Songfacts®:

• Nipsey Hussle and Jay-Z recorded this for Judas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired Album, a 22-track record accompanying the movie of that name. Judas and the Black Messiah is a biographical drama about Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Black Panther Party, who became a martyr when he was killed at 21. The album links the Black experience of the late 1960s to modern times.
• Jay-Z entered this world on December 4, 1969 - the same day Fred Hampton was shot and killed in his bed during a predawn police raid at his Chicago apartment. During his verse, Hova interpolates a line from his 2011 The Throne track with Kanye West, "Murder to Excellence."
  
  I arrived on the day Fred Hampton died
  
  After Jay and Kanye dropped The Throne, Hampton's son, Fred Hampton Jr., complained about the rapper not referring to his father's killing as an assassination. The Brooklyn-born artist takes the opportunity on "What It Feels Like" to amend it.
  
  I arrived on the day Fred Hampton got mur..., hol' up
  Assassinated, just to clarify further
• The song features a posthumous verse and hook from Nipsey Hussle, who was fatally shot in front of his LA Marathon Clothing store on March 31, 2019. Like Hampton, Nipsey was a leader in his community before his untimely passing.
• According to Billboard, Fred Hampton Jr. had met Hussle at a show in Sacramento. Hampton Jr. wanted to include Hussle on the soundtrack based on their past interactions.
• When Hussle's manager, Steve Carless, played the beat for "What It Feels Like" to RCA Records' Aaron "Dash" Sherrod and the album's executive producer, Hit-Boy, they knew they needed to have the track.
  
  Meanwhile, Jay-Z had caught a screening of Judas and the Black Messiah and told the film's producer, Ryan Coogler, he wanted to contribute to the soundtrack. Sherrod sent him "What It Feels Like," and within 24 hours, Hova returned the track with his verse.
  
  "I wish people would understand these are two kings we lost at such an early age, and their legacy supersedes everything," Sherrod told Billboard of Hampton and Hussle. "It's something you can't imagine. He worked on that song for ten years and originally wanted Jay on it - and for him to accomplish that, not even being here... that was God."
• H.E.R., Marsha Ambrosius, and James Fauntleroy all contributed vocals to the hymnal outro. H.E.R. also recorded her own track for the record, "Fight For You."
• Jay-Z was a fan of Nipsey Hussle's music and his efforts to support the Black community. Though the two had a close personal relationship, this song is the first time they featured on a track together.
• The production duo Mike & Keys helmed the track, with co-production from Larrance Dopson and Mars of 1500 or Nothin'. Keys revealed to GQ that "What It Feels Like" was eight years in the making. They came up with the beat in 2013 and Nipsey started laying down bars, but they "thought Nipsey really didn't like that song at first."
  
  "2015 was when we added the horns," Dopson continued. "2017, we put the strings on it and made [Nipsey's line in his verse] 'what it feels like' into a hook."