Dissect - S2E12 – Runaway by Kanye West (Part 2)

Episode Date: October 24, 2017

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

Hey everyone. Just a heads up, today's episode is part two of our double episode on Runaway by Kanye West. If you haven't heard part one, you'll want to give that one a listen first. Also, just a reminder that dissect Season 2 apparel is now available for pre-order. I teamed with the Sustainable Streetwear Company Rocky Clark Clothing to create a long-sleevee tea and dad hat with graphics inspired by my beautiful dark twisted fantasy. What's more is that we're donating 100% of the proceeds made from this apparel to charity. The deadline to order is no November 17th, which isn't too far away, so be sure to head to rocky clarkclothing.com to check it out. That's rocky clarkclothing.com.

I also have links on my social media at Dysect Podcast if that's easier. Okay, thanks for your time. Enjoy today's show. Welcome to Dysect, long form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. Today we continue our serialized examination of my beautiful, dark twisted fantasy by Kanye West. On our last episode, we dissected the first half of Twisted Fantasy's emotional centerpiece runaway.

We heard Kanye led his guard down to deliver the most self-effacing sentiments on the album thus far. He commemorates his flaws with a toast, an anthem for the innate human imperfections were all born with. When our last episode ended, we just approached the introduction of a new character in the form of a guest verse by Pusha T. As mentioned on our so appalled episode, the Twisted Fantasy sessions were the first time Connie and Pusha Tee worked together. Puscha was only supposed to stay for a weekend,

but ended up staying a month and left signed in Kanye's label Good Music. Connie specifically told Pusha T he wanted him to write his verse from the perspective of the asshole. He told Complex Magazine, quote, I wrote the runaway verse four times, and what Connie doesn't know to this day

is that I was going through a relationship scandal in my life. So this man is asking me to write a song about a relationship, and to say that I'm the biggest douchebag ever, He's telling me, yo, you need to be more douchebag. We need more douchebag. I didn't want to say to him, dog, I don't even have any douchebag in me right now. I've been jammed up, and it's hard for me to even tap into that part because I'm remorseful.

And he's fucking beating me for more. All I hear in my head is, more douchebag, more douchebag. Finally, after a couple of days, I said, I'm going to go upstairs and get in total solitude and just do what I need to do, unquote. And so with all this in mind, let's dive into Push a T's verse. Push away as fast as you can. identifying the douchebag role with his opening line 24-7-365, Pussy stays on my mind. It's extremely crude, its explicit effect heightened by the juxtaposition of his aggressive tone and the melancholic musical material behind him.

It also calls to mind Kanye's opening line about sending a dick pick. But where Connie turned introspective, blaming himself, Pusha will take the asshole route, taunting his lover to leave, daring her to start a new life without him. He says, I did it, all right, I admit it. Now pick your next move, you can leave or live with it. Whatever indiscretion he committed is left vague, but we might assume he cheated, or perhaps he's piggybacking on Kanye's dick-pick line.

Next comes the line Iqabod Crane with that motherfucking top-off. This is a reference to the legend of Sleepy Hollow, the same story we heard reference in the album's opening track, Dark Fantasy. Iqabod Crane was a protagonist in the story, who on a horse ride home after being heartbroken by a girl at a party, encounters a headless horseman. The headless horseman chases after Iqabod, ultimately throwing his own severed head at Iqabod, who is never to be seen again. Pusha plays off the story, perhaps alluding to a topless convertible he drives.

But knowing the story of Sleepy Hollow, we can derive some parallels between it and Push's story. He tells the heartbroken girl to leave, just like the heartbroken Iqabod does after the party. Pusha might be referring to himself as a headless horseman, who sadistically chases or taunts the girl. Push's next line is Split and Go Ware, which may refer to throwing his own severed head, which in the Sleepy Hollow story hits Iqabod in the school, perhaps leaving it split. Might be a reach, but there's definitely some interesting albeit speculative parallels. After saying split and go where, Pusha says, Back to wearing knockoffs, ha ha, knock it off, Neiman's shop it off.

It's again more douchebag, as Push shunliates his woman by making fun of her lack of money without him. She'd apparently grown accustomed to design her clothes, and without Push, she'd be forced to wear knockoffs again. It's a crude form of blackmail to a certain extent, with Push dangling his money over the woman's head as a perk of staying with him despite being an asshole. As the verse continues, Push takes his materialistic blackmail dushiness to another level. Pursley comes with a price tag, baby, face it. You should leave if you can't accept the basics. Plenty holes in a ball a nigga Matrix. Invisibly set, the Rolex is faceless.

I'm just young with you tasteless. P. Push humorously says, Hose-like vultures want to fly on your Freddie loafers. He's alluding to the women who will come around knowing his relationship is dead, looking to get a piece of his luxurious lifestyle. He adds to the sentiment with the next line,

You can't blame him. They ain't never seen Versace's sofas. This would seem to be inspired by Connie's mansion in Hawaii, where Push's stayed at the time, as Connie then tweeted a photo of his Versace furniture inside said mansion. Push piles on more douchebag with a devastating series of lines. Every bag, every blouse, every bracelet, comes with a price tag, baby face it. You should leave if you can't accept the basics. There's some very nice alliteration here with bag, blouse, bracelet, baby, and basics.

He also plays off the use of basics, which we might initially suspect means knockoffs or basic clothes. But Push says you should leave, not you should stay if you can't accept the basics. I believe he means that she should leave if she can't accept the basic principle that without his money, she can't afford anything and will once again fall into a life of basic mediocrity. Push adds fuel to the fire saying, Plenty Ho's in the Baller-Nward Matrix, alluding to the fact that there's hundreds of women waiting to court him, so he won't care too much if she chooses to leave. Push ends his verse, I'm just young, rich, and tasteless, a ter summation of the asshole that Kanye coaxed him to represent on this track.

Whether Connie knew it or not, he makes exemplary use of the literary device called the foil. A foil is a secondary character whose situation parallels that of the main character. The foil character's behavior or response to their shared situation, contrasts with that of the main character, shedding light on the protagonist's temperament. In other words, you learn about your protagonist through contrast. as the foil displays what the protagonist could be but isn't. An example of protagonist and their foil character is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or more recently, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. In runaway, Pushatie is faced with a similar situation as Kanye's,

but the expression of his runaway sentiment is much more crude, while Connie seems to be rooted in compassion. This contrast couldn't be expressed more clearly than the last line of Pusha T's verse, budding up against Kanye's re-entrance. Push ends with the commanding embrace. of his duchery, while Connie enters brittle and broken down. I'm visibly set the Rolex is faceless. I'm just young with you tasteless pee.

Never was much of a romantic. I could never take the intimacy. And I know I did damage. Because the look in your eyes is killing me. I guess you're an advantage. Because you could blame me for everything. And I don't know I'm a manage. Connie begins, never was much of a romantic.

I could never take the intimacy. For me, this is one of the more moving and revealing couplets of the entire album, particularly the latter line. Someone who can never take intimacy speaks to me as someone not fully comfortable in his own skin, someone who has trouble getting close with someone because it reveals too many of their flaws and insecurities. Connie continues, and I know I did damage. because the look in your eyes is killing me. Here we get an image we all know all too well,

looking into the eyes of someone you've hurt and feeling helpless, or worse still, being the one who's hurt and looking into the eyes of someone who doesn't have a clue what they're doing. These lies also served to further contrast with the foil character Push a T plays, as push is likely to look into the eyes of his hurt lover and laugh. Connie concludes, I guess you're at an advantage, because you can blame me for everything, and I don't know how I'm a manage,

if one day you just up and leave. This is where things take a slight turn towards self-pity. In verse 1, Connie stated, I just blame everything on you, at least you know that's what I'm good at. Here on verse 2, he blames himself, and then after spending the entire song pushing her away, guilt trips a woman character, telling her he doesn't know how he'll manage to go on without her.

It's Kanye's unconscious psychological manipulation that exemplifies his inability to keep a girl around. We have pity for Connie's character, not because a woman may leave him, but because he seems clueless to his own contradictions. He just knows he messes things up and feels bad about it, but seems incapable of pinpointing why. It's like a child who does something wrong, knows it's wrong, but doesn't understand why it's wrong. And until Kanye's character matures and understands the why to his actions, he'll inevitably find himself repeating the same mistakes, inevitably finding himself alone.

After a repetition of the song's hook, Runaway continues with the song's, an instrumental passage just before the song decomposes back to the start, back to the single-note piano line with which it begun. Of course, when we hear a voice enter over the single-note piano line, it's a bit startling. The voice is Kanye's, of course, but it's distorted and muffled, muttering something indiscernible. While no one definitively knows what Kanye says here, it's a subject of much internet debate. There's two main schools of thought. I'm going to be honest and something like no pianos or mute pianos. I'll play it one more time and when you listen, ask yourself if you hear I'mma be honest, no pianos, or something else. So what'd you hear?

I'm a be honest, no pianos, mute pianos, or something else? What if I told you as none of the above? What if I told you as Connie's grand confession? I carefully calculated a mission of his participation in Illuminati. Nah, just kidding. Personally, I subscribe to the no pianos or end pianos or mute pianos school of thought. Aside from it sounding like those words, it makes practical sense, as Connie would likely be talking to his engineer about altering the piano part somehow while he recorded his upcoming solo. It's similar to what you sometimes hear on the introduction of hip-hop songs where the

MC says, turn up my headphones, or some other type of practical ad lib they keep on the final recording because it adds to the immediacy and rawness of the track. As further evidence, we can turn to the premiere of Runaway at the 2010 VMAs. It was performed here before the album version of the song was finished, and at this point the cello-based outro doesn't include the solo piano part. Anyway, it could very well be I'ma be honest or something else for that matter. There's no definitive answer to this mystery, at least not that I could find. And I'm going to be honest, I'm not sure it matters all that much. What does matter is the heart-wrenching final three minutes of the track, the three minutes that

elevate run away from an incredible song to a piece of modern art. After that repetition of the introductory piano line we just heard, the instrumentation changes dramatically, as multiple cellos enter playing two distinct parts. One section plays rhythmic staccato bass hits, while the other section plays legato or sustained notes that provide the harmonic interest. What's cool about the cello parts is that they mimic small bits of musical material that have been previously established in the song. For example, the rhythm the staccato cellos play is based off a small bit of drums we heard throughout Runaway. First, let's hear what the cellos are playing on their own. I'm going to substitute the cellos with the bass drum,

because right now we're only concerned with rhythm. This rhythm has been established by the second half of Runaway's drum loop. And now let's lay that bass drum we just heard over this drum loop, followed by the cellos again. Pretty cool, right? Now let's take this a step further. I use the bass drum as my substitute instrument for the cellos, because that's the instrument they're replicating on Runaway's outro.

They accent those strong beats 1 and 3 we talked about in our last episode. And if you'll remember, a snare drum is typically placed on weak beats 2 and 4 to create a drum beat. Okay, now let's bring back the cellos and places that bass drum. And now let's replace that snare with piano notes. Sound familiar? The cello and piano act as a snare and kick, a re-orchestration of the drum loop we've heard throughout Runaway. Once more is that the notes that the cello play are the same descending series of notes played by the bass we've been here.

by the bass we've been hearing throughout the track as well. With just cellos and a single note piano line, Chania and his team are able to recreate the entire musical structure of Runaway's first half. In classical music composition, this kind of thing is known as motivic development. A motive in music is a brief musical idea, the smallest structural unit that still possesses musical identity. Motivic development is when you take a motive or small musical idea, manipulate it and often repeatedly transform it in some kind of way. Motivic development was the practice central in the classical era where composers like Mozart and Beethoven created entire pieces based on just a handful of motives.

On Runaway, Connie employs the same technique as he's able to provide a recreation of Runaway's musical foundation with just two instruments for the entire three-minute outro. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is next-level stuff. Of course, over the cello and piano comes Connie's heartfelt voice turned guitar solo. Connie and his team were able to create this by applying a few effects to his vocals. While I don't know exactly the combination of effects used, there are three main components I could decipher. First, Connie adds distortion to his voice. Distortion is a form of audio signal processing used to alter sound.

It's typically done by increasing gain and pushing the sound past its maximum frequency limits, which shears off the edges of the signal waves. All that fancy jargon means is that Kanye's voice is made to sound gritty or dirty. Mute pianos. Mute pianos. Next, a similar effect to distortion is added, a fuzz box. This effect will add more quote-unquote fuzz and really accent Kanye's breath, which is prominently heard on the solo.

I'mma be honest. I'm gonna be honest. Of course, then there's autotune, which most of us are probably familiar with at this point. But for those who aren't, Autotune is a pitch-correcting signal alteration that was first created to correct specific notes of a singer's performance that they may have sung out of tune. This subtle pitch alteration is used more than you'd like to know, but it's nearly impossible for the untrained ear to pick out. More recently, Autotune has been applied in extreme amounts as a vocal effect. Kanye, of course, used the effect prominently on his album 808's in Heartbreak.

This effect is created by setting the pitch alteration. to its most aggressive setting. It restricts your voice to true or perfectly pitched notes, kind of like frets on a guitar or keys on a synthesizer. And when you move from note to note, the auto tune effect forces your voice to move stepwise from one perfectly pitched note to the next, which is what creates his robotic effect.

Now let's add back the distortion of fuzz, and we get something pretty similar to Connie's voice of the end of Runaway. Yes, motherfuckers Excuse me As Connie remarked in an interview we'll hear later The goal of this combination of effects was to transform his voice into a guitar For Kanye, who doesn't know how to play

any traditional musical instruments It allows him to express himself abstractly Unconfined by words or predetermined melody The same way guitarist taking an improvised solo would do Let's get a bit of this solo in our ears Before we talk about it Pretty moving stuff, right? I'd assume most of us find these closing minutes of runaway emotionally powerful,

certainly among Kanye's greatest musical passages of his career. And the irony here is that the outro primarily contains no words, yet many of us feel incredibly moved by the passage. There's a reason for that, and I believe it gets at something really fundamental about music in general. Just a heads up, I'm going to take a bit of a detour here before returning to Kanye's solo. We're going to talk about philosophy, ancient Greece, order, chaos, and more. When we do return, I'm frankly not going to have anything to say about

Connie's outro, but I think you'll understand why. So just hang with me here. When viewed as a whole, runaway contains two large parts. The first six minutes or so is a quote-unquote traditional approach to songwriting. What I mean is that it contains traditional elements that we come to expect in a contemporary piece of music, drums, bass, standard harmony, and vocals that sing defined composed melodies and composed lyrics. The last third of runaway is outside of tradition for a number of reasons. It's stripped down instrumentation of cello and pianos, no drums, and Kanye's voice turned guitar humming abstract notes, not composed melodies and lyrics. In short, we have an orderly first six minutes and an abstract ladder three minutes. Order versus abstract. Let's keep that in mind as we

travel back in time for a moment. The 19th century German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche developed a philosophical dichotomy inspired by Greek mythology, known as Apollonian and Dionysian. In this dualistic concept, there's a perpetual struggle between two sets of opposing forces, one associated with Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, and the other associated with Dionysius, the god of drunkenness. The Apollonian forces relies on reason, order, control, and individuality, and seeks to bring order into the universe. The Dionysian philosophy embraces mysticism. emotion, chaos, intuition, and abstraction. Remember, order versus abstract. Nietzsche believed that art is created from the critical balance of these two opposing forces, saying, quote,

the further development of art is bound up with the duality of the Apollonian and Dionysian, just as reproduction depends on the duality of the sexes, unquote. Nietzsche regarded the tragedies of ancient Greece as the highest form of art, due to its mixture of both Apollonian and Dionysian elements into one seamless whole, allowing the spectator to experience the full spectrum of the human condition. The Dionysian element was to be found in the music of the chorus, while the Apollonian element was found in the dialogue, in the words that gave concrete symbolism and provided balance to the Dionysian abstraction. In other words, the Apollonian spirit was able to give form to the abstract Dionysian. And more than just art and music,

this dichotomy is at the heart of the human existence. Order versus chaos, reason versus emotion. These things are forever at odds in the world, as well as in each and every one of us. It's the careful balance of these dualistic principles that create harmony that connect us to the divine. It's with the Chinese coin Yin Yang. We can certainly view the division between the two large halves of Kanye West runaway as large form expressions of the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy. In the first half, Kanye expresses himself in words, an ordered melody, and concrete symbolism. On the second half, Connie indulges in the Dionysian emotion and abstraction to express all that is inexpressible with words and order. Connie himself acknowledged the power of abstraction when he discussed his improvised performance that makes up the final three minutes of runaway.

The runaway piece at the end, when it's like my voice being changed to a guitar, when I did that, I was tearing up. and just humming the abstracted notes. I was crying, just humming notes. And the notes were more expressive than the words. Connie states that he was brought to tears during his performance at the end of Runaway because the notes were more expressive than the words. The abstract more emotionally precise than the concrete.

Connie transcends order and connects himself and by proxy as listeners to the divine through abstraction. We can all hear this. For most of us, it's quite clear. It's why we're so moved by this section every time we hear it. And because you're able to sit through a podcast with a borderline obsessive approach to music analysis, I'm going to assume you're passionate about music a little more than the average person. But have you ever asked yourself why music is so powerful? Why it's so pleasurable to listen to? Why at times it can fill you with an indescribable but overwhelming euphoric feeling?

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer described this feeling as a connection to the non-sumeration. sensory realm, an experience that unites us to something beyond ourselves, to the transcendent. And as Schopenhauer saw it, this was a gift of the true artist. He defined artistic genius as the capacity to perceive and convey the eternal. And this perception is one of imagination, of abstraction, not intellect. In other words, abstraction over order, notes over words. The second half of runaway connects many of us to the transcendent in a way that only music can. Because at its best, music is a spiritual phenomenon. It's like looking at the constellations under a clear night sky

or staring into the abyss of the Grand Canyon. It's a fundamental human phenomenon because music is very accessible. You don't have to be overly intellectual to be moved by it. You don't need to listen to this podcast to feel the transcendental quality of runaway or any music that you feel a connection to for that matter. Music is intuitively moving because music is a universal language and so often beyond verbal expression. If somehow someone had never heard music before, how would you describe it?

It'd be like trying to tell a blind man what color is. We can use language to augment our pleasure of music. That's largely what this podcast strives to do. But the essence of music is not an experience of words, which is somewhat contradictory to the way we're all programmed, as we use words as our primary form of communication about our experiences. But there's been numerous cultures throughout history who believed that there are certain things that were not only beyond verbal description,

but believed that the meaning of those unspeakable things was actually destroyed in their attempt to put it into words. And so are my feelings about the second half of Runaway. I'm choosing not to dissect the closing three minutes note for note, because to do so would only work to unnecessarily degrade its transcendence. There are some things that leave us in awe and wonder, and the second half of runaway is to me one of those things. It's the pure, abstract expression of man, of human emotion.

The uninhibited outpouring of feeling. Let's marvel, let's experience, but let's not suffocate it with intellect. Let's not attempt to put into words the abstract. Rather, we'll let it exist in its pure form. Allow it to breathe its timeless breath. Allow it to connect us with the divine, the transcendent. Because if you allow yourself to experience it, you know exactly what it means. It's all the words that don't exist.

So in place of my analysis, I have a bit of homework for you. you. Reserve a time for yourself to listen to runaway uninterrupted. Don't listen why you drive, don't listen why you clean. Reserve a time, find a place, sit down, and listen to this piece in its entirety. Experience the music. Give yourself to it completely. Give it an opportunity to do something to you and see what happens. And if and when that happens, think about that feeling. Because as Schopenhauer said, a true piece of art is a window into the transcendent. And in the face of of the windowless walls of our daily routines, in the face of the infinity of our timelines and newsfeeds, glimpses of the divine and a connection to the transcendent is something most of

us need more of. On September 12, 2010, Kanye West premiered runaway at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. Of course, a year prior at the same event, Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift, and well, you know the story by now. The world had largely not heard from Kanye since, and there was considerable media hype surrounding his performance. Earlier in the night, Taylor Swift performed a song called Innocent, which many felt was direct commentary on Kanye's interruption. The VMAs placed Connie's performance last, a clever move as the anticipation built throughout the night.

Kanye knew full well the weight of the moment. Pushatee recalled being backstage with Kanye that night and Kanye telling him how big the moment was, how crazy the song was, and predicted the impact his performance was going to have. When finally the time comes, Kanye is introduced by a comedian disease on Sari. The stage and backdrop is entirely black, save for narrow strips of light that form a circle around Kanye, who dons a custom all-red Philip Lem suit and a collection of elegant gold chains around his neck.

He stands in front of an MPC controller sitting atop a stand modeled after ancient Greek ionic columns. Kanye strikes keys on the MPC that triggers sampled piano notes and proceeds to play what we now know is the opening piano sequence of Runaway. Connie's face is concentrated but calm. When the drums kick in, the stage and backdrops shift from all black to suddenly all white, while a fleet of ballerinas rush the stage. The samples look at you, and ladies and gentlemen echo throughout the arena,

while a sample not featured on the album version is also triggered, saying, I want to show you how you all look like beautiful stars tonight. In this context, the samples directly address the dramatic weight of the moment in space, It's clear Connie knows exactly what he's doing. As a performance continues, Connie's calculated response becomes even more evident. Rather than a dramatic defense, he joins in on the persecution, singing, I always find something wrong. You've been putting up with my shit just way too long.

Connie's solution, his grand gesture of reconciliation, is to have a toast. Of course, the unspoken truth, the elephant in the room, is that Connie's the douchebag, asshole, the scumbag. He both acknowledges and embraces his public perception at the moment and celebrates it with honesty and irony and humor like only Kanye West can. After a cameo from Push-a-T who joins Kanye on stage for a performance of his verse, both Push and the ballerinas leave the stage, and Kanye is again alone in the center of the arena as the drums drop out, the white lights turn black again, and the song shifts to the cello-filled outro. Instead of the wordless notes that fill the final three minutes of the album version, Kanye repeats his opening

lines before ending with the modified version of the song's hook. The crowd gives Kanye's standing ovation, chanting his name as he leaves the stage, a dramatic shower of gold lights fluttering down against the black backdrop. After a year of exile, of torrential public backlash, of suicidal thoughts and wavering emotions, Kanye returned to the scene of the crime while the whole world watched and delivered one of the greatest songs of the 21st century. He didn't back down, he didn't run away. He faced a moment head on and used art as his weapon of choice.

Schopenhauer, the philosopher we spoke of earlier, once said, talent hits a target no one else can hit, genius hits a target no one else can see. Like the target he hit by becoming a rapper when everyone else laughed, Kanye's performance of runaway at the 2010 VMAs hit a target no one else could see. It was Kanye West versus the world, and Kanye, the douchebag, The asshole, the scumbag, he won. The way the media tries to create the enemy wrestler, the Russian wrestler, they create these characters. And you're not even like a real person or having any dynamics.

It's basically an enemy. And it's just really stupid and harsh. But the only thing about the media and all that is like I have the internet and I have my music and my voice is going to be louder. And I'm going to win. I'm going to prevail. The right is going to prevail. The honesty, the truth, the creativity, and the person I am, a good person with good intentions, with everything I do. If you really look at it, it's still good intentions, maybe bad timing, blah, blah, blah, but regardless, good intentions.

And it's going to prevail. Just like this film, just the opportunity I have to show the world crashing cultures of, like, ballerina meets hip-hop. Like, the good is going to rise. Dysect is written and produced by me. You can support Dysect that Patreon. com slash dissect. If you end up doing that runaway homework assignment, I'm curious to hear about your experience. At me on social media or join the Dysect Facebook group and share with us all there. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week.