Written Task 1
Rough Draft
Zena Agabani
Sunday October 19th 2014
Rationale. This
integrative approach of interview writing shall attempt to investigate how the
musician, Kanye West, represents a certain type of ethnicity, culture and
identity, particularly in the song, “New Slaves”, thus affecting his language used
and intended purpose in the song. West has always been the subject of ridicule, from low tabloids
to high culture publications. He has watched his public persona become slimmer
and slimmer; from the man who interrupts people on TV to the man who abuses the
paparazzi. What has realized though is that there is a clear message and
intended purpose that West is trying to convey to his target audience; this interview
shall attempt to get an insight of what that is and display how he was
influenced to create this message. I have chosen to take the integrative
response of interview writing, as I believe it will present these concepts and
depict the personal understanding of my chosen topic, Kanye West, in the
clearest way possible. My intended purpose for my response is to show the
significance and dominance of the different types of ethnicities, cultures and
identities in our lives and how they can affect our use of language and
actions. From this, it could be stated that the target audience of the
interview is possibly fans of Kanye West that would be interested in reading
one of his interviews in websites like Rolling stones or GQ.
Kanye West Talks “New Slaves”
Zena
Agabani
As I
flew over to New York City to interview the famous rapper, Kanye West, I did
not know what to expect. It was never certain how the highly publicized star
would react to certain situations, as seen before. As I walked into the lobby
of New York’s Mercer hotel, the same hotel where him and Jay-Z recorded their Watch the Throne album, I could see him
waiting in the lobby. “I hope we don’t get caught by any paparazzi today, I’m
still being criticized for those leather jogging pants. Did you ever see anyone
that wears leather jogging pants?” he said to me as I nervously tried to agree,
having no actual direct experience with paparazzi themselves.
West
has recently kicked off the public’s weekend with the debut of his new song,
“New Slaves” from his soon-to-release album, Yeezus. Instead of posting it on the internet, “New Slaves” was
premiered out into the physical universe; setting up sites and projecting
visuals in 66 world wide locations of choice. What interested me more though,
was how he reached to this certain status.
Firstly,
West started looking back, from childhood to the first events in his music
career. “I couldn’t have gotten to this
point of success in my career without my past. My background was really a
learning experience for me and it gave me the strength and inspiration to
become the powerful and influential person I am today.”
As he
continued to recall distinct memories, it struck me that West conveyed a
certain type of background and is recognizable to be parallel with the choice
of content in his music. “I was raised
in Chicago’s south side by my mother and visited my father every summer. ”
After bragging about his exceptional school performance and dominant role in
his hometown’s rap community, it was now clear to me of the different
relational and interactional identities that West carried with him throughout
his life.
I then
decided to ask him to particularly discuss his song, “New Slaves.” Aside from the
self-admiration and congratulatory finish, West’s intended message in his music
is not commonly acknowledged. “Generally, my purpose of this song was to
create the modern argument that the whips and chains used in our past has just
been transformed into material possessions today to keep black people in a
community of modern slavery. “
With the increasing amount of language and imagery associated
with the both past and present western realities, it is obvious that Kanye West
is trying to convey a message in his song; “New Slaves.” West’s lyrical range
from past song references, to issues regarding prison industrial complexes,
clarifies the diverse cultural awareness he carried. “I decided to reference Billy holiday’s term,
“Blood on the leaves” from his song Strange
Fruit to equalize the rampant custom of lynching. Lynching was an informal group execution that was performed in the south and I compared it to the
impurity of the money, our modern-day leaves, used in our communities these
days. I also included some other concepts like the concept of Chiraq; comparing
the ethnic violence and discrimination in my home town Chicago, to the problems in Iraq.”
What also interested me in the song was the thought of type of language
West used while producing the song. What made me also curious was how this type
of language connected with his identity and everyday life. West was highly
associated with the black community; his grandparents and father were once members
of the black panthers. “I identified myself with the black community in two
ways; I learnt a wide range of historical terminology from my family as they
were civil rights activists and associated with the local rap community to learn how to get my feelings and perceptions across. From this, it was easy for me to draw distinctions between past and present realities ” After describing this, I truly saw the influence his community had on his use of language.
The combination of the complex descriptive concepts with the African American
vernacular English that West had been familiar with, created a certain type of
authenticity for the artist and a form of art that the majority of his listeners
could relate to.
Finally, I asked him what he wanted his listeners to achieve
by listening to his expressed emotions and perceptions in the song.
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Work Cited
