“Praise God” by Kanye West

"Praise God" sits on Donda, Kanye West's tenth studio album, from 2021, featuring Travis Scott and Baby Keem, and its intro and hook are built on a speech by West's late mother, Donda West, the woman the album is named for. Setting her voice inside a trap track could have been mawkish; instead it lands like a benediction.

The beat began with 30 Roc and Zentachi in early 2020, built around a sample of a Japanese song and a Spinz 808 pattern; by the first listening event in Atlanta the sample had been traded for a choir, and by the second their drums and 808s were gone. They kept production credits anyway, and Machiko Ryu and Kazuhiko Katō, the Japanese producers behind the sampled original, got writing credits. It reached 20 on the Hot 100 and topped the Gospel and Christian Songs charts.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.