So, last night, I tuned in to Saturday Night Live to peep Kanye West perform. ‘Ye is a lot of things, but uninteresting he is not. Since he loves to be that controversial person out there, lets dive right into a discussion on this new song. He had me from the first line, especially on a personal level. I can say the same. Deepness. As one can surmise from the lyrics of the song, which you can view over at Rap Genius, it appears that he is talking about the prison industrial complex. Michael Moore on his timeline yesterday mentioned that CCA stands for the Correction Corporation Of America.
Kanye is not one to shy away from social messages, and that is a great thing. We need more artists like him in the game. However, it is still important to spring forth from the conversation something in the way of a coherent analysis. The movement against mass incarceration is ever growing, and it needs as many allies as it can get. However, by comparing it to slavery, are we trivializing our own history in the process? Since Kanye obviously wrote this for us to talk about, lets get it things going.
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The prison industrial complex is literally an extension of the system of enslavement in this country. The by product came via Black codes then the over utilization of prisons. We don’t trivialize the enslavement of African people in the United States mainly because we are the community affected most by the trappings of the criminal justice system. Although Kanye is “a lot of things” Kanye does find ways to weave social commentary in his music and coupled with his obvious musical genius, he remains relevant musically!
Thanx for posting…