Runaway

West, Emile Haynie, Jeff Bhasker and Mike Dean produced it at Avex in Honolulu in 2010, with Pusha T featured. The album version runs 9:07 and the single 5:39. West said he wanted a song the average person could relate to. Some lines are double meanings about a romantic relationship and about his relationship with the media and society, and he called it a toast for the douchebags. The drums come from Backyard Heavies' Expo 83. Jeff Bhasker and Anthony Kilhoffer discuss building it in a Mix with the Masters class.

It peaked at 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rolling Stone ranked it 25 in its 500 greatest songs of all time in 2021 and again in 2024. West directed the 35-minute short film Runaway, shot in Prague in the summer of 2010, a story of a phoenix fallen to Earth starring West and Selita Ebanks. It was released on 23 October 2010.

Live

He debuted it at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on 12 September 2010, at an MPC2000XL with ballerinas and Pusha T, and Songfacts says he dedicated it to his late mother. Billboard later ranked it eighth among the 100 greatest award show performances. He played it on Saturday Night Live on 2 October 2010 and at Coachella on 17 April 2011.