Selah (song)

West co-wrote it with 11 others, while Jeffrey LaValley received songwriting credit due to the song sampling a rendition of the New Jerusalem Choir's work.

They were often complementary towards the composition and a few praised the sampling of the Sunday Service Choir, though some critics expressed negative feelings of the song's lyrical content.

[3] The first feature on the album is from the Sunday Service Choir on the track "Every Hour", while the group provided additional vocals for "Selah" as well as "Everything We Need" and "Water".

[5][6] In August 2019, West's then-wife Kim Kardashian posted an image of a track list for Jesus Is King that showed the song slated for release on it.

[12] Jeffrey LaValley, musical director of the New Jerusalem Choir, received writing credit on "Selah" due to having created and wrote the melody of the group's recording "Revelations 19:1" (1984), which the song samples a rendition of.

[13] He also wrote the song, along with Cyhi the Prynce, Consequence, Federico Vindver, No Malice, BoogzDaBeast, Rennard East, Pusha T, E*vax, Sean Leon, John Boyd, and Adam Wright.

[17][18] The chord progression of it was compared to that of the track "Gerudo Valley", from the soundtrack of video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998).

"[20][31] The lyrics indicate that West scrapped Yandhi due to his religious beliefs after going through a new birth experience, since he vowed to no longer create secular music, providing fans with meaning of the album being shelved.

[35][36] Of the song's presence at the listening session, attendee Donald Lawrence recalled that watching "a crowd that was probably 25% African American, 75% caucasian — hip-hop kids from the suburbs — go bananas when the choir came in [was amazing]".

[37] For West's Sunday Service Experience at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church on November 17 of that year, the song was performed by him and the group.

Rawiya Kameir of Pitchfork noted "the battle drums that propel" the song for echoing "the stark, confrontational attitude of" West's sixth studio album Yeezus (2013).

[27] Sam C. Mac of Slant Magazine viewed the Sunday Service Choir as "on hand" for elevating the song, specifically with a "hallelujah" chant "that's augmented by dynamic leaps in octave and by Ye's colossal bursts of percussive, scraping-metal sound effects".

"[42] In a review for American Songwriter, Luke Levenson stated the song is where "West punctuates his bars with bible verses several times", which he called "punchy moments" that are "weighed down by the effeteness" of certain lyrics.

[29] The New York Times critic Jon Caramanica opined that the song "swells until West cites Bible verses over door-slam percussion, suggesting an explosion of religious awakening", while noting his rapping sometimes being "tart".

[43] In a mixed review, Brendan Klinkenberg of Rolling Stone complemented the song's composition for "lightly affected organs opening to bludgeoning percussion and a crescendoing choir" but criticized West's rapping due to being what "capsizes the vessel" and slammed his lyricism.

[17] Wren Graves was more negative at Consequence, noting the drums "temporarily impress" and analyzing that the song "creates an expectant atmosphere with moody organs" alongside the Sunday Service Choir "whispering 'Hallelujah'" as West "quotes the Book of John on bondage and slavery", but complained that even though you think it "is going somewhere" due to the Sunday Service Choir getting louder and the tension rising, "poof, nothing happens".

[33] Graves expressed further criticism, describing the later part of the song as where West "returns with a meandering verse about greed, betrayal, forgiveness, and truth, saying nothing as he tries to cover everything", concluding that there is "no central idea, no point".

[33] Ross Horton from The Line of Best Fit listed the song among the parts of Jesus Is King "not worth saving", branding it as "a bunch of Bible verses interspersed with barbed, growled snatches of vocal".

[63][64][65] West screened his concert film Jesus Is King at the Forum in the County of Los Angeles on October 23, 2019, revealing "Selah" as part of the soundtrack.

[66] Two days later, Jesus Is King was released simultaneously with the album of the same name, including a special mix of the song that is listed in the film's credits.

[67][68] American musician Louie Zong shared an edit of "Selah" that combined it with "Gerudo Valley" on the same day, which was met with generally positive responses from fans of West.

"[13] LaValley's niece replied by telling that his "tune is on Kanye's album", with him responding with: "Girl, shut up", and laughing, while being amazed when seeing himself credit as a writer on the song.

"[13] Kim Kardashian shared a video of her and Kanye's daughter Chicago West singing the "hallelujah" part of "Selah" via Instagram on January 28, 2020.

[70][71] On February 2, 2020, the Super Bowl LIV trailer for the tenth Fast & Furious franchise film F9 (2021) was released and included the song.

[19][26] The Sunday Service Choir version of "Revelations 19:1" was released on December 25, 2019, as the third track on the group's debut studio album Jesus Is Born.