Songfacts®:

• This song dates back to 2018, when Kanye West first teased it on Instagram as part of the rollout for his scrapped Yandhi album. He initially titled it "80 Degrees" but by the time the track was first leaked on September 28, 2019, he'd renamed it "Hurricane."
• The song went through a series of permutations, at various points featuring Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign, Big Sean, 6ix9ine, and Ant Clemons. The final version that appears on Donda features a chorus from The Weeknd and verses by Lil Baby and Kanye West.
• The song title does not appear in the lyrics, but comes from a scientific fact that The Weeknd mentions on his hook.
  
  Eighty degrees, warm it up for me
  Finally free, found the God in me
  And I want you to see, I can walk on water
  
  The temperature of the water in the ocean needs to be above 80 degrees for a hurricane to form. The Weeknd is saying that through faith in God he can face the storms of life. In the same way that Jesus Christ walked on top of a stormy Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:22-33), God won't let him drown when confronted by hardships.
• This is the second collaboration between Kanye West and The Weeknd; the Toronto native crooned the hook on Yeezy's The Life Of Pablo track "FML." In that instance, The Weeknd's hook was very much R-rated, but he keeps his contribution to "Hurricane" clean.
• This is Lil Baby's first time working with either Kanye or The Weeknd. In a July 22, 2020 tweet, Kanye said Lil Baby is his "favorite rapper, but won't do a song with me." Atlanta rapper replied, saying nobody told him Ye was trying to get him on a song, so West flew him out to Wyoming to work on Donda.
• The song originated with a beat Ronny J came up with in Chicago. The final version also features production credits for West, BoogzDaBeast, Mike Dean, DJ Khali, Ojivolta and Nascent. Ronny J said about the three-year gap before it finally appeared on an album: "Never lose hope on these records that are sitting in the vault, everything is divine timing for its release. Glory to God."
• Did Kanye West admit to cheating on Kim Kardashian during his verse? Fans seem to think he may be asking for forgiveness for seeing another woman.
  
  Here I go, actin' too rich, here I go, with a new chick
  And I know what the truth is, still playin' after two kids
  
  The couplet may suggest West is confessing to infidelity after they had their first two children together, North (in 2013) and Saint (in 2015). The couple went on to have two more children: Chicago (in 2018), and Psalm (in 2019), both born via surrogate.
• This is not to be confused with Kanye West's collaboration with 30 Seconds To Mars, titled "Hurricane 2.0." That song can be found on the deluxe edition of the rock band's This Is War album.
• The animated video starts with a crowd of digital masked people. Dressed in Yeezy Gap, they escape from a prison island to watch a faceless representation of Jesus Christ get baptized. Some of them rise into the sky, as West, The Weeknd and Lil Baby oversee the rapture.
• "Hurricane" took the trophy for Best Melodic Performance at the Grammy Awards in 2022, where Ye was nominated for five awards, also winning Best Rap Song for "Jail." He skipped the ceremony after being told he couldn't perform on the show because of his threatening behavior on social media, where he took shots at Pete Davidson and Grammys host Trevor Noah.
• A company called Artist Revenue Advocates (ARA) brought legal action against West, claiming that the rapper borrowed elements from an instrumental track called "MSD PT2" for "Hurricane." ARA, who owns the rights to "MSD PT2," alleged that when they refused Ye a license to use it, he simply "decided to steal it."
  
  In May 2026, after a week-long trial in Los Angeles federal court, a jury found Ye liable for copyright infringement. The jury held Ye personally responsible for $176,153, with additional sums awarded against three of his companies, potentially bringing the total to $438,558.