“Heard ‘Em Say” was released as the third single from Late Registration. The single achieved gold status while peaking at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #12 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. Kanye reflects on the harsh realities in life and how things happen for a reason.

This song samples “Someone That I Used to Love” by Natalie Cole. Adam Levine’s lyrics would be later used in Maroon 5’s song “Nothing Lasts Forever.”

As to how the collaboration came about,
Adam told Montreality,

We were on a flight to the EMAs in Italy, at the time, he was on the same plane. I don’t think we had met him yet. We were literally sitting there and he came up to me with his iPod or whatever it was at the time. He was like, ‘Yo, man. How are you doing? I’m Kanye.’ He was just getting big too. And he played me this record. Like, ‘Hey, I’ve got this record. Do you want to write a song together?’ On a plane. You know? And I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And that was it. The next thing I knew we were in the studio making the record and it was that easy.