Artist/Group: Kanye West
Album: The College Dropout
Released: 2004
Label: Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella

Watch the Official Video of this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXHhc3my8yY

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"Through the Wire" is the debut single by American rapper Kanye West, who wrote and recorded the song with his jaw wired shut after a car crash in October 2002. The song samples Chaka Khan's 1985 single "Through the Fire" and was released on the last day of September 2003 as the lead single from his debut album The College Dropout (2004).

"Through the Wire" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received positive reviews from music critics. It was certified Platinum and Gold in the United States and United Kingdom, respectively. The song was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance, but lost to Jay-Z's "99 Problems". The music video was financed by West, who was inspired by an Adidas advertisement. It won Video of the Year at the 2004 Source Hip Hop Awards.

On October 23, 2002, West was in a California recording studio producing music for Beanie Sigel, Peedi Crakk, and The Black Eyed Peas. After leaving the studio at around 3 a.m. in his rented Lexus, he had a near-fatal crash when he was cut off by a car, ran head-on into traffic, and collided with another car near the W Hotel. He was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, mentioned in the song as "the same hospital where Biggie Smalls died," and had his jaw wired to his face in reconstructive surgery. Two weeks after being admitted to the hospital, he recorded the song at the Record Plant Studios with his jaw still wired shut. Consequence recalls West started rapping the lyrics to the song three days after the crash.

The song's title refers to the wires used to hold his broken jaw together. When asked about how the incident changed his music, West stated:
Well, the only thing this accident's is saying is, "I am about to hand you the world, just know at any given time I can take it away from you." To nearly lose your life, to nearly lose your mouth, your voice, your whole face, as a rapper...and I had to be on TV! My face looks crazy to me now... But I have to just thank God for the situation that I am in... "Through The Wire" is the worst thing that could've possibly happened to me, and now it's obviously the best thing. Look how it exploded!

The song originally appeared on West's mixtape Get Well Soon... where his wired jaw was incredibly noticeable, before being re-recorded and released as the first single from The College Dropout in late 2003. Although he initially had trouble convincing Roc-A-Fella Records executives to let him make his own album as a rapper, he was able to change their minds after the song's release.

"Through the Wire" was inspired by the 2002 car crash and West has provided a comedic account of his difficult recovery. West samples a pitch-shifted and sped up version of Chaka Khan's 1985 single "Through the Fire". Coodie, one of the music video's directors, reported that Khan wouldn't initially allow the sample to be cleared until the video was shown to her son and he told Khan about it, leading to the sample being cleared about two weeks later. Khan later expressed her love for the track, calling West a "sweetheart, truly adorable" and the way he used the sample "so clever". However, in June 2019, Khan criticized West's unorthodox, highly pitchshifted use of the sample, calling it "stupid". West did not receive writing credit for the song, which instead went to David Foster, Tom Keane, and Cynthia Weil, who wrote "Through the Fire". West's rapping is described as "a Snoop-meets-Hova flow, twisting up his words with the patented 'izz' inflection."

Dave Heaton of PopMatters called it "as riveting and moving as everyone says it is" and it "may be the album's most startling personal horror story (though it's also a song of hope and gratitude)". AllMusic's Andy Kellman said it was "a daring way to introduce himself to the masses as an MC" and it "couldn't have forged his dual status as underdog and champion any better." Kellman described the content as "heartbreaking and hysterical" and that despite his "inevitable slur, his words ring loud and clear".

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