Kanye West has sampled Lebanese music star Fairuz on his new single, All the Love, from his long-delayed 12th album, Bully, which was released last Friday.
Working alongside producer and talkbox pioneer Andre Troutman, West weaves Fairuz's 1963 classic Fayek Alaya into a warped, gospel-inflected production that Billboard has called "the crown jewel" of the album.
"Over two decades into his career, Ye can still push rap’s creative envelope to places none of his peers can. All the Love is the best of Ye," the magazine writes.
Fayek Alaya was written and composed by Assi Rahbani, Fairuz's husband, and his brother Mansour Rahbani. The song paints a nostalgic picture of childhood friendship and shared memory, with its title roughly translating to "you are awake over me".
The song is part of the musical El Leil We El Kandeel (The Night and the Lantern), one of many celebrated works the Rahbani Brothers came to be known for – most of them built around Fairuz's voice.
Bully has had a chaotic journey to release. West announced it in September 2024, released several work-in-progress versions via X alongside a short film starring his son Saint, and delayed the final release several times before it finally landed. The album also arrives in the shadow of his very public apology for antisemitic remarks, published as a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.
Born Nouhad Haddad in Beirut in 1935, Fairuz is regarded as one of the most important cultural figures in the Arab world, a singer whose voice has come to symbolise memory, nationhood and shared identity across generations.
Her work has been featured and sampled by generations of musicians. Most recently, Macklemore opened his 2024 pro-Palestine anthem Hind's Hall with the melody from Ana La Habibi, a love song whose title translates as "I belong to my lover".
Rapper Drake sampled her work on his 2025 album Iceman, using Wahdon – a song about loss written by poet Talal Haidar. In 1992, Madonna used Fairuz's El Yom Ollika without permission for her album Erotica, resulting in a lawsuit which was eventually settled out of court.
