", often referred to as "Diamonds Are Forever," was the first
Single from
Kanye West 's second album, ''
Late Registration ''. Released in
2005 , the single heavily samples
Shirley Bassey 's theme song for the
1971 James Bond film, ''
Diamonds Are Forever '' although she is strangely not credited. Dame Shirley Bassey was reported to be furious that she was not contacted before the track was released.
French director
Michel Gondry played drums on the song."Michel Gondry - Biography" at IMDb http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0327273/bio
The song peaked at #43 on the
Billboard Hot 100 , was moderately successful on the
ITunes music service, and peaked at #8 on the UK Top 40. The song is about
Roc-A-Fella , and the chorus "Throw ya diamonds in the sky" refers to the Roc-A-Fella hand sign, which is in the shape of a diamond.
After making the song, West learned more about the plight of
West African children who mine
Conflict Diamonds and die in civil wars financed by diamonds, and decided he would use the video to get this message across. He also recorded a
Remix of the song, featuring
Jay-Z , where he talks about conflict diamonds. Some say that the remix was inspired by
Lupe Fiasco 's song "Conflict Diamonds", which itself uses the beat from Kanye's song. The remix was included on the album, whereas the original version was included as a
Bonus Track .
This song won the
2006 Grammy Award For Best Rap Song .
This song was originally named "Diamonds Are Forever" but due to '' called "Diamond Is Forever", Kanye changed it to "Diamonds from Sierra Leone".
# "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (Clean) – 4:00
# "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (Dirty) – 4:00
# "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (Instrumental) – 4:00
# "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (A cappella) – 4:00
