"Believe What I Say" is a song by American rapper

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

from his tenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''

Donda ''Donda'' is the tenth studio album by American rapper Kanye West, released through GOOD Music on August 29, 2021, with distribution handled by Def Jam Recordings, his last release with the label. West recorded much of the material at multiple ...

'' (2021). The song features additional vocals from

Buju Banton Mark Anthony Myrie (born 15 July 1973),Larkin, Colin (1998) "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae", Virgin Books, professionally known by his stage name Buju Banton, is a Jamaican reggae dancehall musician. He is considered to be one of the most ...

Dem Jointz Dwayne Allen Abernathy Jr. (born July 17, 1976), better known by his stage name Dem Jointz, is an American record producer. He has produced tracks for numerous artists including Rihanna, Anderson .Paak, and NCT, among others. He also co-prod ...

and Stalone; and samples "

Doo Wop (That Thing) "Doo Wop (That Thing)" is a song recorded by American recording artist Lauryn Hill for her debut solo studio album ''The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'' (1998). It was written and produced by Hill. The song was released as the lead single from ''Th ...

" by

Lauryn Hill Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. She is often regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, as well as being one of the most influential musicians of her generation. ...

. It was serviced to US rhythmic contemporary radio as the album's third single on November 30, 2021 (second promoted to radio formats). The song peaked at number 28 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and also reached the top 40 in Australia and Canada.

Background

On September 15, 2020, West posted a series of tweets about his relationship with

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

. In the tweets, the rapper expressed desire to buy back his

master recordings Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...

. He went on to leak his full

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

documents between himself and Universal. He also stated that he is "not putting no more music out until I'm done with my contract with Sony and Universal.". The next day, on September 16, West flew out to

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and recorded music with

and

Saint Jhn Carlos St. John Phillips (born August 26, 1986), known professionally as Saint Jhn (stylized as SAINt JHN; pronounced "Saint John"), is a Guyanese-American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for the 2019 remix to ...

, the former of which features on the track. On September 26, West shared a snippet of "Believe What I Say" on his Twitter account. The track samples

's 1998 song "

". The track was officially previewed on August 26, 2021 at the ''Donda'' listening event at

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since 1 ...

. On September 9, composer Antman Wonder, who was initially left off the credits, posted the original version of the track; claiming that West had not properly credited his, as well as several other artists' contributions to Donda. The credits were later updated to include his contribution.

Credits

– production, vocals, songwriting *

– production, additional vocals, record engineering, songwriting *

– additional vocals, songwriting * BoogzDaBeast – co-production, songwriting *

FnZ FNZ (also known as Finatik N Zac) are Grammy award-winning Australian record production and songwriting duo composed of Michael "Finatik" Mule and Isaac "Zac" De Boni. Production credits Notes * signifies songwriting credit only Refere ...

– co-production, songwriting *

Ojivolta Ojivolta are an American record production and songwriting duo, composed of Mark Williams and Raul Cubina. Their credits include production and co-writing for Kanye West, Playboi Carti, XXXTentacion, Lil Nas X, Justin Bieber Justin Drew ...

– co-production, songwriting * Antman Wonder – additional production * Stalone – additional vocals, songwriting * Irko – mix engineering, master engineering * Devon Wilson – record engineering * Mikalai Skrobat – record engineering * Josh Berg – record engineering * Preston Reid – record engineering * Louis Bell – vocal editing * Patrick Hundley – vocal editing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Kanye West songs 2021 songs 2021 singles Kanye West songs Song recordings produced by Kanye West Songs written by Cyhi the Prynce Songs written by Kanye West Hip house songs American contemporary R&B songs American soul songs