Through the Wire

West was in hospital after the crash on 23 October 2002 when he recorded the song at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, with his jaw wired shut. Consequence recalled that West began rapping the lyrics three days after the crash. It first appeared on the mixtape Get Well Soon... on 14 December 2002 as Through the Wire (Still Standing), with an outro from Elton John's I'm Still Standing, and a re-recorded version replaced it on the album. The last three writers are credited as the writers of Chaka Khan's Through the Fire, which West pitch-shifted and sped up. The video's co-director Coodie said Khan would not clear the sample until the video was shown to her son, and it was cleared about two weeks later. Khan later called West a sweetheart, but in June 2019 called his use of her voice stupid.

West said the accident was the worst thing that could have happened to him and had turned out to be the best. The single, with Two Words on the B-side, came out on 30 September 2003. It reached 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, stayed 21 weeks on the chart, and was nominated for the Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, losing to Jay-Z's 99 Problems. West financed the video, which was inspired by an Adidas advertisement and won Video of the Year at the 2004 Source Hip Hop Awards.