Sanctified

Album: Mastermind (2014)
Charted: 78
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Songfacts®:

  • This Mastermind cut features a verse from Kanye West in which he pokes fun at the public perception that he's too aggressive. The rapper brought along G.O.O.D. Music signee Big Sean to spit the hook. Big Sean put out his verse that didn’t make the song as a free download a couple of days after the release of Mastermind.
  • DJ Mustard supplied the gospel-laced beat. The producer recalled to Billboard magazine how he got a call to meet West for the first time in a studio in Santa Barbara, California ."I didn't know who's project it was for, I just knew that I was going to get to work with Kanye," he said. "I've been a fan of his for a minute, so I was just kind of soaking up game and watching him do what he does."
  • That's Soul great Betty Wright singing the intro and bridge. The Miami-based singer-songwriter joined the family gospel group the Echoes of Joy in 1956 and made her first records for Deep City at the age of thirteen. She won fame in the 1970s with the hits "Clean Up Woman" and "Where Is The Love," winning the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues song for the latter.

    Wright's songs have been much sampled over the years, but producer Mike Dean confirmed that her contribution on this cut is not borrowed - they got the soul legend to come into the studio and croon some notes.
  • The song took a long time to complete. Ross recalled to The Sun newspaper: "The chorus started out as a sample. Then we tried a vocalist, then another, then another... In the end, we just said: 'Let's get a real gospel singer to give us that feeling.' I reached out to look beautiful, talented, Betty Wright, who has always been shining in Miami, and she showed some love and it paid off."

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