Kanye West - Black Skinhead

                It has been a while since I posted about a new music video, but maybe that is because it is not every day that Kanye releases the video for “Black Skinhead.” Kanye, we love him, we hate him, we love to hate him. Whether I like what he is releasing at the moment or not, he is one of the artists that I follow, watching and listening to everything he puts out. At his best, Kanye is able to capture the cultural moment and return it to the audience with profound insight; I think of the lyrics in “Who Will Survive in America” and its critique of American capitalism and ideology. At his worst, Kanye is an egotistical womanizing maniac; “Monster” comes to mind as one of his more excessively graphic. However, the tension between these two aspects of Knaye’s work makes it all the more intriguing and uncertain of where he will go next.

                Kanye’s latest album Yeezus continues his political/personal/religious/ego-driven narrative of his work. A review of the album I read early on said it was probably his most self-absorbed album to date, more clearly mirroring 808’s and Heartbreaks than his early work or My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and I would agree. Yeezus lacks some of the communal rage and dissent that is evident in his early albums, yet there is still the unsettling part of rap that is maintained. The part the disrupts the blasé life of the listener, or creates an intense affinity with those in similar situations. In Kanye’s ability to maintain the unsettling nature of rap, one can see the anger taking an existential turn as Kanye explores the angst within him. I think this turn is evident in “Black Skinhead.”

                I think the video for “Black Skinhead,” more clearly than the song itself, reveals the prayerful nature of the song. Kanye utilises Ku Klux Klan imagery, something that is not new in his work notably in “Jesus Walks” (white) and his video epic “Runaway” (red) after the eight-minute mark, representing racism and the cult of celebrity respectively. However, in “Black Skinhead” the imagery is turned onto himself (black). I think this turn is a realizing of the internal angst and uncertainty that gives rise to the violence. The drive to fight the racism and the conflicting draw-and-resistance to the cult of celebrity are depicted as causing a whelming up of internal angst that desires to explode.

                The video builds throughout, and I think it is intended to be an uncomfortable experience. The CGI humans, the dogs, and the frenetic splicing of the video disrupts and jars. It unveils an internal angst/anxiety/rage. In the build up of this rage, we become the one we hate, and then the video ends with what I think are explicit religious images. Imagery of the sacrifice of self, followed by an eleven-fold refrain of “God.” As such, it turns the rage into an angry lament, revealing the prayerful nature of the piece. This ending, for me, changed the song into one of Kanye’s masterpieces that captures, depicts, and comments on a stream of contemporary culture that eludes us, which he can help us understand.

                I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.