M15HKA wrote:_Hawk_ wrote: New Slaves and Blood on the Leaves especially cover some serious topics which hip hop has never really addressed.
Blood on the Leaves does not address shit, the sample may be to do with race relations but his writing clearly has nothing to do with the subject matter.
New Slaves although enjoyable is a walking contradiction and is littered with irony.
I don't mind Kanye, actually own most of his albums but Yeezus was horrible and I gave it enough listens to establish that. You would have thought with the 5+ writers assisting him and so many people assisting him with production he would put out something better than that trash.
Blood on the Leaves does have a meaning. It just isn't obvious.
The strange fruit samples highlights the atrocity of the race-relations during the civil rights era (obviously as an inheritance from the period of slavery) whilst kanye's lyrics offer a juxtaposition by targeting how pathetic our own "problems" of infidelity and the like are in comparison.
The whole album is a contradiction. Kanye knows how materialistic he is, which is why he adopts this Jesus persona to attack the system as the main cog in the wheel.
I am not trying to justify the album with artsy-bull shit, but certainly for these two tracks I enjoy them for their sound and appreciate their meaning.
Please bear in mind that music offers me so many different forms of enjoyment. I can enjoy a song literally for the sound, whilst at the same time I can love another track because I can connect with its meaning or artistic importance (like Kim)