Or as he more or less presents it, such practices are a crutch that Black people use to mask more serious issues. Meanwhile, no matter what it is that they may waste their money on, their oppressor, “the Whiteman”, still benefits monetarily, being behind it all, so to speak.īut going back to Yeezy’s tendency to keep it real, he concludes this final verse by admitting that, in terms of lusting after material items, he’s no different from the next Blackman. And the vocalist once again attributes this reality to a ‘self-consciousness’ shared amongst his people. The third verse then continues with Yeezus speaking to how materialism relates to African-American culture. Kanye then goes on to infer that the materialistic nature of African-American culture is actually an indirect result of the institutionalized racism that group continually endures. But another way of looking at his assertion that “ we shine because they hate us, floss because they degrade us”, taking the bars that proceed it into consideration, is that he’s rather referring to celebrities and showy rich people in general, implying that they splurge to counteract negative criticism, which is kinda in line with the self-esteem theory as put earlier.Įither way, West does close out the verse but noting how even if a Blackman does make it, he’s still perceived as a lesser citizen in the eyes of American society. Accordingly, the vocalist commences the passage by noting that he too has a dependency on sporting pricey items. However, he gets more macrocosmic and even psychological this time around, noting for instance that such a dependency, amongst himself and others, is actually indicative of low self-esteem. Verse 2īut Yeezus isn’t the type to go around criticizing other people while letting himself off the hook. As such he is the primary subject of the second verse.
in more interested in buying sh*t, like cars and expensive sneakers. So on the first verse, with this track being on a college-themed album and all, the subject is a student in one of such institutions. She is depicted as someone who is not really interested in schooling but is doing so due to pressure from her parents and expectations of the society at large.Īnd even though Kanye isn’t necessarily known as being an advocate of higher education, what he appears to be saying here is that homegirl, who is obviously Black, is disinterested in learning as a result of being “addicted to retail”, i.e. And to illustrate this point, the three verses focus, to varying degrees, on different subjects. Also, just to let the cat out of the bag a bit early, the vain pursuit which Kanye is harping on particularly is materialism, and his focus is most specifically on his people, African-Americans.
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