"Sam Cooke Sample" is an unreleased song by North West and her father Kanye West created with intent for her upcoming 2025 debut album. Elementary School Dropout.[1] The song, as the name would suggest features a sample of Sam Cooke and also features additional production from one of Kanye West's frequent collaborators Scarface.
Production[]
The song which had been produced by North's father Kanye West as well as Scarface features a vocal sample of Sam Cooke's 1964 song "A Change Is Gonna Come".[2] The song runs at a tempo of 81 BPM in the G key with a minor mode.[3]
Background[]
The beat was initially created with intent for Kanye's studio album Donda 2 on December 31st in a session with Def Jam rapper Scarface.[4] In the session, this beat would be created, though initially featured an iPhone voice memo of Kanye beatboxing as a reference for the drums. It is unclear if either of the artists recorded for the beat,[5] though it was confirmed to have been finished with real drums as proven in later versions.
In 2024-2025, the song had been brought back and given to Kanye's daughter North for her album Elementary School Dropout. The song was teased at Kanye's Grammy's afterparty on February 3rd alongside other songs intended for BULLY and VULTURES 3.[1]