Dissect - S2E15 – Lost in the World by Kanye West

Episode Date: November 28, 2017

We continue our serialized analysis of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by dissecting "Lost In The World." 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 Kushna. Today, we continue our serialized examination of my beautiful dark-twisted fantasy by Kanye West. On our last episode, we dissected the album's penultimate song, Blame Game, a track that found Kanye tempting to reconcile his crumbling relationship with a woman. We heard a multitude of psychological and emotional twists and turns, as Connie uncontrollably oscillates from hurt to vengeful to remorseful to sad and a matter of seconds. Connie never really finds the clarity you searching for. Ultimately, he hits

an emotional rock bottom and constructs an elaborate skit in his head to make himself feel better. It all leads to the album's next and final track, where we find Kanye no closer to discovering what he's looking for. Rather, we find him embracing the chaos of his life in a celebration of uncertainty, an anthem of ambiguity, the subject of today's episode, Lost in the World. Lost in the World, along with the album's outro, Who Will Survive in America, was produced by Kanye West and Jeff Basker. The track's main building block is a vocal sample from Boney Vair's song Woods from the 2009 Blood Bank EP.

Kanye called Boni Vair's vocalist and songwriter Justin Vernon to ask his permission to use a song and invite him to the Hawaiian twist and fantasy sessions. Vernon told Pitchfork, quote, I was in New York in January and I got a call for my manager, and he said Kanye West wanted to maybe use Woods as a sample. I was like, yes. A week later, there were more murmurings,

and eventually I just got on the phone with Kanye. We ended up talking for a half hour about music and how we were fans of each other in Avatar. It was a really pleasant, easygoing conversation between two people that are pretty psyched about music. It was like, I like how you sing so fearlessly. You don't care how your voice sounds. It'd be awesome if you can come out to Hawaii and hear the track,

and there's some other shit I think you can throw down on. I was just like, yeah, cool man, when should I come out? And he was like, how about tomorrow? So I head out there and he plays me the track and it sounds exactly how you want it to sound, forward moving, interesting, lighthearted, heavyhearted, fucking incredible sounding jam. It was kind of bare so I added some choir sounding stuff and then thicken out the samples with my voice. That whole first week I was there we worked on the wood song, which is called Lost in the World. We were just eating breakfast and listening to the song on the speakers and he's like, Fuck, this is going to be the festival closer. I was like, yeah, cool. It kind of freaked me out, unquote.

Vernon ended up visiting the Hawaiian studio on three separate week-long trips, recording approximately 10 different songs. Of course, the songs that made the album are Dark Fantasy, Monster, and Lost of the World. Vernon's song Woods, a multi-layer four-and-a-half-minute acapella, is used extensively in Lost in the World. The introductions of both songs are nearly identical. I'll play them here back-to-back, beginning with Woods. Connie pitches up in woods one semitone for Lost in the World. For me, the brilliance of this introduction, much like most of BoniVeer's catalog, is the vocal harmonies. What begins as a lone singular voice is transformed into a mechanical prism of angelic sonic beauty.

Let's dissect just how Vernon does this, beginning with that solo voice. For time's sake, I'm going to play these passages a little faster than they appear on the song. On the next repetition, Vernon adds two additional voices. One voice plays generally lower in pitch and one higher. These voices accent the interval of a third, which is the most common harmony applied to any two or more part harmonies. Next, Verdon goes all in. From what I can decipher, it's something like a total of seven voices. While some voices play the same note at different octaves,

that is the same note played higher or lower in pitch, we still get some incredibly rich five-and-six-part harmonies. In pop music, three-note chords are standard practice with an occasional use of four-note chords. With five-and-six-note chords, we're entering territory really only common to a handful of musical genres, the most popular being jazz. From a musical perspective, this is really interesting stuff.

It's not unheard of to compose these types of harmonies, but it's certainly not common practice, especially in a hip-hop or pop song. These harmonies process through autotune make for a unique union of retro and future, the timelessness of the human voice, and the computerized perfection of man's technological achievements. Of course, beginning with just a single voice and gradually adding more and more harmonies with each repetition,

acts as a dramatic build into Lost in the World's Hook, a euphoric explosion of huge drums, bass, piano, and a seemingly irrational amount of vocal layers. But before moving on, I do have to point out some really nice text painting going on in this section. Vernon opens saying, I'm up in the woods, and this notion of up is reflected melodically, as this passage is entirely built on an upward ascension. Vernon begins on an A-flat, moves up into a B-flat, moves up again to a C, and of course the dramatic leap up to a G. It's also interesting to note that saying I'm up in the woods implies isolation and solitude,

a notion accentuated by this isolated solo voice, a voice in the woods, if you will. Next, Vernon sings, I'm down on my mind. And when you know, melodically, this passage features a long, drawn-out downward motion after repeating the opening few notes. And here's that downward motion. The final phrase Vernon sings is, I'm building a still to slow down the time. On to slow down the time, we haven't even more drawn out one might might be. say slowed down melodic descent of four notes. This opening vocal section on Lost in the World is one full minute and contains three repetitions of the four vocal phrases. But on Boneyvere's

Woods, this vocal part is repeated 11 times, lasting nearly five minutes. And this in itself is a form of text painting, as the repetitiveness of the lyrics make it feel more mantra than song. Vernon talks of slowing down time, and in a way he's doing just that with these long, drawn-out repetitive phrases. And for being just a few lines long, the lyrics are rich with meaning. Much like the Chloe Mitchell poem we heard on the previous song, Blame Game, the opening lines of woods are one built on duality and contrast. Vernon sings, I'm up in the woods, I'm down on my mind. To interpret these lines, I believe we have to refer to Boni Vair's conception and Vernon's own self-imposed exile. After the dissolution of his band, Dyardman Edison, the ending of a relationship, and a bout with

mononuculitis hepatitis, Vernon left North Carolina for Wisconsin, ultimately spending the winter alone in his father's cabin in the woods. It was here that Vernon began writing what would become the first Boni Vair album. Vernon's opening lines on woods would seem to be referring to this time. Up in the woods implies his isolation, while down on my mind would seem to suggest sadness or depression. He follows with the line on building a still to slow down the time. A still is a contraption used to distill or purify alcohol, very commonly moonshine. So our initial interpretation is that Vernon is drinking his pain or depression away, the atactic effects of alcohol slowing down his perception of time. On the other hand, Vernon is building still or calm in his life through his

decision to isolate himself in the serenity and peace of the woods, where time seems to move slower, and one can work out their thoughts without the distractions of the bustling city. It's really no wonder why these lyrics would resonate with Kanye. Vernon and Kanye's situation parallel each other in many ways, as Connie's self-imposed exile had him searching for peace and clarity after his life imploded post-V-MAs.

Of course, Connie's situation was magnified under the microscope of the media and public, so it makes sense that when he enters Lost in the World for the first time, the phrase, I'm up in the woods becomes, I'm lost in the world. Kanye reinterpreted the lyrics

of woods, altering them to read. I'm lost in the world, been down my whole life. I'm new in the city, and I'm down for the night. Kanye retains the duality in contrast the original lyrics were built on, but urbanizes, broadens, and therefore universalizes the setting. The phrase, I'm lost in the world, is an existential statement of being, the truth just beneath the surface of our entire existence. It's perhaps the reason Kanye has, quote, been down my whole life. Of course, these lines are incredibly morose when isolated, but it doesn't make them any less true. Who among us hasn't felt

lost in the world, especially when thinking deeply about the meaning of life and our place in the incomprehensible enormity of the universe? I think it nearly impossible to avoid some sense of bewilderment when considering such things, and many of us spend much of our lives chasing purpose to counter these feelings of helplessness and insignificance. For his part, Connie offers a solution of his own with the lines that follow. I'm new in the city, and I'm down for the next. night. These lines imply a new beginning, a fresh start. In the face of the existential hopelessness of being lost in the world, Connie's conclusion is to simply live in the moment, embrace the unknown, the new city, and be down for the night. We'd be hard-pressed to find a moment on the album as cathartic

as this one, perhaps matched only by runaway's anthemic hook. Positioned here on the album's closing, lost in the world's chorus isn't so much a triumphant celebration of hardships overcome. It's a triumphant embrace of letting go, relinquishing total control, and coming to terms with one's own circumstances. Lost in the world continues with a brief instrumental bridge that we'll circle back to later in the show. After this bridge, the hook is performed again, followed by Connie's only verse on the song. As my heaven, you're my hell, you're my now, you're my forever, you're my freedom, you're my jail, you're my lies, you're my truth, you're my war, you're my truths, you're my questions, you're my proof, you're my stressing, your mama sooth. As Kanye tells it, the conception of this verse began as an email that turned into a poem that he sent to one Kim Kardashian. One was a poem that's just something that I felt.

And I had this song playing over and over and over and over and stuff when he's down Hawaii and everything I just had that bonnet there and sample playing I was trying to figure out how to approach it because it was so much faster than the rest of dark fantasy and I didn't really know how to how to get on that flow and shit, you know and then I just like wrote this I wrote this I was writing an email and then it kind of ended up like a poem and I pressed sin and I looked at the email and I said said, let me try these words that just came out of me, and let me try this on this song. And that person who I pressed in on that poem is actually here with me tonight because she's my fiance. Connie also elaborated on the poem and song

in an appearance on New York's Now FM. I was so happy that it worked on that song on, you know, lost in the world. Like, we're not always in the position that we want to be at. We're constantly growing. We're constantly making mistakes. We're constantly trying to experience. rest ourselves and trying to actualize our dreams.

And, you know, that song was the first step or a second step or third step or a 20th step to the actualization of the family that I have now. What I said on stage, what I'm saying to you right now is the 20th, 25th, 30th step to the actualization of when I'm able to create whatever I want to create. It's really interesting to me that Connie describes Lost in the World as the first step in the actualization of his future he imagined for himself. Indeed, the verse on Lost in the World is one of extreme clarity and expressive precision. As you remember, the album's previous song, Blame Game, found Connie stumbling over his own emotions,

oscillating between love and hate with no real clarity of expression. The revelation displayed on Lost in the World is that love and perhaps life itself is best experience when you embrace the inherent duality of the universe, when you accept the negative because you know without it, it's impossible for positive to exist. This is expressed with extreme clarity as Connie recites the sequence of distilled opposing forces. Devil, angel, heaven, hell, now forever, freedom jail, lies truth, war truce, questions, proof, stress, masseuse. Personally, the passage always reminds me of an urbanized version of Taoist text. Taoism recognizes a duality of all things and believes this contrast is needed to create a distinguishable reality,

without which we've experienced nothingness. In other words, without bad, there is by definition no good. Without the concept of hell, there is no concept of heaven. The Tao Te Ching, the essential Taoist text, says, quote, If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked. If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die.

If you want to be given everything, give up everything. unquote. Throughout twisted fantasy, Connie has struggled with the principle of duality, trying to reckon or take control of the conflicting forces in his life. And like we mentioned, lost in the world is the embrace of letting go. And in that resignation is where growth and harmony reside. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give up everything. By yielding to the natural chaos of the world, and therefore the chaos of his own life, Connie is freed. He reconciles the duality and contradictions presented throughout the album, and that freedom sets himself on a path of self-actualization, as Connie mentioned in the interview

we heard earlier. That freedom also results in tangible action, a way to act. This is heard in the second half of Connie's verse. Connie piggybacks on the words Maimusseu Mama Scea Mama Maka-Sae Mama Maka-u-sa. This is a reference to the 1972 song Sol Makusa by Manu da Bango. Michael Jackson interpolated Sol Makusa on his hit Wannabe Starting Something. The word Makusaw roughly translates to dance, but we suspect Connie's use of the quote is more tribute to Michael Jackson than it is anything. Remember, my beautiful dark twisted fantasy is dedicated to Jackson, and here on the finale Lost in the World, the reference reminds us that this album was

created in the shadow cast after his tragic, untimely death. Things get a bit interesting when we adjust our ears slightly to hear the Makusa interpillation as saying Mama say Mama Michael's son. And before we claim this a reach, we have to consider the way Connie performs this song. long live. Kanye sings Mama Say, Mama Say, Mama Donda's son. Donda is of course Kanye's deceased mother, or Mama, whose shadow was also cast over the making of this album. With Kanye here attempting to find his place in the world, the Mama Say reference perhaps

alludes to a kind of guidance provided by the spirits of both Michael Jackson, Kanye's idol, and his mama Donda West, also Kanye's idol. The line acts as a bridge between the repeating contrasting couplets and Kanye's plan of action. He says, Lost in this plastic life, let's break out of this fake-ass party, turn this into a classic night. If we die in each other's arms, still get late in the afterlife. And directly after this passage comes a modified version of the song's hook, in which Ellie Jackson and Alicia Key sing, Run from the lights, run from the night, run for your life.

Here we find Connie for the first time directly opposing and literally running from the life as celebrity he's been attempting to make sense of throughout the album. He coins it plastic and fake. a reality in which he no longer sees meaning. Again, it forces us to return to the duality concept we just discussed. If Connie is deeming fame as meaningless, we have to ask what then has meaning. The answer it would seem is love. With the woman by his side, together they flee the plastic reality in search of something more meaningful. It's not clear exactly what that is, but they have each other and that's all that matters. That's the meaning. That's authenticity in and of itself.

Of course, the idea is essentially one of rebirth, crystallized in the final line, if we die in each other's arms, still get laid in the afterlife. Kanye is now willing to let a part of himself die, willing to let go of celebrity and fame in order to find himself, in order to be loved and be loved. This notion calls back and gives deeper meaning to the song's hook, specifically the lines, I'm new in the city, I'm down for the night. Yet again, we quote the Tao Dejing.

If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give up everything. It's Kanye's leap of faith, his letting go, an embrace of chaos as a means to find order. And it's interesting now to think back on the other time Kanye, quote unquote, died on the album. It happened on the third song, Power. As a refresher, let's play the passage in question.

As you remember, this passage came after Connie spoke, of his diamond-encrusted piece or handgun, as well as the passage in which she speaks of wildly chasing women, partying and drinking and driving. This death or suicide is one fueled by recklessness as a byproduct of the Damocles sword of power, wealth, and celebrity. And as you know, power leaves us with that lingering question, do you got the power to let power go? Among other things, it was a question Kanye posed to himself. Could he relinquish the power he's accrued? Now that he's experienced his dark side, is he strong enough to turn his back on the luxuries of fame, knowing its ultimately soul-sucking with a seemingly inevitable decline.

It would seem here at the end of the album, we're finally getting an answer, or at least an attempt at one. The death on loss in the world is the necessary shedding of one's own skin in order to grow, to mature, to be reborn. And this contrast between the symbolic uses of death on power and loss in the world shows just how much Connie has grown through his experiences he shared on the album. As we said many times this season, Twisted Fantasy is largely an exploration of Kanye's psyche, an attempt to make sense of his life, exploring the different facets of his being to organize a clearer picture of who he is after his personal identity was shattered in the wake of the death of his mother, the breakup with his fiance and then Amber Rose,

and of course his public villainization post-VMAs. It would seem through that examination, through his self-imposed exile, through the cathartic process of creativity, Connie comes out the other side ready to free himself from those experiences, at least as much as any one person can. He's ready to move on, to be reborn. It's not exactly a fairy tale ending, but it's one grounded in reality, in truth. It's the documentation of maturation, one step closer to self-actualization, overcoming and freeing oneself of the past to allow for a new, better version of you. At Radio City, so it's no reality to the situation, but then also what I learned is no reality to celebrity. And because of everything that I've been through, it's led me

the point to be able to be a way more expressive artist, deal with way more reality. You can't take anything away from me at this point. Canceling tour. I was touring with Lady Gaga. I was going to have like, you know what I'm saying? Like who also went on to like meteoric, right? Like I completely lost everything, but I gained everything because I lost the fear. I used to pray for God to deliver me from pain and fear and all these different things.

And in a way he did, like, you know, say like, if I'm not, getting sued by a gangster or something like that. What you're going to do? Go over my mom's house? I don't have no mother. Are you going to go to my girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend. I don't have a daughter. You know it's nothing. What are you going to do? Cancel everything I ever had? What are you going to take away from me?

And that's what I'm saying about any media, any person that writes it. And I think without, you know, releasing all the fear and all the, what if this happens, I wouldn't have been able to make the runaway film, like the way we did it. I wouldn't be able to make the music, and I'm just at the very beginning. Now I've finally cracked out of the shell, and there's no... Lost in the World is the album's grand finale, and along with the thematic rebirth aspect of the song's lyrics, we have a finale-like approach to the song's production. One of the things I found most striking and effective about the production

is that it acts as a kind of sonic amalgamation of the entire album, meaning that there's several sonic callbacks and similarities to other tracks we've heard up until this point. For instance, we have an incredibly lush palliative voice tracks stacked on top of each other. Of course, we first think of the lush and layered vocals of the album's opening track, Dark Fantasy. The use of Justin Vernon's stacked harmonies on Lost in the World is also reminiscent of the introduction he performed on Monster. About midway through Lost in the World, a distorted, snarling synth base, enters, a tone we've heard on all the lights, runaway and hell of a life. Lost in the World's Bridge features tribal drums that are converted to conga drums when the song switches over to who will survive in America.

This style of driving explosive drums are also present in all the the lights and monster. Finally, and perhaps the most obvious and purposeful sonic callback is the tribal chance that enter at the end of loss in the world, which closely resemble those on power. If you remember from our power episode, these tribal chants were based on an Afro-America sample that was then recreated and re-recorded by studio engineers Ken Lewis and Alvin Fields. These two engineers also recorded the chance that appear on Lost in the World, which of course explains their similarity. This blatant repurposing forces. us to consider the reasons why Kanye and his team might have done this. While the chance on

power could be heard as chance of worship, the conjuring of power, the chance on lost in the world could be heard as the release of power, the embrace of the unknown, the answer to the question posed on power we just spoke of a few minutes ago. The tribal chance on lost in the world combined with the heavy use of tribal jums, also adds an additional dimension of the ever-expanding universe being created on this song. As we noted earlier, the song begins with a lone voice in the woods. When Connie enters the song's hook, the woods become the world as our camera lens expands wider. With the addition of tribal drums and chants at the song's end, our lens grows wider still. We're getting invocations of the beginnings of man, a timelessness and ancient weight.

It adds grandiosity to the closing of an album already full of grandeur, a fitting finale for our work of this ambitious magnitude. But perhaps more importantly, the timeless evocations position lost in the world's themes of personal liberation and the gamut of the human experience. When we strip Kanye's story of its specifics, that is, a celebrity that fell from grace, the emotional and spiritual journey he's taken over the course of the album, he's simply a human being trying to navigate his way through his own existence,

trying to make sense of his circumstances and overcome adversity and hardship. And this universality is the reason Kanye can sing different words over the Bonie Verre Wood sample. It's the reason he can juxtapose tribal jums with electronic drums, tribal chants with choir voices, soulful R&B vocals with auto-tune, piano with distorted synthesized bass. It's the union of cultures across time, the harmonization of humanity,

a reminder that however diverse and divided we become, we're all a part of the same human race. We're all related and can therefore relate to one another. We may all be lost, but we're lost together, and that's something. You know, our existence as a race, humanity, period, is a blip, a millisecond of our life in the entire scope of the universe. All these walls that keep us from loving each other as like one family, as one race, you know, racism, religion, you know, where we grew up, you know, whatever, class, social,

economics, you know, all this. What makes us, like, be so selfish, prideful? What makes us not want to help the next man? What makes us, you know, be so focused on a personal legacy? as opposed to an entire legacy of a race. You know, like, the dinosaurs aren't remembered for much more than their bones. You know, so when humanity's gone,

what do we give to even this little planet, you know, that we're on? And what could we do collectively? Like, removing the pride. I don't care about having a legacy. I don't care about being remembered. It's the most important thing to me is, like, while I'm here, while we're having fun,

while we're going to sleep and, even oxygen and living life and falling in love and having pain and having joy. It's like, what can I do? What can I do with my voice? What can we do for each other to make life easier, make life doper for our kids, you know, as they grow? You know, we were born into a broken world and we're like the cleanup crew. Lost in the World segues directly into the album's final track, Who Will Survive in America?

Less of a song than it is credits rolling on a film. Who Will Survive in America forces us to yet again reexamine and broaden, our conceptualization of Connie's journey in the landscape of American history. The track is essentially a musical setting of an abridged version of Gil Scott Heron's Comment Number One, a spoken word piece written in 1970. Time is in the street, you know, us living as we do upside down, and the new word to have is revolution. People don't even want to hear the preacher's spill or spill, because God's whole card has been thoroughly peeped. Heron's peace disdainfully criticizes the SDS, or students for a democratic society,

and allegiance of mostly white college students who are attempting to help the revolution being called for by parties like the Black Panthers. Of course, Heron's piece is largely decontextualized on Twisted Fantasy. Kanye cherry picks an excerpt from Comment Number One to create a piece of his own. As Twisted Fantasy's closing remarks, Heron's voice from the past serves as a prophetic prognosis of the world we live in today. It speaks on the unfulfilled promises of America and the American dream, specifically for people of color. It's a dream that Kanye, black, rich, and famous, has fulfilled more than most.

Of course, Kanye's dream has felt more like a nightmare throughout twisted fantasy, and Heron's voice now serves to crystallize his experience within the broader context of history. Heron calls America upside down and void of true leadership. It's hard to hear the line, people don't even want to hear the preacher's spill or spiel, and not think that Kanye here would be considering himself a type of preacher or leader, who was overnight stripped of his voice. Connie feels he speaks the truth regardless of its consequences, and now finds himself in a position where the truth he spoke put in jeopardy everything he's accomplished.

Heron continues his scathing assault with lines like, America's now blood and tears, while later calling America a bastard, the illegitimate daughter of the mother country, whose legs were spread around the world, and a rapist known as freedom, free doom. Near the end of the piece, he asks, What does Webster say about Seoul?

It's an interesting way to frame a question. And a piece that has us questioning the facade of American history and the past and present sins of our country, he turns to Webster's American Dictionary to define the concept of soul. We detect a certain snide cynicism in the asking, as if he's mocking the cookie-cutter definition of soul that America is selling. But things get interesting when we notice that up until this question, Heron's comment number one has been sampled verbatim

since its entry point. It's only here at the end of the track that Connie chooses to extract this question out of context and then inserts it towards the conclusion of the piece. The same goes for the answer he provides to this question. Let's have a listen to both the original source passage and then to Connie's reimagining. He wonders why I tell him that America's revolution will not be the melting pot but the toilet bowl. He is fighting for legalized smoke, a lower voting age, less lip from his generation gap and fucking in the street where's my parallel to that

all I want is a good home and a wife and a children and some food to feed them every night back goes pale face to basics does little often any have a natural do sluggos kings make him a refugee from mandingo what does Webster say about soul I say

you silly trait motherfucker your great grandfather tied a ball and chain to my balls and bounce me through a cotton field while I lived in an unflushable toilet bowl and now you want me to help you overthrow what the only truth that can be delivered to you? What does Webster say about soul?

All I want is a good home and a wife and a children and some food to feed them every night. After all is said and done, build a new route to China if they'll have you. Who will survive in America? To place a piece in a new context is one thing, but to me cherry picking two sentences out of context to create an answer to a question

that is completely different than the original. original, well, it must be pretty important, especially considering it sets up the last thing we hear on the entire album. With Heron's voice, Kanye asks, what does Webster say about soul? Kanye's answer is simple, love. Quote, all I want is a good home and a wife and a children, and some food to feed them every night. We're immediately reminded of loss in the world's only verse, originally a love poem to his now wife, Kim Kardashian. And you remember that the verse closed with this fantasy of the two fleeing the world of celebrity, a life he deemed plastic and fake, and we might now say soulless. Again, we have to replay the interview in which Kanye defines

lost in the world as the first or 20th step in actualizing this fantasy. I was so happy that it worked on that song on, you know, loss in the world. Like we're not always in the position that we want to be at. We're constantly growing. We're constantly making mistakes. We're constantly trying to express ourselves and trying to actualize our dreams. And, you know, that song was the first step or second step or third step or a 20th step to the actualization of the family that I have now. So again, here at the end of the album, we find Kanye reiterating his destiny. He wishes to abandon the shallow celebrity life in search of something more meaningful,

something with soul. This abandonment on who will survive in America is expressed in the album's penultimate line after all is said and done, build a new route to China if they'll have you. While Harrim was undoubtedly speaking of escaping the unjust circumstances of America as a person of color, we suspect that Kanye might be speaking more personally, escaping the plastic life as outlined on loss in the world in search of something real. This line is also a clever callback to the opening line of the peace, living as we do upside down. China is used metaphorically as a destiny far away from America, literally on the other side of the world. Of course, if America

upside down, the other side of the world is literally right side up, a place where life is more righteous and reasonable. My beautiful dark twisted fantasy ends with the line Who Will Survive in America, passionately repeated four times as the conga drums increase in tempo. This line is actually a quote from another spoken word piece by Amiri Baraka of the same era. Who will survive America? Few Americans.

Very few Negroes and no crackers at all. Who will survive America? America. Few Americans, very few unique rows, and no crackers at all. The question posed by both Heron and Baraka was undoubtedly addressing the growing racial tension of the day, a time in which rebellion and revolution seemed inevitable. Coming after Heron's grim portrait of the bloody history of America, we hear his question and wonder who in this seemingly apocalyptic landscape could endure, could survive. The answer seems unclear.

In the context of twisted fantasy in Kanye's journey, the question who will survive in America has some interesting connotations. First, we're forced to consider Kanye's rise and fall within the framework of the larger American landscape, Heron portrays up until this line. It recalls the themes of the album's second song, Gorgeous, in which Kanye championed himself a success story despite the obstacles people of colorface in America. After the confidence of Gorgeous arose over the course of the album, we find here Kanye chewed up and spit out by the promises of the American dream.

It's a dream we suspect Kanye, once hungry for success, celebrity, and money, wholly bought into. Now he finds himself on the other side of that dream, living in exile, motherless, loveless, his career in jeopardy, contemplating suicide. Lost in the world was a glimmer of hope, a realignment of self, a step towards a meaningful future. Now, after the brooding prophetic words of Gil Scott Heron, we wonder if Kanye will ever actualize that future amidst national and personal turmoil. The question who will survive in America is a rhetorical one. Ultimately, it shrouds Kanye's fate and mystery. Will he survive? Will he find love?

Will he find his soul, his family, his new American dream? Or will the corroding effects of fame continue to eat away at him until, like Michael Jackson and so many others before, and devour us him whole? After all is said and done, build a new route to China if they'll have you. Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America?

My beautiful dark twisted fantasy ends with Heron's abrasive shouting and a cacophony of conga drums. And after an hour and eight minutes of ambitious, expansive Roman Coliseum musical grandiosity, the album ends with a stuttering of flimsy, half-hearted applause. Whatever could this mean? I'll give you some time to think about it. We'll talk about those applause, recap the album, and draw some final conclusions on our season two finale episode next time on Dysect. Dysect is written and produced by me. Theme music by B-Rocratic.

If you enjoy Dysect, consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, tell a friend about the show, or share a link on your favorite social media outlet. There's no team behind Dysect. It's just me, and I can use all the help I can get growing the show. If you'd like to support Dysect, you can do so at patreon.com slash dissect. Follow at Dysect Podcast on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Dysk community group on Facebook by searching Dysect Podcast. You can also email me directly at dissectpodcast.gmail.com.

Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you next week.