West wrote and recorded the song with his jaw wired shut after a car accident in October 2002. The song samples Chaka Khan's 1985 single "Through the Fire" and was released on the last day of September 2003 as the lead single from his debut album, The College Dropout (2004). The song is also featured on his 2003 mixtape I'm Good and earlier still on Get Well Soon which was released in 2002.

"Through the Wire" peaked at number fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and received positive reviews from music critics. The song was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance, but lost to Jay-Z's "99 Problems". The music video was financed by West, who was inspired by an Adidas advertisement. It won Video of the Year at the 2004 Source Hip Hop Awards.

On October 23, 2002, West was in a [ [West Hollywood, California|California]] recording studio producing music for Beanie Sigel, Peedi Crakk, and The Black Eyed Peas. After leaving the studio at around 3 a.m. in his rented Lexus, he had a near-fatal accident when he fell asleep at the wheel and collided with another car near the W Hotel. He was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, mentioned in the song as "the same hospital where Biggie Smalls died," and had his jaw wired to his face in reconstructive surgery. Two weeks after being admitted to hospital, he recorded the song at the Record Plant Studios with his jaw still wired shut. The song's title refers to the wires used to hold his broken jaw together. When asked about how the incident changed his music, West stated:

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