Songfacts®:

• This melancholic song finds Kanye West collaborating with Houston singer Vory (formerly King Vory) and Chicago rapper Lil Durk. The three artists lament street violence and "fallen soldiers" in the hood.
• The song originated as a solo Vory track where he sings of his heartbreak following the shooting of his friend Jonah Ware in Louisville. Nineteen-year-old rapper Jonah Ware, also known as Lul Flex, was fatally shot on August 8, 2020.
  
  Vory later gave the song to West for Donda and he played it at the first Atlanta listening event on July 22, 2021, with no Kanye vocals.
• Vory also landed on two other Donda tracks: "No Child Left Behind" and "God Breathed."
• Having previously paid tribute to his fellow Chi-town native in the video for his 2020 track "Kanye Krazy," it's no surprise to see Lil Durk landing a feature on Donda. During his verse, the rapper takes the opportunity to pay tribute to his own fallen older brother, Dontay "DThang" Banks. Lil Durk's sibling was shot and killed in the parking lot of a strip club in the Illinois city of Harvey in June 2021.
• Kanye West produced the song with:
  
  His regular collaborator Mike Dean. They have worked together since Kanye's 2003 debut album, The College Drop Out.
  
  The producers of Vory's original version of "Jonah": DrtWrk and TT Audi.
  
  Atlanta beatmaker Wheezy ("Yes Indeed," "Bubbly") is listed as an additional producer. He also helped Kanye on another Donda track, "Lord I Need You."
  
  "Those were fire," Wheezy recalled to Billboard. "Everyone did it separately so it wasn't really a vibe created, but me and Ye definitely sat there and changed up drums and snares a million times and got it right."