# Stronger (Kanye West song)
"Stronger" is a 2007 song by the American rapper and producer [Kanye West](https://www.edgepedia.org/kanye-west), released as the second single from his third album *Graduation* and built around a sample of [Daft Punk](https://www.edgepedia.org/daft-punk)'s "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week and the UK Singles Chart, but Kanye West later achieved a U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit with "Carnival" (with Ty Dolla $ign, featuring [Rich the Kid](https://www.edgepedia.org/rich-the-kid) and Playboi Carti) in 2024.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) • [2](https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/kanye-west-stronger-10-anniversary-2119541) • [11](https://radiox.cms.socastsrm.com/2024/03/11/kanye-west-s-carnival-hits-no-1-on-billboard-hot-100/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Sent to US rhythmic contemporary radio on July 31, 2007, as the second single from *Graduation*, via Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam[3](https://informasilengkap.com/en/Stronger_%28Kanye_West_song%29) |
| Sample | Built on Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (2001), which itself samples Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby" (1979)[4](https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/secrets-mix-engineers-manny-marroquin) |
| Writers | Kanye West, Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Edwin Birdsong, and Mike Dean[5](https://musicbrainz.org/release/08fe3d4f-2af0-4264-8418-07826623c71e) |
| Chart peak | Number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week (chart dated September 29, 2007); number one in the UK[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) • [2](https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/kanye-west-stronger-10-anniversary-2119541) |
| Production | Produced by West with co-producer Mike Dean; Timbaland programmed the drums on the album version[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) |
| Recognition | Spin named it the best song of 2007; ranked #500 on Rolling Stone's 2021 list of the 500 greatest songs[6](https://www.musicmusingsandsuch.com/musicmusingsandsuch/2022/5/5/feature-groovelines-kanye-west-stronger) • [5](https://musicbrainz.org/release/08fe3d4f-2af0-4264-8418-07826623c71e) |
## Background and the sample
The song's origin runs through another rapper's hit. In 2005, [Swizz Beatz](https://www.edgepedia.org/swizz-beatz) produced [Busta Rhymes](https://www.edgepedia.org/busta-rhymes)' "Touch It" from a sample of Daft Punk's "Technologic". West, then touring with the DJ A-Trak, liked the beat without recognizing the sample; A-Trak told him who it was, played him Daft Punk's music, and West fixed on "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and declared he would sample it. A-Trak thought the sample was too obvious, but West proceeded anyway.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) At the song's video premiere, West acknowledged that he had not been the first rap producer to sample Daft Punk; Swizz Beatz, in the audience, replied, "I ain't do it like that, though!"[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones)
The sample chain has two layers. Daft Punk's 2001 track, recorded for the album *[Discovery](https://www.edgepedia.org/discovery-daft-punk-album)*, itself uses a sample of the funk keyboardist Edwin Birdsong's 1979 song "Cola Bottle Baby". As a result, Birdsong received a songwriting credit on "Stronger" alongside West and both members of Daft Punk.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) • [4](https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/secrets-mix-engineers-manny-marroquin)
Where Daft Punk had mostly left Birdsong's groove intact, West slowed "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" down and worked to make the source material sound bigger and more cinematic.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) The chorus paraphrases a famous Nietzsche line, that which does not kill a person makes them stronger, and most of the verses are declarations of West's own greatness.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) • [7](https://www.yeuniverse.com/song/grad-stronger)
## Production
**An unusually long production process.** West recorded more than 50 versions of the track, working with 8 audio engineers and 11 mix engineers at Larrabee North Studios in [Universal City, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/universal-city-california) and [Battery Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/battery-studios) in New York City. The engineer Anthony Kilhoffer recalled that West probably had eight to ten different mixing engineers on the song alone.[8](https://themusicnetwork.com/news/ten-years-graduation-engineer-recalls-kanye-intense-studio-methods)
Mike Dean, West's longtime engineer and mixer, co-produced the track and played guitar on it; he and West chopped up the Daft Punk sample, layering and rearranging it and building their own crescendos, and West kept remixing the song even after the single came out.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) The drums received their own round of attention. After hearing "Stronger" in a club next to Timbaland's "The Way I Are", West judged his own drums weak by comparison and brought [Timbaland](https://www.edgepedia.org/timbaland) in to program the drums for the album version.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones)
## Release and chart performance
"Stronger" was sent to US rhythmic contemporary radio on July 31, 2007, as *Graduation*'s second single.[3](https://informasilengkap.com/en/Stronger_%28Kanye_West_song%29) Its release fell into the middle of the much-publicized same-day sales battle between West's *Graduation* and 50 Cent's *Curtis*, in which 50 Cent had said he would retire from rap if West outsold him. West sold considerably more in the opening week, and *Graduation* eventually went quintuple platinum.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones)
The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, on the chart dated September 29, 2007.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) It also reached number one in the UK, his only UK number one as a lead artist to date, though he subsequently topped the chart as a featured artist on Estelle's "American Boy" and Jay-Z's "Run This Town".[2](https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/kanye-west-stronger-10-anniversary-2119541) • [12](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/14958/kanye-west/) West's later top-10 entries came mostly through collaborations.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones)
## Music video
West made the video with the director [Hype Williams](https://www.edgepedia.org/hype-williams), filling it with flashy science-fiction imagery and allusions to the 1988 anime film *Akira*. Before it reached MTV and YouTube, West rented out a Manhattan movie theater for a glitzy premiere. The shutter shades West wore in the clip became a widespread fashion item, sold as $5 knockoffs at malls and gas stations.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones) Daft Punk either appeared in the video or sent the masked actors from their film *Electroma*; accounts differ, though West insisted at the premiere that it really was the duo.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones)
## Reception and legacy
Critics generally received the song positively, with most praise directed at the Daft Punk sample.[3](https://informasilengkap.com/en/Stronger_%28Kanye_West_song%29) On year-end lists, Spin named "Stronger" the best song of 2007, MTV ranked it sixth, and the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll placed it seventh.[6](https://www.musicmusingsandsuch.com/musicmusingsandsuch/2022/5/5/feature-groovelines-kanye-west-stronger)
**A turning point in West's sound.** NME's retrospective described the track as the bridge between the "Old Kanye" of the soul-sample *College Dropout* era and the more avant-garde, era-defining music he made afterward, and as a pivotal moment in popular music for carrying European electronic sounds into mainstream hip-hop.[2](https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/kanye-west-stronger-10-anniversary-2119541) The two camps later worked together directly: Daft Punk co-produced three tracks on West's 2013 album *Yeezus*.[1](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones)
At the 2008 [Grammy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/grammy-awards), Daft Punk made a surprise appearance, its first on US television, during West's performance of "Stronger".[9](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2008/BB-2008-02-23.pdf) The song also became a durable workout-playlist staple; Time listed it among songs that remain favorites for exercise, noting that few songs speak so directly to the physical experience of working out.[10](https://time.com/5502429/best-workout-songs/) In 2021, Rolling Stone placed "Stronger" at number 500 on its updated list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.[5](https://musicbrainz.org/release/08fe3d4f-2af0-4264-8418-07826623c71e)
## References
1. [The Number Ones: Kanye West's "Stronger", Stereogum (Tom Breihan, 2023)](https://stereogum.com/2218062/the-number-ones-kanye-wests-stronger/columns/the-number-ones)
2. ['Stronger' at 10 – how the Daft Punk-sampling track was the turning point in Kanye West's career, NME (Luke Morgan Britton, 2017)](https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/kanye-west-stronger-10-anniversary-2119541)
3. [Stronger (Kanye West song), Informasi Lengkap](https://informasilengkap.com/en/Stronger_%28Kanye_West_song%29)
4. [Inside Track: Kanye West 'Stronger', Sound On Sound (Manny Marroquin)](https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/secrets-mix-engineers-manny-marroquin)
5. [Release "Stronger" by Kanye West, MusicBrainz](https://musicbrainz.org/release/08fe3d4f-2af0-4264-8418-07826623c71e)
6. [Groovelines: Kanye West – Stronger, Music Musings & Such](https://www.musicmusingsandsuch.com/musicmusingsandsuch/2022/5/5/feature-groovelines-kanye-west-stronger)
7. [Stronger — Graduation, Ye Universe](https://www.yeuniverse.com/song/grad-stronger)
8. [Ten years since Graduation: Kanye's intense studio methods, The Music Network](https://themusicnetwork.com/news/ten-years-graduation-engineer-recalls-kanye-intense-studio-methods)
9. [Billboard, February 23, 2008 issue (Grammy Awards coverage)](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2008/BB-2008-02-23.pdf)
10. [Here Are 50 of the Best Workout Songs to Get You Motivated, Time](https://time.com/5502429/best-workout-songs/)
11. [Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Carnival’ Hits No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100](https://radiox.cms.socastsrm.com/2024/03/11/kanye-west-s-carnival-hits-no-1-on-billboard-hot-100/)
12. [KANYE WEST](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/14958/kanye-west/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Pop, rock, and metal songs › Hip-hop songs › 2000s hip-hop songs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license