A Continuation of New Slaves Discussion

During my poetry discussion on New Slaves, there were some topics that I was not able to cover in the allotted time. In this blog post, I will try to discuss ideas that we were not able to discuss in class.

(Sorry 4th period if this does not make total sense to you guys.)


So as we discussed in class, Kanye West's New Slaves is basically about slavery and how slavery is somewhat being incorporated into our modern society. We uncovered this slavery in a literal sense when we discussed Kanye's opinion on private prisons. We saw that these giant white corporations are taking advantage of colored people who have been locked away for non-violent drug crimes. The private white corporations are making money by taking in these prisoners and having them labor and if these prisoners do not do the work that the white people tell them to do then they are put into isolation. Personally, I am against this kind of isolation. The officers of the prison are breaking these blacks by putting them through this isolated torture. They are breaking the prisoners so they would not rebel and act out against them. This is kinda like slavery in itself, except the torture being used is not whips and chains. The torture is isolation.

But are these white corporations enslaving us, all of us?

Kanye tackles this question in his first verse of New Slaves.

Kanye says:

What you want, a Bentley? Fur coat? A diamond chain?

All you blacks want all the same things"

Used to only be n***** now everybody playing

Spending everything on Alexander Wang

New Slaves

In this section, Kanye says that all black people want the same things: a Bentley, a fur coat, and a diamond chain. These items are stereotypically desired in black culture. Many successful black artists, even Kanye himself, have been seen coming out of an expensive car with an expensive jacket and an expensive chain. Everything is expensive and that is what black people stereotypically desire. But Kanye says that all people are not slaves because all people want these expensive, materialistic items and these big white corporations that have a monopoly on their products are pushing their items out. So these corporations are like the "masters" and they are basically just taking our money and benefitting from us. They are doing this because all of us want to buy these nice material things that we don't necessarily need. It is just giving profits to these slavemasters, ummm I mean company owners, and us mindless consumers are left with an object who's only use is to make us look like we are better off than we truly are. These corporations are enslaving us, not just blacks, by having us be pressured into buying their materialistic products because of society.

But I digress, Kanye is a prime example of a political rapper. And New Slaves is what political rap is all about. Kanye is able to speak his mind on topics that affect him personally. He is being a dick, not a swallower.