Gold Digger
Built on a Ray Charles sample ('I Got a Woman'), 'Gold Digger' spent 10 weeks at #1 — the longest run of any Kanye single. Jamie Foxx's intro recreates Charles's original, while West's rap reworks the gender politics with characteristic irony.
Announced West's commercial peak and his facility for combining high and low culture. The Ray Charles connection linked hip-hop's materialist present to its blues roots. The song is simultaneously critique and celebration of the culture it describes.
Released in August 2005, the same week as Hurricane Katrina. West's on-air statement 'George Bush doesn't care about Black people' during a Katrina telethon overshadowed the song's commercial success and defined West as a political voice.
The shift from physical to digital reshaped how music is produced, distributed, and consumed.