West was able to contact Levine and get him on a record after acquiring his number from American record producer Rick Rubin. He was hesitant at first, feeling the singer was a bit too popular for him. However, West came to be impressed by the quality of Levine's voice after hearing his band rehearse backstage at the 47th Grammy Awards ceremony. He remarked, "They were so big that I thought they'd be less ill, but I heard them rehearsing backstage at the Grammys and he was hitting all them mockingbird notes and I said, I have to get him in the studio.'" Levine came to the recording studio right after the ceremony, sang the song and West discovered that the melody fit perfect with it. The track was done rather quickly, as Levine had only a couple of free hours available. Since the singer had a vocal that the duo had already discovered meshed well with West's music, Brion was able to translate the two pieces in a matter of hours. Brion said, "Adam had something, Kanye loved it and the three of us went at it like banshees, and there it was." West distinguished the results and circumstances surrounding the collaboration as something of a gift from God. In retrospect, Levine described he recording session by saying, "It was really a cool, organic process. Kanye's lyrics were beautiful." The musical collaboration reportedly left a good impression on Levine. He opined, "Kanye West is a genius. I know that he causes different reactions in people. But the bottom line is that he’s brilliant. Love him or hate him, he’s brilliant. He’s a really pure, creative person. I really respect that about him. Everything with him is very legitimate and very real. I love that dude."