Dissect - S2E10 – Devil in a New Dress by Kanye West

Episode Date: October 10, 2017

We continue our serialized analysis of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by dissecting "Devil In A New Dress." Follow Dissect on social media @dissectpodcast. Purchase Dissect merch at dissectpodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today, we continue our serialized examination of my beautiful dark-twisted fantasy by Kanye West. On our last episode, we dissected so appalled, a song that sees Connie and friends speaking on the ridiculousness of their lavish lives. We heard how at the heart of the women, money, and power they've accrued, there is a kind of emptiness, a sentiment accentuated by the somber, smoke-filled musical backdrop. As a result, Connie will begin searching for something more authentic on the album's next song,

and the subject of today's episode, Devil in a New Dress. Love it though, you know? Put your hands to the constellations. The way you look should be your sin, you my sensation. I know I'm preaching to... Devil in a New Dress is produced by Bink and Mike Dean. It's the only song on Twisted Fantasy that Connie doesn't have a producer credit on. Bink, whose real name is Roosevelt Harold III, is a great song.

Grammy Award-winning producer, best known for his work with the Rockefeller label. Bing produced three tracks on Jay-Z's classic The Blueprint, and it was during this time that Bink and Kanye's relationship began. In an interview with Vibe magazine, Bink said, quote, I was working on the Dynasty album when Kanye started coming around the Rockefeller studio. It's like we just had a mutual respect for each other. He used to come by my house and we would beat Spar, going head to head with new beats, unquote. When Bing caught wind of producers and musicians visiting Hawaii to work on Connie's twisted fantasy album. He gave Kanye a call and soon was on a flight to Hawaii. The first beat Bink played for Kanye was what would become Devil in a

New Dress. Bink said, quote, the reaction I got from Kanye after I played the beat for the first time was real intense. I mean, Ye just doesn't react to music if it's not genuine, unquote. Devil in a new dress makes heavy use of samples pulled from Smokey Robinson's Will You Love Me Tomorrow? Will You Love Me Tomorrow was originally written and performed by Carol King. Will you... Bing uses three samples from Robinson's version of Will You Love Me Tomorrow. The first appearing around the two minute mark, the second around the four minute mark, and the third around the four and a half minute mark.

These three sections are then spliced together, pitch one semitone up, and EQ to accentuate the sheeny high frequencies. When all is said and done, it sounds like this. An original drum pattern is laid beneath this sample loop. recreated here by Sanders a beat breakdown. The sample loop and drums are the tracks foundation provided by Bink. Multi-instrumentalist Mike Dean then adds a bass line and synthesized strings. All these original elements tastefully accent the musical material inherent in the samples.

Added together and we get Devil in a New Dress' Musical Foundation. Devil in a New Dress not only samples Will You Love Me Tomorrow. It takes cues from the song's thematic material as well. The lyrics of Will You Love Me Tomorrow tell a story of a woman questioning the love of a man we assume she's about to have sex with. Quote, Tonight your mind completely, you give your love so sweetly, Tonight the light of love is in your eyes, but will you love me tomorrow?

Is this a lasting treasure or a moment's pleasure? Can I believe the magic in your size? Will you love me tomorrow? Tonight with words unspoken, you said that I'm the only one, but will my heart be broken when the night meets the morning sun, unquote. The theme here is uncertainty, looking into the eyes of your lover and questioning their motives. Is it love or lust, authenticity or deception? Or as Kanye will later state, You love me for me, can you be more phony? Indeed, Connie will piggyback on the themes of

deception and uncertainty found in will you love me tomorrow, questioning if the girl he desires is just after his money. But before moving on to our lyrical analysis, I do want to point out devil in a new dress's harmonic structure, which accentuates this theme. of uncertainty. In Western Harmony, there are two main chord types that dominate our tonal system. Cords you hear in nearly every song you listen to every day. They're called major and minor chords. Both major and minor chords contain three notes, but their emotional qualities are drastically different. A major chord is typically considered a bright or happy-sounding chord, while a minor chord is typically considered a dark or sad chord. Devil in a new dress feature

two main chords, E major and D sharp minor. Let's hear these chords played on top of the song. These two chords oscillate endlessly throughout the entire song. Because they're weighted equally, meaning one chord is not accentuated more than the other, we have a sonic palette that is equally major and minor, bright and dark, happy and sad. We can hear this sonic palette as representative of the uncertainty and contrasting emotions about the girl Kanye desires on the track, as Kanye himself will oscillate between admiration and resentment. There is also talk of heaven and hell, Jesus and Satan, which of course is also represented by the

contrast of major and minor chords. And at the risk of going too far down the rabbit hole of tonal harmony, there is just one more thing I'd like to point out. Typically a song will be in a certain key signature. For example, we discussed the album's opening song Dark Fantasy being in the key of F major. This means that the song more or less revolves around the F major chord, otherwise known as the tonic or home chord. When you hear that home chord, it sounds stable, resolved, a place of comfort, like home. Let's hear Dark Fantasy's main chord progression, which begins and ends with our home chord F major.

That last chord you heard feels resolving, right? We'd be comfortable ending here. But what about those middle chords in between the F major that began and ended the progression? What if we were to end on one of those chords? This doesn't sound resolving, right? We wouldn't want it to end here. It feels incomplete. That's because our ears are trained to yearn for that home chord of our key signature,

in this case, F major. Ah, there we go. We found home, our F major chord. With this in mind, let's turn again to devil in a new dress. We've already established that the song revolves around two chords, E major and D sharp minor. The song itself, though, is in the key of G sharp minor.

But here's the thing. We never hear that G sharp minor chord. We never find resolution to our home chord. The song stays stuck in those middle chords, those chords of tension. If devil in a new dress were to resolve to a G sharp minor, it would sound something like this. But no, the song just endlessly alternates

between the E major and the D sharp minor, over and over and over again. This murky middle area of unresolved tension combined with the song's back and forth major and minor chord oscillation, creates an effect of uncertainty and unrelenting anxiety. We'll see this provides an accurate backdrop to the conflict anxiety-ridden couple that the song is centered around. This harmonic unease is adorned with lush, gorgeous arrangements and pitched up vocal samples that imbue the music with romance, wonder, and extravagance, adding even more complexity to the song's psychological effects.

As we'll see, Connie will call his girl his sensation, a hybrid of sin and sensation of good and evil. This harmonic juxtaposition is not unlike the album Twisted Fantasy itself, which is Kanye's anxieties, fears, and loneliness housed in a beautiful sonic architecture. It appears attractive at first glance, but spend any quality time there, and you quickly realize a charade of appearances, how the external adornments and lavishness mass the turmoil within. We think also of Twisted Fantasy's dedication to Michael Jackson, whose house was literally a theme park named Neverland, but whose main occupant, Jackson himself, was a prescription drug addict dealing with an enormous amount of anxiety and stress. We can also find this deceptive contrast contained in the Devil in the New Dress's song title. Something ugly, something devilish, housed in something fancy, something extravagant, something that fools or deceives us at first glance.

The song title is a playoff the 1995 film, Devil in a Blue Dress, a film noir murder mystery starring Denzel Washington and Don Chiedel. Film noir is a genre of cinema that typically centers around a detective who somehow gets involved with a dangerous woman, an archetype character known as Fem Fetal. Fem Fetal are typically very attractive and seductive women who ultimately bring disaster to the men who become involved with them. It's no mystery why Kanye punned devil in a blue dress for his own devil in a new dress. The song centers around a seductive woman who Kanye calls sensation, undoubtedly a nod to the Fem Fetal archetype. Saying new dress instead of blue dress

is a clever allusion to Connie's suspicion that she's only with him for his money. With all this in mind, let's dive into the song's lyrics, which begins with a brief introduction, followed by the song's hook. I love it, though. I love it, though, you know? Put your hands to the constellations. The way you look should be your sin. You my sensation.

I know I'm preaching to the congregation. We love Jesus, but you don't learn the life from saving. I mean, the nigger did a lot of waiting We ain't married, but tonight I need some consummation In the opening moments of the track, Kanye says, I love it, I love it though. You could simply be an ad lib knob to the song's production, something fairly common in hip-hop.

But using the word though means in spite of something else, which is of course unclear this early in the song. We might wonder if he's talking about the sin attributed to the woman he elaborates on in the song's hook, knowing well her deceitful ways, but strongly attracted to her anyways. The hook begins, Put Your Hands to the Constellations.

It's now the third consecutive song on the album in which the hook asks us to put our hands in the air. On Monster, Kanye says, I may need to see your hands at the concert. And so appalled, Swiss beat says, One hand in the air if you don't really care, two hands in the air if you don't really care. This subtle thread, when realized,

creates a through line that adds to the dreamlike logic that's being established in the fantasy portion of the album. the world we crossed into after the imagined suicide on power, and the funereal music of all the lights interlude. On devil in a new dress, putting your hands through the constellations plays out the religious overtones that are being established on the hook. Typically, people put their hands in the air at church and praise of God.

Here, Kanye is worshipping the godly woman he luss after. The line, The way you look should be a sin, You My Sensation, describes this woman, this devil in a new dress character, whose external appeal is so strong at masks the sin or wickedness within. Of course, the made-up word sensation is a play off the word sensation. Again, we find juxtaposition in a word like sin being injected into an otherwise positive word, sensation, itself a kind of representation of the devil in a new dress idea.

Connie continues, I know I'm preaching to the congregation. Connie here plays off the phrase preaching to the choir, which means to prove a point to a person that already agrees with that point. Congregation typically implies a group of people gathered for religious worship, which is affirmed by the use of we in the next line, we love Jesus, but you don't learn a lot from Satan. Again, we find dichotomy in contrast between Jesus and Satan, the major and minor chords of Catholicism. It's implied here that our sensational woman character has fallen from grace in some way, that her goodness, or Kanye's projection of her goodness, has been tainted by the sinful teachings of the devil.

cleverly, Kanye then waits two full measures, about six seconds, before delivering the next line, which is a line about waiting. He says, I mean an N-word did a lot of waiting, we ain't married, but tonight I need some consummation. The religious overtones continue here as Connie playfully asked for consummation, a word typically used for the first time a couple has sex after marriage. Of course, in traditional Catholic-based religions, a couple is required to wait to have sex until they're married, but Kanye suspects his six. sensation as some devil in her. Throughout the hook, Connie has heard chuckling as he delivers these lines, making all the theological vernacular feel tongue and cheek, not to be taken too

seriously. Rather, it comes off as clever, flirtatious banter he's having with the sensational character. This cute flirtation will decay as the song progresses until the two are no longer on speaking terms. The religious overtones continue as Connie performs verse 1. forgive us, may the gods be with us. In that magic hour, I seen good Christians make rash decisions. Oh, she do it. What happens to religion? Oh, she loses. She putting on a makeup. Verse one begins, may the Lord forgive us, may the gods be with us. In that magic hour, I seen good Christians make rash decisions. Oh, she do it. The quote unquote magic hour has two meanings, and Connie will use both meanings in his two verses. Here on verse one, it refers to the hour before last

call at a bar or nightclub. To quote Urban Dictionary, it's the time in which every person who has not yet hooked up and wishes to do so lowers their respective standards to whatever is available. There's the kind of loneliness and desperation inherit in this version of the magic hour, the kind of desperation that leads to sinful acts. For that reason, Connie prefaces his line about the rash decision he and the Christian's sensation are about to make with the lines, may the Lord forgive us, may the gods be with us. Connie continues saying, What happened to religion? Oh, she lose it. Implying that he and the woman had sex.

Which, if you'll remember, Kanye requested at the end of the opening hook. We're starting to piece together the origins of this relationship. With perhaps the two meeting at some kind of club or party, Connie lusting after her, and the two going home together. As the verse continues, we suddenly flash forward into the couple's demise. She's going to wake up and that love me no more. I thought I was the asshole. I guess it's weapon off.

Hood phenomenon. The Lebrana rhyme. Hard to be humble when you stunting on a jumble trine. I'm looking at her like, that's what you really want. Why we argue anyway. Oh, I forgot it's summertime. Put your hands to the constellations. The way you look should be a scene.

The lines, what happened to religion, Oshie Luz It, implied that the two had sex and thus sinned, which is then followed by a succession of lines that tell how quickly the the couple corroded. He says, she putting on her makeup, she casually allure. Text message breakups, the casualty of tour. How is she going to wake up and not love me no more? I thought I was the asshole. I guess it's rubbing off. There's a few ways we can read this passage. First, they can allude to a one-night stand while Kanye is on tour, with the two having sex as a result of the desperation inherit in the magic hour. The morning after, she casually puts on her makeup, which could imply a kind of emotional detachment from the situation,

while Connie looks on admiringly. Later, she texts him, breaking things off, leaving Connie confused and hurt. Another perhaps more fitting way of reading this passage is a kind of macro-impressionistic view that's not bound by traditional time and space. Instead, Connie tells a story about their mutual innocence lost by giving us small glimpses into their time together. Both Connie and the woman began with sincere intent that corroded over time. The line, How She Go and Wake Up and Not Love Me No More, is a clever reference to the song sampled on the beat, which if you remember is called Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.

Connie continues, Hood Phenomenon, the LeBron of Rime, hard to be humble when you stuntin on a drumotron. I'm looking at her like this is what you really wanted, huh? At the time of writing twisted fantasy, NBA star LeBron James had just left his hometown team The Cavaliers for the Miami Heat on national television. A few days later, LeBron infamously claimed he'd win up to seven championships with the heat. Those two events made LeBron a public villain overnight, similar to what the VMAs did to Kanye. The line, LeBron of Rime, hard to be humble when you stunt on a Jumbotron, undoubtedly finds Kanye acknowledging the parallels between their situations. It's also a clever display of lyrical talent, as he's able to mutate the words LeBron

and rhyme, so much that they actually rhyme with each other, LeBrona Rime. Connie uses the Jumbletron as symbolic of his fame, then asks the girl, this is what you really wanted, huh? Connie is confused or upset that the girl has left despite his celebrity status, as that's what she seemed attracted to initially. The verse ends with the line, why we argue anyway, oh, I forgot, it's summertime. Hot weather is notorious for escalating conflict, perhaps most tragically in Connie's hometown of Chicago, or gang violence skyrockets in the summer. Connie and the woman fight so often that he forgets why they're even arguing in the first place.

Of course, a telltale sign of a relationship gone off the rails. After repetition of the song's hook, verse 2 begins. But tonight it needs to consummation when the sun go down. It's the magic owl. And out of all the colors that are fill up the skies, you get green on your mind, I can see it in your eyes. Why you standing near with your face screwed up? Don't leave while you hot this half mace.

The opening shit around the whole place screwed up. Maybe I should call me so he could pray for us. The opening lines of verse 2 are a tragic juxtaposition of beautiful landscape filled with hostility and resentment. Kanye wraps, when the sun go down, it's the magic hour. And out of all the colors that fill up the sky, you got green on your mind. I can see it in your eyes. While the magic hour represented last call at the nightclub in verse 1,

here on verse 2 it represents the hour before sunfall, in which the sky fills with vivid colors and the air is textured with a dreamlike golden glow. But Connie and the woman are so far gone that they can't enjoy the beauty of the moment. Kanye looks into the woman's eyes, and rather than be taken by her beauty as the song began, he can now only see green, symbolic of her desiring Kanye for his money. Things deteriorate further as the verse continues, saying, Why you stand in there with your face screwed up. Don't leave while you're hot, that's how Mace screwed up.

Mace was a popular rapper in the 19th. who left music at the height of his fame to become a pastor. Connie uses double meaning with the phrase, leave while you're hot, as Mace left why it was a hot rapper, and the woman leaves while she's hot or pissed off. Connie continues this clever chain of lines with, throwing shit around the whole place screwed up,

maybe I should call Mace so he could pray for us. Of course, the latter line is extremely witty, as he brings back the Mace reference and alludes to his status as pastor, asking him to, quote, pray for us. Verse two concludes with more clever wordplay I hit the Jamaica spot at the bar Take a seat I ordered your jerks she said you are what you eat

You see I always love a sense of humor But tonight you should have seen how quiet the room Was the Leor Cone or Dior Ome That's Dior Ome that Dior homie The Cribs got face could it be more tony You love me for me could you be more phony Put your hands to the Kanye creates a mini-movie scene at a Jamaican restaurant, in which the woman puns the jerk-stake Kanye

orders by saying, you are what you eat. And while at one time in the relationship, Kanye loved her sense of humor, the joke is now rooted in too much truth and resentment. He says, I always love that sense of humor, but tonight you should have seen how quiet the room was. It's a striking expression of loneliness and that awkward, terrible feeling swallowing a slide jab from your lover because you're in a public space or among the room. company. Connie ends verse 2 with winding wordplay, saying, the Leor Cone of Dior Home, that's Dior Home, not

Dior Homi. Lior Cone is a music industry executive, prominent in hip-hop for over 30 years, and Dior Home is a French high-fashioned menswear retailer. Similar to his Louis Vuitton Donn moniker, Connie is aligning himself with two influential and talented brands. He cleverly says, not Dior Homi, which is a likely mispronunciation of the French word home, and eludes and alludes to Lear Cohn's work in hip-hop. Kanye then says, The Cribb's Scarface, could it be more Tony? This is a playoff the movie Scarface that stars Tony Montana,

a drug lord who lives in a gigantic two-story mansion. Tony is also a word that means, according to Webster's dictionary, marked by an aristocratic or high-tone manner or style, which is indicative of Kanye's lavish house, but also plays off the previous line about the high-fashioned brand, Dear Home. The Scarface reference gains complexity when we think of the life of Tony Montana, whose mansion looks great at a distance,

but inside lives a neurotic, troubled man who is assassinated in his own home. It's another representation of the devil in a new dressed dichotomy, external appearance masking the internal chaos within. Finally, verse 2 ends with the line, You love me for me, could you be more phony? This line, of course, sums up Connie's feelings about the girl's feelings for him. It's his money, his fame, his success that she loves, not him. This line leads directly into a repetition but slightly altered version of the song's hook.

Connie plays off the song's sample in which Smokey Robinson says with words unspoken and sings, You haven't said a word to me this evening. Kat got your tongue? Connie is now taunting the woman after he calls her out for being phony. to which she apparently has no response. It's the last thing we'll hear from Kanye on the track, and we can perhaps view the silence as the dead end of their failing relationship. What seemed to begin as pure, sincere, mutual attraction is now a toxic, unraveled mess. This thematic dissolution is followed by a musical dissolution,

as an instrumental bridge strips the song of its foundation, and introduces a piano and solo electric guitar, both played by Mike Dean. While new instruments are introduced in this breakdown, no actual new parts are played. Rather, existing parts, parts we've been hearing throughout the song thus far, are re-orchestrated, that is, played on different instruments, which of course changed their emotional quality. The main instrument here is the piano, which plays the two chords we discussed at the top of the show, E major and D-sharp minor, while also taking over the main descending riff previously played by synthesized strings. An electric guitar also enters and mimics the bass line we've heard throughout the track.

After two repetitions of this, we get a big wind-up in the bass hand of the piano. This wind-up acts as a red carpet for the second electric guitar that begins the expressive, heart-wrenching solo, also played by Mike Dean. There's nothing I can really say about this solo, aside from the obvious, it's gorgeous. And following the disastrous relationship outline in the verses, its emotional quality is one of tragic beauty. If you're able to now, I suggest closing your eyes as you listen to this passage and really try to live in its beauty for the next minute, as it's one of the most moving moments on

the entire album. Pretty powerful stuff, right? Directly following this solo, a new character is introduced, rapper Rick Ross, who himself delivers an impressive powerful verse. It was actually a verse that almost never was. As the story goes, Connie called Ross the day before his album was due to his record company and requested a verse. told MTV, quote, I got a call, they wanted me to be a part of that record. It was actually the last

day before Kanye had to turn in the record, and I think that pressure just made it that much more special to me. So I just sat there, approached the record openly as straightforward as I could. When I laid the verse 30 minutes later, I was extremely happy. I sent it to him, and he was too, unquote. Indeed, Ross lays a phenomenal verse on devil in a new dress, his bare tone gravel in a wet sock of a voice, and a sharp, witty wordplay, elevating the song's dynamic range of sonic layers to even greater heights. And not to discredit Ross's performance whatsoever, but I believe the impact of his verse has just as much to do with the musical landscape he was provided, as it does with his actual performance. That's because the guitar solo that comes before his entrance is one big, beautiful build, a red carpet rollout that any MC would kill for. The guitar solo began with that breakdown, an introduction of the piano we heard, and with each measure an additional.

instruments are added back in. When it finally reaches Ross, the song peaks dynamically with its unexpected entrance, the piano chords slamming beneath him, the last burning embers of the guitar solo still resonating on our emotional oral palette. Let's have a listen, paying close attention to this dynamic build and the payoff of Ross's entrance. up his own cherry red chariot excess is just my character all black tucks nigger shoes lavender i never needed acceptance from all you outsiders hair cyphers we easy before it's mouth-wired before it's jaw shattered climbing up the lord's ladder we still speeding running signs like they don't matter ross enters with a series of witty lines saying look at my bitch i bet you give your ass a bone look at my wrist it'll turn your ass to stone ross's wordplay centers around a dog bone, the bitch or female dog he refers to being his woman, his sensation,

who's so beautiful that her appearance alone apparently gives us male listeners boneers. He follows with a line about looking at his watch turning people to stone, which is a clever play on his Versace watch, whose logo is the head of Medusa. Medusa is the Greek mythology monster with snakes for hair. If you look at her, you turn to stone. Ross continues, stretched limousine, sipping rosé all alone. Of course, rosé is a type of wine, and it seems Ross is sipping on it while riding in his limousine all alone. But we also have a double entendre here, as rosé is also Ross's nickname, and his sensation is now, quote, sipping rosé if you catch his drift. This innuendo continues with the line, double-headed monster with a mind of its own,

alluding again to Ross's junk, but also continuing the Greek mythology themes, as Ortherist was a two-headed guard dog, tying back into Ross's opening bitch-slash-dog bone line. Ross's verse concludes with a series of thematically poignant introspective lines. I shed a tear before the night's over. God bless the man I put the size over. Getting two-pop money twice over. Still a real nigger red coogee sweater dice roller.

I'm making love to the angel of death. Catch your feelings never stumble, retracing my steps. Ross says, getting Tupac money twice over, still a real N-word, red kugi sweater dice roller. Here, Ross is claiming authenticity despite his success, as he brings in more money than Tupac. He also alludes to notorious B.I.G. with the red kooky sweater, as Biggie was known to wear that brand.

Of course, Tupac and Biggie are often mentioned together, as there are two of the greatest rappers who are also murdered around the same time. This sets up the next line, I'm making love to the Angel of Death, which alludes to his risky rapper lifestyle, but also brings full circle the notion of the devil in a new dress, the sensation, the juxtaposition of good and evil the entire song is built upon. Ross's powerful conclusion is immediately followed by a continuation of the guitar solo we heard in the bridge. This seamless transition from solo to Ross to solo, while the musical material behind them

remains dynamically elevated, creates a stunning, and prolonged climax. It's the reason this six-minute song doesn't feel like six minutes. Its dynamics are carefully calculated. The entire song itself, a continual build. Let's listen to this outro together all the way until the end, because the ending is perhaps the most brilliant stroke of the entire song. Does that ending sound resolved to you? Not really, right? It just kind of ends abruptly. We've got this big ascending piano riff, and then, nothing. It's a fitting end to a song that essentially exists entirely in a tonal gray area.

As you remember, at the top of the show, I pointed out how the song's harmonic structure takes place in this weird, unresolved middle area, how it endlessly alternates between E major and D-sharp minor. No sign of the home chord or resolution in the entire piece. The song's ending is no different. Instead of resolution, we get tension without payoff, we get silence, a fitting metaphor for Connie's final words on the track, she hasn't said a word to me this evening, Cat Got Your Tongue. But what happens when we consider the album's next song, Runaway? What if I told

you Devil in a New Dress was one big build-up for the song Runaway? What if I told you, Runaway is the resolution we've been searching for throughout Devil in a New Dress? Let's hear the ending of Devil, followed by the introduction of Runaway. The opening note of Runaway is an E. It's the root note of that E major chord prominently featured on devil in a new dress. But we're on devil, that ascending piano riff leads into an E major chord. On Runaway, it's stripped of everything but the root note, E, pitched up two octaves. Harmonically speaking, that transition is smooth and connected. On Runaway's introduction, that high E is singled out and repeats over and over again, refreshing our tonal palette, yet still

acting as a bridge between Runaway and Devil in a new dress. By the time we hear the rest of Runaway's descending piano line, we don't know quite where we are harmonically. Resolution finally comes with the introduction of the drums and bass. And it's here that we finally get resolution. Runaway snaps in harmonically to the key of E major proper, the key signature that Devil in a New Dress was searching for, that it desperately yearned to be the entire song but could never find. Runaway is Devil in a New Dress's resolution.

Devil in a new dress is one big build up to Runaway. The two are inexorably linked. This is next level stuff, guys. And this theory not only works tonally, it works even better thematically. As we heard, devil in a new dress finds Connie resentful and confused about the woman's sudden disinterest in him. But there's a key line that I believe reveals and foreshadow something critical. I thought I was the asshole.

I guess it's rubbing off. In the opening of verse 1, Kanye says, What happened to religion? Oh, she lose it. which implies she was at one point more pure. We might speculate she was more pure before Kanye, and that as bad influence of ego and celebrity lifestyle, as expressed in the previous song so appalled,

has rubbed off on his sensation. Indeed, in runaway, Kanye will admit, quote, and I just blame everything on you. At least you know that's what I'm good at. Devil in a new dress could be viewed as just that, a display of Connie's virtuastic projection of blame, faulting the woman and the woman alone for the dissolution of their relationship.

Throughout the entire track, there's nary a hint of self-examination. It's a one-sided, an incomplete analysis of their decay, which is why it makes sense that the song is unresolved and incomplete harmonically speaking. Indeed, Kanye is attracted sexually to a woman, lusty perhaps mistaken's for love, and is baffled to why the woman would leave him, why she would run away. Well, all of that changes when Kanye finally for the first time on the album,

really looks himself in the mirror on Runaway, The stripped down naked piano note, a fitting total representation of the deeply introspective, brutally deconstructive self-examination that's to follow. Runaway is a cathartic expression of self-doubt, loneliness, desperation, alienation, and insecurity, which will unpack an incredible detail. Next time on Dysect. Dysect is written and produced by me. Theme music by B-Rocratic.

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