Background and recording

Background and recording
Upon its release,kanye west shoes, many surmised that West conceived "Gold Digger",air jordans; after watching Jamie Foxx's Oscar-winning portrayal of Ray Charles in the biographical film Ray, however he had actually recorded the song long before the movie was even developed.[3] West originally produced and recorded the song in Ludacris's home in Atlanta, Georgia for Shawnna's 2004 debut album Worth Tha Weight and had written the chorus from a female first-person viewpoint. However, for reasons unknown, Shawnna passed on the beat. Not wanting to let it go to waste, West decided to write the two verses for the song himself, this time from a male's point-of-view. About a year later, right before "Gold Digger" was set to be released, West decided to add a third verse and in a week the new song was recorded and mastered at Sony Music Studios in New York.[3] The idea of employing Jamie Foxx specifically to sing an interpolation of Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman" in place of its initial sample did in fact arise from West seeing Ray with his friend John Mayer.[3] Foxx's vocals were recorded over many takes; one version, he sang from start to finish, but the track was retracted as his performance didn't coincide well with the song's instrumentation. After recording another version, Jamie decided to re-record it once more as he felt it contained too many explicit lyrics.[3] Once the track was in place, it was layered with additional instruments provided by Brion and individually selected by West.[3] By the end of their very first studio session together, the pair had completed the basic tracks for final version of "Gold Digger".[4]