TY - JOUR
T1 - Pessimistic themes in Kanye West's necrophobic aesthetic
T2 - Moving beyond subjects of perfection to understand the new slave as a paradigm of anti-black violence
AU - Curry, Tommy J.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - The release of Kanye West’s Yeezus was indelibly marked by the provocation of his hit song entitled “New Slaves,” which introduced a pessimistic terminology to capture the paradoxical condition whereby Black freedom from enslavement only resulted in the capturing of Black people psychically in the neo-liberal entanglements of poverty, servitude, and corporatism. His analysis, not unlike currently en vogue theories of Afro-pessimism or Critical Race Theory’s (racial) realist lens, maintains that despite all the rhetoric and symbols of progress to the contrary, Black people are simply not free in America. West’s performance of “New Slaves” on Saturday Night Live was only amplified by the “Not For Sale” insignia projected behind him.1 West’s “Not For Sale” insignia was a symbol of independence, as well as a public declaration of his anti-corporatism.
AB - The release of Kanye West’s Yeezus was indelibly marked by the provocation of his hit song entitled “New Slaves,” which introduced a pessimistic terminology to capture the paradoxical condition whereby Black freedom from enslavement only resulted in the capturing of Black people psychically in the neo-liberal entanglements of poverty, servitude, and corporatism. His analysis, not unlike currently en vogue theories of Afro-pessimism or Critical Race Theory’s (racial) realist lens, maintains that despite all the rhetoric and symbols of progress to the contrary, Black people are simply not free in America. West’s performance of “New Slaves” on Saturday Night Live was only amplified by the “Not For Sale” insignia projected behind him.1 West’s “Not For Sale” insignia was a symbol of independence, as well as a public declaration of his anti-corporatism.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84907585428&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1353/plu.2014.0026
DO - 10.1353/plu.2014.0026
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84907585428
SN - 1930-7365
VL - 9
SP - 18
EP - 37
JO - The Pluralist
JF - The Pluralist
IS - 3
ER -