Songfacts®:

• This celebratory track finds Pusha lionizing how he made it on the streets without serious consequences. "It's basically celebrating the fact that we've made it this far," he explained to MTV News. "We've been through so much, me and my friends. We've been around some of the worst things, the worst environments, we've lived through some really harsh times and we're still here and we're celebrating that."
• The song title is referred to Pusha in the final verse, which he closes with the line:
  
  "This the life that we made
  Gunshots in the dark like a sweet serenade, ni–a."
• The song features Chris Brown, who delivers the song's hook. "I like Chris, Chris has an edge to him that's very real; he's a real person, he goes through real situations," Push said to MTV News of his collaborator. "Me and Chris are just two passionate artists about our craft, and we actually give a damn."
• The Colin Tilley directed video was shot at Playa del Rey in California. "'Sweet Serenade,' it doesn't sound really sweet. It's pretty dark so to capture that we came and shot on the beach at night time, bonfire," Push told MTV News.
• Pusha boasts on this track:
  
  "My Ouija board don't ever lie to me
  The best rapper livin', I know who's alive to me.
  The competition's all but died to me."
  
  "I don't think anyone makes street-driven hip-hop like me," Pusha told Billboard magazine matter of factly. "Hip-hop is like smooth jazz to me and I'm here to change that."