How do songs explore aspects of language, identity and/or culture? Does the song respond to a global issue in any way?

Pick a song which does this in an insightful or problematic way and write a response.

 

The song I will be doing is New Slaves by Kanye West

 

The song New Slaves begins with a distorted and futuristic beat. The beat gives the mood of urgency, it makes us feel uncomfortable and that there is not much time remaining. Kanye West discusses global issues in the song, addressing racism, segregation, materialism, and the status quo. Kanye is almost shouting the lyrics, its as if he was ranting. His message is being delivered very angrily, to show how upset he is with modern society.

 

The song begins with kanye describing how his mother grew up, “my mama was raised in an era when, clean water was only served to the fairer skin”. Kanye is referring to the segregation his mother had to deal with, and the jim crow laws.  Later on in the first verse, he explains his experience with racism. How when he was “broke”, the shopkeepers would be very dismissive of him, telling him “dont touch anything in the store”. To the present day, and how when he enters a store now they are very joyful and helpful. He parallels his mothers generation to ours, and how racism is just as prominent as it was in the older days. “What you want, a bentley? fur coat? diamond chain?” He is describing how rich black males are often stereotyped, and that its a “dream” of black males to own these things. “used to only be niggas, now everybody playin, spending everything on alexander wang” Kanye is describing how materialism has caused everybody to be a slave, and that it is no longer only the blacks. He explains that money is used to make people do what the “masters” want. People are influenced by others to buy all these expensive brands, and products of Alexander Wang, who’s products often cost a lot of money. Kanye even refers to the song Strange Fruit by Nina Simone when he says “I know that we the new slaves, I see the blood on the leaves”. Strange Fruit is a song about the lynching of black males, and how common and horrible it was in america. It relates to Kanye’s point as he suggests that he sees the blood money (leaves referring to money), and that the new slavery is materialism and consumerism.

 

Kanye West is a very controversial musician, and is not afraid to speak on what he believes. This is why I think that he was the perfect person to deliver a song like this, he does not care what the public will say, it is something he believes in. Unfortunately, many people view Kanye as a very delusional person, as he does suffer from the bipolar disorder. This means that people disregard his message, and just view it as another one of his “rants”.

 

 

 

 

1 Thought.

  1. Hi Mishka,
    This is a good choice for an exploration of language and identity. You have good analytical skills as you are able to interpret the text well, with frequent evidence from the song.
    Suggestions for improvement: Organise your response in more impactful paragraphs. You want to avoid a summary of the song, interspersed with analysis. Develop a clear thesis statement which responds to the words of the question; then each body paragraph needs a strong topic sentence that guides your selection of evidence and analysis.
    Also look at the larger picture: who is the intended audience of this song, evaluate if the singer meets with his purpose of raising awareness about global issues in this song. What poetic or literary devices is he using? You mention some (allusion to another song, for ex) but use the specific term allusion/intertextuality, for instance. Connect back to the singer’s use of language to evoke debates about racial and class identity.

    Useful resources:
    https://understandmedia.com/topics/media-theory/109-how-to-analyze-a-song

    https://g20languageandliterature.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/the-big-5-textual-analysis/

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