"City of Gods" is a song by American rappers

Fivio Foreign Maxie Lee Ryles III (born March 29, 1990), known by his stage name Fivio Foreign, is an American rapper from New York. He rose to fame in 2019 with his single "Big Drip", which spawned a remix with rappers Lil Baby and Quavo. He is signed to fel ...

and

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 ...

and American singer

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...

. It was released as the lead single from Fivio's debut studio album ''

B.I.B.L.E. ''B.I.B.L.E.'' (a backronym for ''Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth'') is the debut studio album by American rapper Fivio Foreign. It was released on April 8, 2022, through Columbia Records and RichFish. The production on the album was ha ...

'' and the second single from West's album, ''

Donda 2 ''Donda 2'' is an album by American rapper Kanye West. Although unfinished, it was exclusively released on the Stem Player, with four songs made available on February 23, 2022, and additional songs later included in updates, the first of which ...

''. On the song, Keys interpolates the chorus from "

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

" (2015) by

The Chainsmokers The Chainsmokers are an American electronic DJ and production duo consisting of Alexander "Alex" Pall and Andrew "Drew" Taggart. They started out by releasing remixes of songs by indie artists. The EDM- pop duo achieved a breakthrough with the ...

. The track was certified

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

, indicating 500,000 units recorded in the US and was nominated at the 54th NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Hip Hop/Rap Song.

Background

West and Fivio Foreign first worked together for the song " Off the Grid", released on West's album ''

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 ...

'' in 2021. The collaboration came together after West called Fivio Foreign to record in

Mercedes Benz Stadium Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Opened in August 2017 as a replacement for the Georgia Dome, it serves as the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons of the National ...

the night before the listening event for ''Donda''. According to Fivio Foreign, West praised the verse the rapper recorded for "Off the Grid" and said that he reminds him of

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

. Before ''Donda'' released, Fivio Foreign told his fans on Twitter that West was executive producing and performing on his upcoming album '' B.I.B.L.E''. On February 5, 2022, Fivio Foreign tweeted "I ain't gon lie, Ye gave me the feature of the Yr.. He was talking 2 crazy on that verse" ic. When Fivio Foreign first got the beat for "City of Gods", it featured a sample of the 2015 track "New York City" by

. When playing it for West, he said "Yo, I see something with this song" and asked Fivio to send the beat so he could change it around. One of the changes West made was taking out the sample and getting Keys to sing the vocals instead. Originally Fivio was rapping "Ain't no king of New York, nobody really in charge", and when he played it for West, he said "You gotta say you're the king of New York". Fivio Foreign then suggested that he should rap " Pop was the king of New York, now I'm the one that's in charge" (thereby paying tribute to late drill rapper Pop Smoke) which West responded to by saying "Yo that's even better!". The song is dedicated to late rapper, friend of Fivio Foreign and longtime collaborator TDott Woo, who was shot and killed a week before the release of the song. In a statement put up with the release of the song, Fivio said "T Dot. That's my baby boy. I never thought I'd be doing this without you here with me. You supposed to be here with me but you gon' always be the prince in the City of Gods. Your name will forever live through with me. Long Live Prince T Dot."

Critics reception

The song has been compared to the collaboration ''

Empire State of Mind "Empire State of Mind" is a song performed by American rapper Jay-Z featuring American singer Alicia Keys from the former's 11th studio album, '' The Blueprint 3'' (2009). It was released on October 20, 2009. Produced by Al Shux, the song featur ...

'' (2009) by

and

, in addition to the release of the second version that references in its title ''

Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down" is a song by American musician Alicia Keys from her fourth studio album, '' The Element of Freedom'' (2009). It is an answer song to the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one single " Empire State of Mind" ...

'', featured on Keys' album ''

The Element of Freedom ''The Element of Freedom'' is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Alicia Keys, released on December 11, 2009, by J Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during May to September 2009 at the Oven Studios in Long ...

''.

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

's writers have associated the song with both ''Empire State of Mind'' and ''

Run This Town "Run This Town" is a song by American rapper Jay-Z. The song also features Rihanna and Kanye West. It was released on July 24, 2009. It was written by the performing trio, with assistance from Ernest Wilson and Jeff Bhasker. Production of the ...

'', appreciating the combination of Foreign's drill music with Kayne's production, even though "the glitzy synth made it feel like American Eagle drill; ..Just too glossy" and that "overall, it’s a bit of an oblong song". At the end Alicia Keys was prized for her "singing reverently about New York City; ..with impressive vocals on the chorus". Christine Ochefu by '' GQ'' is pleasantly impressed to find Keys on a drill track.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal. Music * Vocals –

* Additional vocals –

Playboi Carti Jordan Terrell Carter (born September 13, 1996), known professionally as Playboi Carti, is an American rapper. Carter was initially signed to local underground label Awful Records prior to signing with ASAP Mob's AWGE Label under Interscope R ...

* Production – AyoAA, Hemz,

, Lil Mav,

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 ...

, Tweek Tune * Co-production –

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 ...

* Misc. production – BoogzDaBeast, Bordeaux, Mike Dean, Non Native, Scoop Technical * Mix engineering – Mike Dean * Master engineering – Mike Dean * Recording engineer – John Cunningham, Non Native, Shaan Singh, Fritz Owens, Luca Zadra * Assistant engineer – Sean Solymar, Tommy Rush

City of Gods (Part II)

On April 7, 2022,

released a solo version of the song with a stripped back production called "City of Gods (Part II)". The video of the song was nominated at the

2022 MTV Video Music Awards The 2022 MTV Video Music Awards were held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey on August 28, 2022. The show was emceed by LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj, and Jack Harlow. Minaj was honored with the Video Vanguard Award, pr ...

in the Best R&B category.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2022 singles 2022 songs Fivio Foreign songs Alicia Keys songs Kanye West songs Song recordings produced by Kanye West Song recordings produced by the Chainsmokers Songs written by Andrew Taggart Songs written by Dem Jointz Songs written by Fivio Foreign Songs written by Kanye West Songs written by Mike Dean (record producer) Songs written by Alicia Keys Song recordings produced by Alicia Keys Columbia Records singles