ONLY ONE

Hello my only one
Remember who you are
No you're not perfect but you're not your mistakes

In Chinese culture, there is a strongly held belief that our deceased ancestors play a crucial role in protecting and guiding us, the living, while we remain here on Earth. Ancestor worship is a central tenet of both Confucianism and Chinese folk culture, and ceremonies such as the Qingming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day) offer opportunities for the living to maintain their connection with the dead in order to ensure ongoing protection in this life or the next for the well-being of the family.

In addition to this, the Hun and Po dual-soul concept in Chinese philosophy suggest that when someone dies, part of their spirit (the "Hun") ascends as it interacts with the spiritual world, while the other part (the "Po") returns to earth.

When Kanye West produced his track "Only One" in collaboration with Paul McCartney in January 2015, he wrote the lyrics from the point of view of his deceased mother, Donda, talking to him from heaven after the birth of his first child, North. McCartney has spoken in glowing terms about working with Kanye West on the song, describing the experience as "amazing," and expressing admiration for the sincere and direct emotional depth of the track, which combines his own inimitable 'Yesterday' sentimentality with Kanye's more modern hip-hop sensibility. As artists, both Kanye and McCartney exhibit a similar openness in displaying emotional sincerity in their music, a quality for which the former Beatle has often been unfairly criticized by both his critics and peers.

As I lay me down to sleep
I hear her speak to me
Hello 'Mari, how ya doin'?
I think the storm ran out of rain, the clouds are movin'
I know you're happy, 'cause I can see it
So tell the voice inside your head to believe it
I talked to God about you, he said he sent you an angel
And look at all that he gave you
You asked for one and you got two
You know I never left you
'Cause every road that leads to heaven's right aside you

Ever since the untimely death of his mother in 2007, who suffered from heart complications after undergoing cosmetic surgery, Kanye has clearly struggled with feelings of guilt about her tragic passing, which is demonstrated in both his personality and his art. The artist's desire to talk once again to his mother, Donda, was expressed most movingly in his tearful performance of his song "Hey Mama" from Kanye's 2005 album Late Registration at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008, where he sang ...

Last night I saw you in my dreams
Now I can't wait to go to sleep

And this life is all a dream
And my real life starts when I go to sleep
My mama, mama, mama

As a sincere message from beyond the grave, West and McCartney's "Only One" symbolises the eternal bond between the living and the dead. It conveys the idea that, although we must accept that those we've lost are no longer physically present, many of us may continue to believe that they watch over us in spirit (probably not Richard Dawkins).

As a reflection of the circle of life and death, passing the torch of love and legacy from one generation to the next, the song demonstrates tremendous emotional intelligence from Kanye, who has the sensitivity to express a pure sentiment without being “cringe,” and the visionary insight to understand how such a song will resonate through time as a record for him, his daughter, and his late mother.

This was further vindicated on Saturday when Kanye sang 'Only One' to North (now 11 years old) at Wuyuan River Stadium in Haikou, China. There was a cathartic "full circle" ('Yuan') enacted as the artist kneeled before his daughter and sang the song he originally wrote for her a year or two after she was born as a way of celebrating her arrival in the absence of his late mother. The moment was made even more poignant by the fact that Kanye West's late mother, Donda West, took him with her to China when he was just ten years old where she was teaching at Nanjing University as a Fulbright Scholar. During that trip, Kanye became hugely inspired by Chinese culture, and the experience had a considerable influence on his artistic vision as a semi-nomadic global artist. This journey was seismic in broadening the scope of his perspective, and one imagines it may be similarly impactful for North as well.

Given the contrast with the current P Diddy scandal engulfing the entertainment and rap industry, this wholesome moment served as a reminder that, although often maligned, Kanye West continues to be attuned to the fundamentally important aspects of life when all is said and done.

He may be a sinner (devil), but he, too, is an angel—the dichotomy of both the human being and the artist.