Sanctified (song)

"Sanctified" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Rick Ross, taken from his sixth studio album Mastermind (2014).

Betty Wright lent her vocal talent to the song during a late night studio session she did as a favor to DJ Khaled in order for him to meet a deadline.

She recorded the hook in fifteen minutes while sitting on a sofa[3] In the song, West raps about how he feels about people playing up his earlier works and dismiss who he is now, before saying that he's not going to worry about it.

[6] Detailing the song's recording process to MTV, Big Sean said, "Me and [Kanye West] was in the studio working on a whole bunch of ideas and [Ross] came in the conversation.

[7] Kevin Ritchie of Now named it the album's best song, praised Betty Wright's performance singing the hook and Kanye West's production.

In fact, if the album had wrapped up after "Sanctified", rather than dribbling to a close with the weedy "Walkin’ On Air" and "Thug Cry", then Mastermind would be pretty much wall-to-wall bangers.

"[15] Christopher Weingarten of Rolling Stone said, the song "shines with guest singer Betty Wright's powerful gospel rasp and Kanye West confessing his sins on a featured verse.

[17] Sheldon Pearce of HipHopDX stated, "While Kanye is transposing himself with Muhammad Ali and washing his sins in the blood of Jesus and boldly second guessing God’s direct message the most grandiose thing Ross can muster is an ill-fated (and perhaps uninformed) comparison to fallen Waco cult leader David Koresh.

"[18] Nathan Slavik of DJBooth praised the song's depth and said it featured "a rewind-worthy verse from Kanye and a completely superfluous Big Sean.

An arena confession I need to be shouting at the livest of live shows by year's end: "All I wanted was a hundred million dollars and a bad bitch!"

"[22] On March 6, 2014, Rick Ross, Big Sean and Kanye West performed "Sanctified" on The Arsenio Hall Show backed by a live band.