Songfacts®:

• This song is most commonly confused as a song about a girl named Wendy because West slurs the word "Windy." In reality, the song is about Chicago (the Windy City), West's hometown. This becomes evident when West says, "If you don't know by now, I'm talkin' 'bout Chi-town." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Elmer - San Francisco, CA
• "Homecoming" has it's origins in "Home," a song originally on West's "Adjustment Vol 1" mixtape, in a collaboration with his protégé John Legend. It borrows lyrically from Common's 1994 single "I Used to Love H.E.R.," which again is an extended metaphor, this time a story about a girl Common loved representing a criticism of the direction Hip-Hop was going at the time.
• "Homecoming" features Coldplay's Chris Martin. West was at the Abbey Road studio in London working on the theme song for Mission: Impossible 3, while Martin was in a nearby room recording a BBC Radio 2 special. They met up and during a jam session recorded this track.
• This was not Martin's first excursion into the world of dance music/hip hop. He'd previously contributed the guitar element to "Beach Chair," a track on Jay Z's 2006 album Kingdom Come. The same year he also played live alongside Jay-Z at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
• Hype Williams directed the music video, which follows West through his hometown streets of Chicago. The clip features cameos from Chris Martin and West's labelmate Common. Williams also directed West in "Heartless" and Martin in Coldplay's "Viva La Vida."