TV, music, movies – everything passes through him. And rappers like West and Jay-Z who came into money from meagre beginnings have made it clear that money doesn’t change much: racial discrimination comes at all levels of society.Īlongside these deeper lyrical themes, however, Kanye still spits out whimsical cultural references with the best of them. He’s saying that despite the civil rights movement, despite having an African American president, America is not post-race. One of West’s basic themes throughout his raps is that government can never be fully trusted when it treats people differently based solely on race. At the MTV Video Music Awards last year, he stormed the stage to say that Beyoncé‘s video was one of the best of all time when he simply meant that it was better than Taylor Swift’s. Get it?” It’s an outrageous accusation, but everything Kanye does is over the top. On Gorgeous, West is back to one of his older claims: “I treat the cash the way the government treats AIDS – I won’t be satisfied ’til all my niggas get it. He also takes it back to the classroom: “Hey teacher, teacher, tell me how do you respond to students? And refresh the page? And restart the memory?” Ever since his first album, The College Dropout, West has been taking on America’s educational system, pushing for better standards, talking practicality to the kids.Īnd then there’s race. Kanye just needs to rap.Įnter: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.Īfter a goofy intro on Dark Fantasy, ‘Ye takes it all back to his fantasies in Chicago, when he was producing beats and managing artists with a dream of making it big. But 808s found the producer-turned-rapper mostly out of his element. West had successfully pushed a bit in that direction on Graduation, with hits like Stronger that heavily sampled Daft Punk. The album was also a failed attempt to move his raps further into R&B and pop. Women are a significant part of West’s life and his art (see tracks like Roses and Hey Mama, especially), and 808s was an achingly fractured album from a tortured artist who had lost two of the most important women in his life. His engagement with long-term partner Alexis Phifer had ended and his mother had passed away. Kanye West was in a rough spot when he flew to Hawaii to make his last album, 808s & Heartbreak.
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