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New Slaves By Kanye West: Song Analysis

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In “New Slaves,” Kanye West describes his lyrics from referencing his mom's experiences growing up in the era of segregation in the fifties when there were separate water fountains for white people and African Americans. Kanye then talks about being broke and not able to touch anything in the store as he was stereotyped as a black man who probably just wanted to steal something. The song title comes from the lyric. "They tryna lock niggas up, they tryna make new slaves.” That's that privately owned prisons, get your piece today." West blasts the disproportionate number of blacks in prison on drug charges. According to the rapper, this is an institutional racism as the drug enforcement agency has teamed up with the CCA (a company that owns and manages prisons) in order to supply the jails with prisoners. By making laws that affect the drugs that the African Americans favor stiffer, more of them will go and stay in …show more content…

Once all this appears, West refers to the lyrics “the blood on the leaves” meaning lynching of black Americans and selling them out. The CCA and the DEA are trying to lock up black people, leaving racist intentionality aside, is supported by troubling statistics. While the entire U.S. population is only 13.6 percent black, 40 percent of its vast prison population (over 2.5 million) is black. In 2010, black males were incarcerated at the rate of 4,347 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents of the same race and gender, compared to 678 inmates per 100,000 for white males. The disparities are striking, especially when the majority of those held in U.S. prisons are guilty of minor drug offenses. This brings us to Kanye’s reference to the DEA. “Meanwhile the DEA Teamed up with the CCA They tryn’a lock niggas up They tryn’a make new slaves See that’s that private owned prison Get your piece

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