](https://time.com/4472363/teyana-taylor-fade-kanye-west/)
16. [Kanye's "Fade" Video Director: "The Last Image Is Foreshadowing Bigger Things to Come". Pitchfork.](https://pitchfork.com/news/67970-kanyes-fade-video-director-the-last-image-is-foreshadowing-bigger-things-to-come/)
17. [No, Kanye West's 'The Life of Pablo' Is Not a Gospel Album, Yahoo Entertainment](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/no-kanye-wests-the-life-of-pablo-is-not-a-044706895.html)
18. [Christopher Hooton (2016). The Life of Pablo: Ranking the tracks. The Independent.](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/ranking-the-tracks-on-kanye-west-s-the-life-of-pablo-now-the-dust-has-settled-a6906976.html)
19. [Varsity, Friday 19th February 2016](https://archive.varsity.co.uk/806.pdf)
20. [Kanye West – The Life of Pablo (album review 11), Sputnikmusic](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/69834/Kanye-West-The-Life-of-Pablo/)
21. [Album Review: The Life Of Pablo by Kanye West, MusicCritic](https://musiccritic.com/kanye-west/the-life-of-pablo/)
22. [Review of 'The Life of Pablo' by Kanye West, Music Related Junk](https://www.musicrelatedjunk.com/2016/02/review-of-life-of-pablo-by-kanye-west.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Pop, rock, and metal songs › Hip-hop songs › 2010s hip-hop songs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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