Father Stretch My Hands

West and Kid Cudi had collaborated on several tracks before "Pt. 1"; their first collaboration was the former's 2008 track "Welcome to Heartbreak". Desiigner met West in front of Los Angeles International Airport after West called him to arrange a meeting, and West played "Pt. 2" for Desiigner in his car. Caroline Shaw was approached backstage by West, who asked for her phone number, at a 2014 Roomful of Teeth performance of Partita for 8 Voices. Originally uninterested in a collaboration, Shaw changed her mind two weeks later after listening to West's 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak and released a remix of the album's song "Say You Will" in October 2015. West tweeted a picture of the song's lyrics shortly before the album was released, and said that he cried when he wrote it. Two days after the album's release, West tweeted thanks to musician Drake for helping him write "Pt. 1" and the album track "30 Hours", and simultaneously promised more music with Drake and rapper Future. ==Composition and recording==

On The Life of Pablo, "Father Stretch My Hands" is split into two parts: "Pt. 1" with vocals by Kid Cudi and Kelly Price, and "Pt. 2" with vocals by Desiigner and Caroline Shaw. "Pt. 1" heavily samples "Father I Stretch My Hands" by T. L. Barrett, and its lyrics are centered around models. "Pt. 2" has a verse by West before it transitions to two verses sampled from Desiigner's song, "Panda", which is about drug-dealing and cars. After resolving into a meditative piece spoken on a vocoder by Shaw, the song ends with a snippet of T. L. Barrett's track. West raps in "Pt. 1", "Now, if I fuck this model/ And she just bleached her asshole/ And I get bleach on my T-shirt/ I'ma feel like an asshole"; although co-writer Chance the Rapper denied responsibility for the lyrics, he expressed respect for them and viewed West as a comedian in the studio. On an episode of BET's video series Rate The Bars, hip hop artist Rhymefest remembered leaving the studio after hearing West come up with the bleached-asshole lyrics. Rapper Kendrick Lamar was originally slated to appear on "Pt. 1", although his vocals were removed from the final version and a demo of the song surfaced on SoundCloud in March 2018 that included him rapping. At the time, West sent out a tweet instating "Me and Kendrick got 40 songs, and me and Young Thug got 40 songs." ==Release and reception==

"Father Stretch My Hands" was released on February 14, 2016, as the second and third track on West's seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo, as "Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2" respectively. On June 7 of that year, both parts of the song were serviced to US rhythmic contemporary radio stations through GOOD Music and Def Jam as a two-part single. Spins Sheldon Pearce wrote about the sample, "Kanye West tweeted that The Life of Pablo was a gospel album during one of his longer stream-of-consciousness fits and that certainly can be taken literally – the samples of the Pastor T. L. Barrett's 'Father I Stretch My Hands', sermons from Kirk Franklin." Kyle McGovern, also from Spin, pointed towards West's verse on "Pt. 2" as one of the album's "flashes of vintage 'Ye" because of its "references to his childhood and life-changing car wreck." Alicia Adejobi from the International Business Times also praised West's rapping in the verse for him being "unapologetic about mistakes he may have made and the most notable moments in his personal life," noting the track's "incredible production from Metro Boomin." A RESPECT. staff member wrote that Kid Cudi's hook on "Pt. 1" "is one of the most amazing things I've heard in a while," and called West "the most reckless rapper alive" for the bleached-asshole lyric. The lyric was included in a January 2017 Complex list of the worst sex lyrics in rap history. Accolades Complex listed "Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2" as the third and 13th best songs of 2016, respectively. On The Faders list of the 115 Best Songs Of 2016, "Pt. 1" ranked at number 19. The song was placed at number 13 on HotNewHipHops list of the year's 50 hottest songs. It was listed at number three on HipHopDXs 50 Best Songs Of 2016, with the staff writing that "Kanye proved that saying the most nonsensical things could equate to arguably the most memorable verse of the year." The song also achieved the same ranking on the 25 best tracks of 2016 list by Dummy Mag, with Alex Morris of the magazine directing praise towards the T. L. Barrett sample and Kid Cudi's chorus. "Pt. 1" appeared on the "Award-Winning R&B/Hip-Hop Songs" and "Award-Winning Rap Songs" lists at the 2017 ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards, and was one of the 35 Most Performed R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at the 2017 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards. Complex listed "Pt. 1" as the third-best collaboration between West and Kid Cudi in 2017. In 2018, Billboard named it Cudi's second best ever feature. ==Rumored music video==

When West was on set to shoot the music video for Desiigner's single, "Panda" in May 2016, a May 11 vine posted by Luka Sabbat indicated that West was also filming a video for "Pt. 2"; The Vine contained West, on a monitor, rapping portions of "Pt. 2" over the caption "2 times". No music video had been released or spoken of by February 2018, leading to the belief that it was a rumor. "Famous" music video At the end of the music video for fellow Life of Pablo track "Famous", "Pt. 1" plays, with the backdrop of a sunset while the song plays. ==Commercial performance==

Pt. 1 "Pt. 1" charted in six countries. When The Life of Pablo was released, the song charted at number 37 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 14 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart before it was released as a single. "Pt. 1" debuted during the same week at number 54 on the UK Singles Chart, though was predicted by the Official Charts Company to enter at number 56 on the chart. Simultaneously with the debut, it reached number 17 on the UK Official Trending Chart. The song performed similarly in Canada to the United Kingdom, charting at number 51 on the Canadian Hot 100 and spending four weeks on the chart. On the Irish Singles Chart, the track reached number 74 the week the album was released. It entered the Swedish national record chart (Sverigetopplistan) at number 79 when The Life of Pablo was released, The song was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in 2023, for sales of 600,000 equivalent unites in the UK, As of October 26, 2019, the song stands as West's 40th most successful track of all time on the chart. During the same week, it reached number 87 on the Irish Singles Chart. The track debuted at number 95 on the Sverigetopplistan chart when The Life of Pablo was released, and charted at number 100 on the Dutch Top 40 that week. "Pt. 2" was certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of 1,000,000 certified units in the US on February 1, 2018. This was nearly two years after the single's release and the song became the first track from The Life of Pablo to achieve the certification in the US. On November 8, 2019, the song was certified silver by the BPI for selling 200,000 equivalent units in the UK. ==Live performances and impact==

for JD Sports 2023.|An internet meme spawned from the introduction to Metro Boomin on the song. West first performed "Pt. 2" live at the Paradise International Music Festival in 2016. He sang a medley which included Kid Cudi's vocals from "Pt. 1" (a tribute for him, who was in rehab) over the instrumental of "Waves" on October 25, 2016, in Inglewood, California during the Saint Pablo Tour; HipHopDX shared a recording of the performance on Instagram. Chance the Rapper covered "Pt. 1" at the 2017 Governors Ball Music Festival, where he also covered the album tracks "Waves" and "Ultralight Beam". West and Kid Cudi unexpectedly performed "Pt. 1" in Los Angeles on August 17, 2018, in addition to "Ghost Town" from West's album Ye (2018). When West and Kid Cudi performed live at the 2018 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival as Kids See Ghosts, they opened their set with "Pt. 1". "Pt. 1" spawned a number of internet memes, including Future's tagline for producer Metro Boomin's entrance on the song: "If young Metro don't trust you I'm gon' shoot you." Due to the memes and the astounding acclaim for the production and his tagline, Metro Boomin went on to spawn several hit albums like Savage Mode, Heroes & Villains, and the double albums We Don't Trust You and We Still Don't Trust You with rapper Future while additionally curating and executively producing the soundtrack for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. When Drake rapped "Duppy Freestyle" in May 2018, he referred to The Life of Pablo tracks "Pt. 1" and "30 Hours", and his West and Jay-Z-featuring single "Pop Style" as a poke at the rapper. ==Sunday Service Choir version==

American gospel group Sunday Service Choir recorded a reinterpretation of "Pt. 1" under the title of "Father Stretch", with the reinterpretation being produced by West. "Father Stretch" was released on December 25, 2019, as the sixth track on Sunday Service Choir's debut studio album Jesus Is Born. The song brings back the beat of the original version, though it excludes the sexually explicit lyrics and includes more gospel elements. The refrain of the song demonstrates how far-reaching the love of God is, with the refrain comparing one's blessings to being "As countless as the stars." Reception "Father Stretch" was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, who mostly noted its development of "Pt. 1". The song was described by Bianca Gracie from Billboard as making the original version of it "even more captivating." Rhian Daly of NME cited the song as being among what draws fans of West into the album and called the song "perhaps obviously, radically different from what it once was," while noting the song as building on the T. L. Barrett sample. Similarly, Dean Van Nguyen from The Guardian listed the song as one of the most interesting parts of Jesus Is Born for West's fans and noted that it "develops the rap song's gospel overtures." ClashMusic's Laviea Thomas branded the song as a "distinctive" rendition of "Pt. 1". Neil Z. Yeung from AllMusic noted it for being a fresh take on the latter. The song climbed ten places to number ten in its second week on the chart with 759,000 streams, becoming the highest charting track from Jesus Is Born. This gave Sunday Service Choir their first track to reach the top ten of the US Gospel Songs chart. • Jason White – arranger • Phil Cornish – arranger ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from West's website: Pt. 1 • Production – Kanye West, Mike Dean #MWA for Dean's List Productions & Rick Rubin • Co-production – Metro Boomin • Additional production – DJDS, Allen Ritter & Noah Goldstein for Ark Productions, Inc • Engineering – Noah Goldstein, Andrew Dawson, Anthony Kilhoffer, Mike Dean & Giandre Diaz • Mix – Manny Marroquin at Larrabee Studios, North Hollywood, CA. • Mix assisted – assisted by Chris Galland, Ike Schultz & Jeff Jackson • Vocals – Kid Cudi & Kelly Price • Keyboards & moog modular – Mike Dean Pt. 2 • Production – Kanye West, Menace & Rick Rubin • Co-production – Plain Pat • Additional production – Caroline Shaw • Engineering – Noah Goldstein, Andrew Dawson, Anthony Kilhoffer & Mike Dean • Mix – Manny Marroquin at Larrabee Studios, North Hollywood, CA. • Mix assisted – assisted by Chris Galland, Ike Schultz & Jeff Jackson • Vocals – Desiigner & Caroline Shaw ==Charts==

Pt. 1 Weekly charts Year-end charts Pt. 2 Weekly charts ==Certifications==

Pt. 1 Pt. 2 ==Release history==