Say You Will (Kanye West song)


"Say You Will" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West, from his fourth studio album 808s & Heartbreak. It was produced solely by West. The Kadockadee Kwire featuring Glenn Jordan, Phillip Ingram, Jim Gilstrap, Romeo Johnson, Kevin Dorsey and Will Wheaton provide vocals in the song. Background vocals from Mr Hudson and Tony Williams are included in it. A remix was released in 2015 featuring Caroline Shaw. The song was covered by Mobius Band and Trey Songz.

Background

A remix of the track featuring American composer and Pulitzer Prize recipient Caroline Shaw was uploaded by West to his SoundCloud in October 2015, alongside a new song titled "When I See It". The cover art for both is a photo of flowers, which is actually part of a body of large still-life images released by photographer Nick Knight. Shaw said that initially, one of West's producers asked: 'if I'd be interested on working on songs for a live show with an orchestra' and said that after this: 'I didn't do anything for a week or two, then I did a deep dive into 808s and Heartbreak. Say You Will is the song that hit me most'.

Critical reception

The song was described by The Observer as being "a slow jam built around a simple radioactive pulse". Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork pointed out the outro in praise, describing it as "a patient, defeated-sounding collection of choral vocals and drum machines". Colin McGuire of PopMatters described the song as proving "to be the absolute, no-doubt-about-it perfect way to begin an album smothered in, well, echoes and loneliness".
HotNewHipHop placed "Say You Will" at number 21 on their list of West's 50 best songs.

Live performances

West performed the track for his 2010 live album VH1 Storytellers in February 2009, where it appeared in even more ratcheted form down than the album version. On February 22, 2012, a video recorded in Australia of him freestyling to it live surfaced online. When the song was performed by West at the 2015 Hollywood Bowl, he sang to a woman painted gold at center stage and fireworks accompanied the performance to underscore the heat linked to the music, created before marriage and fatherhood.

Cover versions

released a remix of it titled "Say What's Real" for his mixtape So Far Gone. Mobius Band released a cover version on their 2009 EP EMPIRE OF LOVE. As well as this, "Say You Will" was covered by R&B singer Trey Songz, who also covered fellow Kanye songs "Runaway" and "Love Lockdown".

Personnel

Information taken from 808s & Heartbreak liner notes.