Kanye West performing Black Skinhead (Live on SNL) @ NBC studios. Distributed by Broadway Video Enterprises. Under License To The Island Def Jam Music Group. It sounds amazing!
Kanye West has never been afraid of politics. This is, after all, the man who said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” during a live telethon after Hurricane Katrina.
Still, his recent appearance on Saturday Night Live saw him take his political game to the next level. A quick recap: Kanye, framed tightly on a dark stage, performed intense versions of two new songs, “New Slaves” and “Black Skinhead,” while images of snapping dogs and the Ku Klux Klan flashed behind him (watch the video below, NSFW language).
So what was Kanye West singing about? (Besides, oddly enough, an out-of-nowhere reference to Bobby Boucher, Adam Sandler’s character in The Waterboy).
He commits a decent amount of time on “New Slaves” to talking about the U.S.’s burgeoning private prison system. The lines: “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 today.”
