The music video features extensive use of pencil-sketch animation and casts West as a taxicab driver picking up passengers in a fictional city, until a lit cigarette match starts a fire that kills him.

[15][16] Similarly to West exploring a new style with The College Dropout, he opted to take rap lyricism in a different direction on Late Registration by experimenting with ideas beyond the dominant gangsta lifestyle and attitude of mainstream hip hop.

[16] West's understated record production is driven by the piano line, which uses tumbling delayed beats throughout that are laced with a synthesized bassline, in addition to subtle interjections of acoustic guitar.

[17][23][24] While elements of his trademark looped samples remained present, the album marked a shift for West towards a heavier reliance on keyboards, string sections, and boisterous yet at times haunting horns.

[5] Best known for his quirky, baroque pop film soundtracks like the ones for I Heart Huckabees (2004) and Punch-Drunk Love (2002), as well as his musical collaborations with singer-songwriter Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann, Brion added his melancholy touch to "Heard 'Em Say".

He had also been listening to songs Brion produced for When the Pawn... (1999), the second studio album by Fiona Apple, who was another one of the rapper's favorite artists and sources of musical inspiration for Late Registration.

[4] Levine had already come up with a chorus when West played the track on their way to the 2004 MTV Europe Music Awards, but was hesitant to use it because he was uncertain how his fans would feel about the R&B style, though he maintained interest in contributing to "Heard 'Em Say".

[8][32][33][34] The elegant and simple musical composition is primarily built on piano excerpts of Cole's "Someone That I Used To Love",[12][13][21] which are used for the cascading melody that features lush chords over tumbling delayed hip hop beats.

[15] The song was issued on a 12" vinyl in the United States by Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam as the third single from Late Registration on October 24, 2005, with fellow album track "Touch the Sky" as the B-side.

The session was held in a small room for a large crowd, which included fellow rappers Common and Lil' Kim, and West played a guessing game in which he asked the attendees who was on the song's hook.

[50] Billboard writer Marco Cibola saw the song as representative of West's musical growth on the album, opining that its keys "twinkle a bit brighter" than any of the material on The College Dropout.

[22] They commented that the "poignant sample" of "Someone That I Used To Love" is used for "the cascading piano melody" throughout, accompanied by "tumbling delayed beats, a parping bass synth", and hints of a "subtle acoustic guitar".

[53] Writing for The Fader, Amos Barshad cited the track as being among a "suite of nested aural pleasures" on the album, asserting that the "delicate plinking" and Levine's feature were "undercut with the bitter sting of a politicized shoulder shrug".

[54] Jozen Cummings of PopMatters summarized the song by saying the "sweet piano chords and Levine's gentle cooing" make it "probably the best hip-hop lullaby" since Slick Rick's "Children's Story" (1989).

[60] Pitchfork named "Heard 'Em Say" the 10th best song of 2005, with Fennessey opining that West pulls off the tough task of making Levine sound like Stevie Wonder, alongside praising the composition and the rapper's lyricism.

[62] In 2015, a columnist from Paste bestowed "Heard 'Em Say" with much acclaim and ranked it as West's 53rd best album track, declaring: "Late Registration starts with Kanye waking up, but 'Heard 'Em Say' plays like a soothing lullaby with some bite to it.

[78] Filmed overnight in Macy's flagship department store on 34th Street in NYC, West enlisted Michel Gondry and Joe DeMaio to direct the original music video for "Heard 'Em Say", a live-action visual.

[88] Utilizing his signature special effects, Gondry created a fantasy world situated inspired by the 1964 film Mary Poppins inside a department store, where inanimate objects and appliances come to life.

[44][83] Simultaneously, Plympton was also working on the half-hour documentary on the 1786 Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts for The History Channel and a clip for singer "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Don't Download This Song".

[16] Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew was not impressed by "Gondry's slick, candy-colored treatment" for the first music video, commenting that it heavily misses the point of "Heard 'Em Say" and merely screams, "Look, how big my budget was!

[97] John Hugar from Uproxx declared that the visual features a juxtaposition he found intriguing, remarking, "It's a fascinating mixture of fantasy and reality that manages to be whimsical and dreary at the same time".

[98] On their 2018 list of West's best music videos, Complex placed it at number 13, with the staff writing, "The fantasy world of the department store perfectly embodies the nostalgic yet uplifting sounds of the track.

[79] A remote performance of "Heard 'Em Say" taped in Los Angeles was broadcast on a video screen in Foxborough, Massachusetts for an audience of over 40,000 fans during a pre-game concert held on September 3, 2005, at Gillette Stadium.

Wearing a Detroit Pistons jacket and accompanied by a seven-piece string orchestra, two backup singers, and a DJ, he introduced "Heard 'Em Say" by telling the audience it was "my favorite song I ever worked on".

[112][113] On October 10, while Maroon 5 was playing "Nothing Lasts Forever" at a sold-out concert inside Madison Square Garden in NYC, Levine announced that he was to introduce "a good friend" to the stage, followed by a surprise guest appearance from West.

[115][118] He performed on a small, elaborate stage that was spread into a desert sand dune shrouded in billowing smoke before an enormous LED screen depicting a skyline where shooting stars reappear as pumping blue cells, the latter of which appeared for the song.

A simplistic stage set-up was used, which consisted of a baby grand piano that Legend sat at, a Roland TR-808 drum machine, a keyboard, and two microphones that include one utilized solely for Auto-Tune.

[6] English hip hop artist Loyle Carner performed a stripped-down rendition of "Heard 'Em Say" as the last number of his two-track live set for BBC Radio 1's Piano Sessions on October 7, 2015, presented by Huw Stephens.

[139][140] Australian comedian and rapper Matt Okine performed a version of "Heard 'Em Say" with altered verses for the UnderCover event at Giant Dwarf Theatre in Sydney, Australia in February 2016.

He began his performance with a comical impression of West and stage banter, before touching on contemporary divisions within Australian society, including prominent Islamophobia and the injustices of Australia Day.