"Father Stretch My Hands" is a pair of songs by American rapper Kanye West from his seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo (2016).
Both parts of the song sample gospel musician and preacher T. L. Barrett's track "Father I Stretch My Hands"; "Pt.
2" remixes Desiigner's song "Panda" and features a sample of a sound clip from the 1991 video game Street Fighter II.
"Father Stretch My Hands" received widespread acclaim from music critics, with praise mostly being directed towards the T. L. Barrett sample and Metro Boomin's producer tag placement in "Pt.
1", produced by West, was released under the title of "Father Stretch" on Sunday Service Choir's debut studio album, Jesus Is Born (2019).
[2] In an interview with The Fader, Desiigner said about his single "Panda" being sampled by West in the track: "He just took my song and was like, 'I love it.
'"[2] 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.
[3] A one-hour remix of "Father Stretch My Hands" was shared by West at the June 26, 2016 premiere of the music video for his single, "Famous".
[4] West tweeted a picture of the song's lyrics shortly before the album was released, and said that he cried when he wrote it.
[5] Two days after the album's release, West tweeted thanks to musician Drake for helping him write "Pt.
2", a soul-baring confessional dance track which begins with a sampled sound clip of the announcer of the 1991 video game Street Fighter II yelling 'Perfect!'.
After resolving into a meditative piece spoken on a vocoder by Shaw, the song ends with a snippet of T. L. Barrett's track.
[13][14] 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.
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.
"[15] After the release of The Life of Pablo, West announced plans to change the album during 2016 with new mixes, tweaks, and additions; Def Jam, his label, called it "a living, evolving art project.
"[16] Some songs experienced greater changes than others, and both parts of "Father Stretch My Hands" received minor updates.
[7][18] 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.
"[21] 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.
[27] It was listed at number three on HipHopDX's 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.
"[28] 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.
[40] As of October 24, 2019, the song ranks as West's 27th most successful track of all time on the UK Singles Chart.
[41] The track debuted at number 60 on the Canadian Hot 100 when the album was released, spending three weeks on the chart.
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.
1" at the 2017 Governors Ball Music Festival, where he also covered the album tracks "Waves" and "Ultralight Beam".
"[59][60] 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.
[63][64] "Father Stretch" was released on December 25, 2019, as the sixth track on Sunday Service Choir's debut studio album Jesus Is Born.
[65] The song brings back the beat of the original version, though it excludes the sexually explicit lyrics and includes more gospel elements.
[66] "Father Stretch" was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, who mostly noted its development of "Pt.
[65] In a mixed review, Daniel Bromfield from Spectrum Culture wrote that "the space on 'Father Stretch' where we expect to hear his famous bleached asshole line is gaping" and claimed that the song will only be preferred to the original by parents.
[73] This gave Sunday Service Choir their first track to reach the top ten of the US Gospel Songs chart.