This piece was originally published at COMPLEX in June 2015.
Back in 2007, Sir Paul McCartney released “222,” a bonus cut off his Memory Almost Full album. Written as a tribute to his young daughter Beatrice, the song registers that special kind of paternal amazement that fathers are prone to feeling. So, clearly, the former Beatle knew exactly the sort of emotional magnitude that Kanye West required for his “Only One,” a collaborative and unapologetically sincere track overtly dedicated to the rapper’s own toddler, North. Side by side, the songs present a shared context for the seemingly unlikely pairing of two of the biggest figures in the history of popular music.