Moms on Songs, Ranked

Tyler, the Creator’s got a secret weapon on his new album, and we’re not talking about GloRilla. Bonita Smith, loving mother of the Odd Future alum, narrates Tyler’s journey through the tormented psyche of Chromakopia, instilling him with advice and encouragement.

It’s a scene-stealing performance, but Mrs. The Creator isn’t the only mom of pop royalty who’s received a high-profile cameo on her progeny’s record. We’ve rounded up some of the most memorable instances of musicians featuring, sampling, or otherwise collaborating with their mother (or, in some cases, grandmother), ranked from least to most wholesome. (Yeah, we know, they’re all wholesome.) Also, we’re only including tracks where an artist’s mother takes over lead vocals for a song (or interlude). Sorry, mom instrumentalists!

13. “Can’t Have Everything,” Drake feat. Sandi Graham (2017)

Toward the end of Drake’s eclectic 2017 mixtape (or “playlist,” as Drake confusingly described it at the time) comes a voicemail from the rapper’s mother, Sandi Graham, admonishing him for his negative tone and confrontational attitude. “When others go low, we go high” sounds like good advice on paper, but given how it worked out for the Democrats in 2016, it feels a little … cursed. Like much of Drake’s recent work, the vibe is pretty dour.

Best Sandi advice: “I know that you can reach your desired destination and accomplish your goals much more quickly without this confrontation that I’m hearing in your tone these days.”

Wholesome index: 4/10

12. Childhood Home, Ben Harper and Ellen Harper (2014)

Just before Mother’s Day, folk-rock staple Ben Harper became Son of the Year when he released a whole album of duets with his mother, Ellen Harper. A lovely idea, but, unfortunately, the record contains the most lethargic songs of Harper’s career.

Prettiest duet: “Born to Love You”

Wholesome index: 4.5/10

11. “Spirit Ditch,” Sparklehorse feat. Gloria Hughes Thacker (1995)

This early Sparklehorse gem is a fuzzy downer of a ballad. Frontman Mark Linkous wasn’t in the mood to record a guitar solo, so he called home to check his messages. When he discovered that his mother had left him a voicemail describing a bizarre dream, he opted to incorporate it into the final bars. Amid Sparklehorse’s woozy surrealism, this is a suitably odd dose of tenderness.

Best Southern mama-ism: “Hi, babydoll”

Wholesome index: 5/10

10.Give or Take, Giveon feat. Mom (2022)

While there’s nothing original about the lovesick croonings of Giveon’s 2022 debut, he bookends his album with loving snippets of his mother’s voice, sharing wisdom in phone chats with her hopeless romantic of a son. It’s sweet, though the clichéd voicemail timbre cheapens it a bit.

Most tried-and-true relationship advice from mom: “No matter how good you think somebody is, always protect your heart”

Wholesome index: 5.5/10

9. Rehearsing My Choir, The Fiery Furnaces feat. Olga Sarantos (2005)

Remember when brother-sister indie darlings Fiery Furnaces confounded the fans who loved 2004’s proggy-pop opus Blueberry Boat by making a whole entire album with their beloved grandmother, Olga Sarantos? Okay, maybe you had to be there. Rehearsing My Choir places the duo’s skewed indie-pop in communion with their grandma’s fascinating, fast-moving, and sometimes inscrutable recollections of American life between the 1920s and ’60s. It’s part spoken-word, part experimental pop, and 100 percent bizarre.

Wackiest bit of family lore: The one about the angry bishop who clashed with Sarantos when she was directing a church choir, and whose fire-and-brimstone sermons still linger in her memory: “Decadence in the church! Betrayal of our traditions!”

Wholesome index: 6/10

8. “December 4th,” Jay-Z feat. Gloria Carter (2003)

For this autobiographical Black Album cut, Jay-Z brought his mother, Gloria Carter, to the studio and instructed her to “tell those stories that you told about me.” Gloria obliged, balancing out Jay’s heady rhymes with spoken reminiscences, making the track feel like a mini oral history.

Best childhood anecdote: “Shawn used to be in the kitchen, beating on the table and rapping until the wee hours of the morning.”

Wholesome index: 6.5/10

7. “Betelgeuse,” Cassandra Jenkins feat. Cassandra’s Mother (2024)

Did you know Cassandra Jenkins’s mom is an elementary-school science teacher? The New York songwriter’s latest album, My Light, My Destroyer, contains a trippy interlude where you can hear mother and daughter going stargazing, bantering about various planets and stars. “It’s fun to look at the moon through binoculars,” the elder Jenkins raves with woozy ambient-jazz backing. It’s lovely.

Science-nerd mom cred: 10/10

Wholesome index: 7/10

6.I’m Your Empress Of, Empress Of feat. Reina (2020)

When Lorely Rodriguez, a.k.a. Empress Of, first launched her music career, she kept it quiet from her mom, Reina. By the time her third album, I’m Your Empress Of, arrived in 2020, the secret was long out, and the electronic-pop singer began including her mom in album cameos, with Reina delivering wisdom from her life while deepening her daughter’s message of self-empowerment.

Best mom wisdom: “You wanna make yourself the woman / That nobody is gonna mistreat.”

Wholesome index: 7.5/10

5.Chromakopia, Tyler, the Creator feat. Bonita Smith (2024)

A mama’s boy like his hero Kanye West, Tyler uses his seventh album to honor his mom, Bonita Smith, whose scattered interludes range from loving pep talks (“You are the light,” Smith tells her son during the intro) to cautionary warnings (“Don’t even trust these motherfuckin’ accountants,” she implores in “Noid,” as in paranoid). Tyler’s anger toward his absent father has been a recurring theme in his music; an emotional breakthrough arrives in “Like Him,” where his mother encourages him to forgive: “It was my fault, not him,” she reveals over elegiac synths. “He always wanted to be there for you.”

Most affirming motherly encouragement: “Don’t you ever in your motherfucking life dim your light for nobody.”

Wholesome index: 8/10

4.CTRL and SOS, SZA feat. Norma Rowe (2017 and 2022)

The R&B star’s game-changing debut features an unlikely guest in the form of her beloved maternal grandmother, Norma Rowe, who appears in spoken outros at the end of “Love Galore” and “Garden (Say It Like Dat).” Rowe sadly died in 2019, after which SZA honored her with a memorial tattoo, and by using samples of her voice in the intros of “Open Arms” and “Used,” both from 2022’s SOS.

Best grandmotherly cussing: “You don’t have shit to say to me / I ain’t got shit to say to you.”

Wholesome index: 8/10

3. “Courage,” Abdominal and The Obliques feat. My Mom (2012)

This mom’s got bars! Shamelessly cheesy and undeniably wholesome, this track stands out from the rest because the mom in question, Sharon Singer, doesn’t just interject with spoken-word segments; she actually raps about the meaning of courage alongside her son, Toronto rapper Abdominal. They trade rhymes during the chorus, like a family-friendly Beastie Boys offshoot, before Singer takes over the mic: “When I hear and see Abs rap to a crowd / I listen, I smile, he does me real proud.” They even made a video together!

Cool mom cred: 10/10

Wholesome index: 9/10

2. “My Little Corner of the World,” Yo La Tengo feat. Marilyn Kaplan

Yo La Tengo — now there’s a band that feels like family. Longtime YLT fans will be aware of a beloved live tradition in which the group brings out Ira Kaplan’s mother, Marilyn Kaplan, at the end of the night to sing the ’60s standard “My Little Corner of the World.” A great way to end an epic show and send audiences home on a heartwarming note. It works especially well during the band’s eclectic annual Hanukkah shows.

Sing-alongability: 8/10

Wholesome index: 9.5/10

1. “Smile,” Jay-Z feat. Gloria Carter (2017)

Nearly 15 years after “December 4th,” Hov brought his mother back for the remarkably moving centerpiece of his comeback album, 4:44. After Gloria Carter told her son that she was gay, Jay wrote “Smile,” in which he expresses his love and acceptance for his mom. During the song’s gospel-tinged outro, Gloria recites a poem about what it means to have lived in the shadows for so long and now be free.

Most hard-won wisdom: “Life is short, and it’s time to be free / Love who you love, because life isn’t guaranteed.”

Wholesome index: 10/10