Listen to Ye.
Perhaps the ego within Kanye recently discovered that ‘ye’ is the most used word in the bible and interpreted the meaning as it explicitly defining himself. Or, Mr. West has a public service announcement for the audience to start listening and empowering themselves just as he unapologetically shouts to the heaven’s gates for deliverance on Yeezus.
In this case, Kanye made a forcible entry by grabbing the attention of the people with his face projected on apartment blocks to corporate buildings around the country like a drive-in theater revealing a new song titled New Slaves. The rollout for this song was audacious and aggressive, yet introspective and self-aware of the deranged relationship between consumers and capitalists.
The abrasiveness and rebellious antics leak through the translucent album cover just as veins pop from ones’ neck during a one-on-one altercation. But, the album cover lacked a visual, which was an omitted big “F—k you to the industry,” or I’m just going to take my ball and go home. The frustration hits the eardrums of the first track, On Sight, when Kanye arrogantly alerts, “Yeezy season approachin’. F—k whatever y’all been hearin’. F—k what, f—k whatever y’all been wearin’. A monster about to come alive again.
Unintentionally, fans of artists have used the helium balloon effect to have tangible control over their beloved artists' career and artistry. Unabashedly, Kanye makes it known that he is not a byproduct of his curated audience when he condescendingly used a Holy Name of Mary Choral Family sample harmonizing, “Oh, he’ll give us what we need. It may not be what we want.”
Well, the production of the record posed as a three-year-old temper tantrum with a blend of house, funk, electro, and techno, which was heavily sampled and synthesized from artists like Daft Punk on On Sight and Nina Simone on Blood on the Leaves. To show Kanye’s stubbornness and ambition, Ye explains to Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1:
“Originally “Blood on the Leaves” was supposed
to be first, which psychologically I know would have
changed certain Yeezus naysayers about the album.
But it wasn’t that time for it. . . I wanted to take
a more aggressive approach.”
Ye’s statements and outbursts in the Sway in the Morning and Breakfast Club interviews can go without being said that everything is not all good.
Ye’s concerns fall under being marginalized from a specific group. Yet, profiting off of his talents and celebrity. The ambiance of Black Power circumvented around the bitterness of Kanye to stand up for industry integration while the fashion industry treats hip hop artists as slaves and not cultural tastemakers. Ye expounds on his Black Power uprise in Black Skinhead.
“Stop all that coon shit. Early morning cartoon shit. This is that goon shit.
F—k up your whole afternoon shit. I'm aware I'm a wolf. Soon as the moon hit.
I'm aware I'm a king. Back out the tomb, b—h ,” said Kanye.
The next record I Am a God, shed the skin of his braggadocios yet gloating persona into a blasphemous mockingbird.
How does Ye’ intentionally diss a major fashion designer, Hedi Slimane, to God getting caught in the line of fire?
Well, according to a Kanye interview in W magazine, he was invited to go to Paris Fashion Week in 2012 under the conditions of not attending other shows. So, he wanted to extract a feeling of superiority when he said, “Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go. . . it’s just ludicrous and blasphemous to rock’n roll, and music.”
The I Am a God track is minimal yet alarming, leaving his listeners to be more drawn in on the power-hungry self-centeredness of Ye’s words when he proclaims and commands, “ I am a god. Hurry up with my damn massage. Hurry up with my damn ménage. Get the Porshe out the damn garage.”
In Kanye’s mind, If creatives are the slaves and corporations are the overseers, then Ye’ is Nat Turner spearheading a revolution for artists and the people not to take what is given, but to proudly proclaim who they are and take back what is rightfully theirs’.
The New Slaves record may refer to creatives suppressed by corporate power. Or, how the human population is manipulated and fixated on prized possessions to overcompensate in value, they don’t find in themselves because of patronizing corporations that feed off of the buying power of Blacks.
Well, Andrew McCaskill, Global Communications and Multicultural Marketing for Nielsen, reported that with 43 percent of 75 million Millenials that are African American or person of color, there are millions or billions of dollars at stake if companies do not have a multicultural strategy. Not expanding the interest in the Black dollar can result in brands to undergo a decline in revenue.
A Genius contributor, SamThereforeIAm, plainly explains that even in the quest from rags to riches, 'moving iron chains to gold chains, slavery is still very much slavery.' The only difference is the physical aspect of slavery from being whipped and chained only evolved into mental abuse through the Jim Crow Era and later transitioned into systemic racism in the twenty-first century.
For Mr. West to acknowledge that people need saving from the modernized slavery tactics of Capital America, but mocks the one biblical figure that is known within the Christian bible, that is this world’s one-way ticket for salvation is sacrilegious.
Well, it seemed as if Kanye made an impulsive choice to sacrifice his relationship with God by proclaiming he is Yeezus to prove he can be in the same spaces of superiors or gatekeepers.
The Blood on The Leaves record implies the end to a contractual relationship, whether that be with music, his recent Nike collaboration deal, or with God.
“Would be lost without me. We could've been somebody. Thought you'd be different 'bout it. Now I know you, not it. So let's get on with it,” said Kanye.
With Kanye ambitiously spearheading a cultural movement to end modern-day slavery as the self-proclaimed Yeezus, does the narrative of consumers versus capitalists’ transition to a theme of idol worship?
Kanye West at Madison Square Garden on November 24, 2014.