"Jesus Walks" | ||||
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Single by Kanye West | ||||
from the album The College Dropout | ||||
B-side | "Heavy Hitters" | |||
Released | May 25, 2004 | |||
Recorded | 2000–2003 | |||
Studio | Sony Music Studios, Light @ The End of the Tunnel, New York City | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:13 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | Kanye West | |||
Kanye West singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Jesus Walks (Version 2)" on YouTube |
"Jesus Walks" is a song by American rapper Kanye West. It was released on May 25, 2004, as the fourth single from his debut album The College Dropout (2004). The song contains a sample of "Walk with Me" as performed by the ARC Choir. "Jesus Walks" was acclaimed by music critics, who praised its compelling sonic atmosphere and boldness in its open embrace of faith. It was met by widespread commercial success, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming West's fourth consecutive top-twenty hit in the United States.
The single was accompanied by three separate music videos, each of which visually interpreted a portion of its multifaceted context in different ways. "Jesus Walks" continues to be a crowd favorite and stands as one of the most-performed songs by West, who has included it within all of his headlining tours. At the 47th Grammy Awards, "Jesus Walks" was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, and received a nomination for Song of the Year. Various publications placed the song on several year and decade-end lists, and have since listed it among the greatest of all time. The song was named the sixth-best song of 2004 on Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll.[1] Pitchfork listed it at No. 123 on its list of the 200 Best Songs of the 2000s,[2] while NME placed it at No. 69 on its list of the "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years" in October 2014.[3] Rolling Stone named the song No. 19 on their list of the 100 Best Songs of the 2000s, and later placed it at No. 273 on its 2010 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.