Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2

Album: The Life of Pablo (2016)
Charted: 70 54
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Songfacts®:

  • The second part of "Father Stretch My Hands" details some of Kanye West's most personal moments such as his mother's death in 2007 (previously referenced on "Hey Mama") and his near-fatal car crash ("Through The Wire" is also about this).
  • West also reflects on his relationship with his father, Ray, who walked out on him and his mother when he was just 3 years old. "I cried writing this. I love my Dad," West tweeted hours before The Life of Pablo's launch event.

    Kanye West previously referred to his father on Graduation's "Champion" back in 2007 when he compared their relationship to that of Christopher Garner Sr. and Jr in the Will Smith movie The Pursuit of Happyness.
  • New G.O.O.D Music signee Desiigner raps the second and third verses. His vocals are sampled from the Brooklyn rapper's 2015 trap anthem "Panda," which was produced by Adnan "Menace" Khan, a beatmaker from Manchester, UK.
  • The co-opting of the "Panda" verses and beat was a last-minute addition to The Life of Pablo. Menace told Genius: "I gave G.O.O.D. Music all the tracked outs - the individual sounds of the beat. It took two to three days. Kanye West made it his vision that he wanted it on his album."
  • Asked long it took him to make the "Panda" instrumental, Menace replied: "From the start to mixing and mastering it took about two hours to make this beat."
  • Desiigner told Complex how Kanye added "Panda" to his song. "I don't know how long had he been working on it, but he came to me," he said. "He was like, 'I got an idea.' He put his brain power together, we put my brain power together, and you know, we made it happen. It was just like he had an idea, brought me a little of what he was thinking about, and was like, 'Let's go with it. Let's make it happen.'"

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