After the release of The Book of Yeezus in 2013, hip-hop artist Kanye West has been praised as a modern civil rights activist due to the strikingly rebellious content of the songs in his album. An analysis of the album, however, presents a challenge to the seemingly political protest that West puts forth in his album: what is he really protesting?

A revisit to the ideals of the American civil rights movements in the 20th century is crucial to understanding West’s protests in his music. In 1963 at the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his infamous “I Have a Dream” speech to thousands of civil rights supporters who had marched to the capital to press the federal government to enact more egalitarian legislation in the United States. King cries out, “free at last,” as he envisions the future of his race, free from the oppression that they’d struggled against for so long. Out in the crowd, it would be common to see a fist thrown up in the air; the clenched fist, a trademark of the civil rights movement and a symbol of solidarity and defiance among members of oppressed groups, was commonly associated with the Black Panther Party and the civil rights movement in general. In a different form of protest, Billie Holiday released her personal protest, “Strange Fruit,” in 1939 as a social commentary on the injustice that the African American community faced as a result of lynch law in the South. While the impact of the movement is not confined to these three moments alone, they find a new prominence in The Book of Yeezus.

The idea of Kanye West as a political activist stemmed from his references to civil rights ideology, although he may not have contributed to the movement himself. Within the album, West has three songs in particular that resemble racial issues: “Black Skinhead,” “New Slaves,” and “Blood on the Leaves.” However, the racial undercurrent stops there. West spends the majority of “Black Skinhead” talking about issues associated with his fame. He adds his race to the equation, although it has no significance to the hardship he faces. “They see a black man with a white woman…they gon’ come to kill King Kong.” He later claims that America “came to see me in my black skin,” along with a denunciation of “every question you [his audience, is] askin’.” West, however, is more concerned about the media’s probing of his lifestyle with “every question” they ask, and their fascination with his love life.

None of these issues, however, are related to his status as an African American, as much as due to his life as a key figure in the media and music industry.West also states that he is “livin’ in the moment,” which demonstrates his focus on the current issues, which are those targeted at him due to his life as a public figure, as opposed to the issues of race that have extended far into the country’s history. Then, in “New Slaves,” West talks about a similar issue when he mentions “…rich nigga racism / That’s that ‘Come here, please buy more,’” paired with West’s complete condemnation of “you and your corporation” and references to how the victims of this type of “rich nigga racism” are “the new slaves.” West even goes so far as to state, “I see the blood on the leaves,” a reference to the protest of Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and an indication that West’s idea of modern black “blood” is that of the African American victims of the modern consumerist market. While these issues do appear to combat racism, with terms of “racism,” “slaves,” and “blood on the leaves,” it is apparent that the effects of the consumerist market could just as easily affect anyone in America, and this issue is not exclusive to black Americans alone.

Perhaps the worst offense and farthest stray from civil rights ideology takes place in “Blood on the Leaves.” The song begins with an introduction by Nina Simone – a recorded cover of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.” Over time, West begins to rap over Simone’s voice, dominating her historical rendition of the protest. Simone’s voice is later remixed and distorted, similar to how West’s voice is overcome by heavy Auto Tune throughout the duration of the song. West’s use of remixed songs and Auto Tune demonstrate the distortion that the media forces upon musical artists like West. West contributes to this idea in the song, through lyrics centered around a romantic relationship with an unnamed woman: “You could’ve been somethin’ / We could’ve, we could’ve been somebody / Or was it all our first party / When we tried our first molly…” He later goes on to talk about how the relationship was pure and full of youthful energy “before the limelight tore ya / before the limelight stole ya” and the woman “had to tell somebody” about the dynamic of the relationship, in an attempt to gain her own fame and wealth. West’s song, without the background noise of Simone’s cover, has nothing to do with civil rights. The song is centered on the issues he faces as an artist, where the media and paparazzi cause issues with artists and public figures becoming corrupt with obsessions for wealth and power. While these are legitimate concerns, it is clear that the utilization of Holiday’s song was completely unfounded and irrelevant to the message he conveys.

In contrast to the original meanings of the aforementioned civil rights ideology, West distorts their meanings to create rebellious music that will appeal to his youth audiences. In a song called, “I’m In It,” West references Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, when he uses “free at last” to describe a woman’s breasts that are freed from the confines of a bra, rather than the liberation of an oppressed minority of people. West then uses the term “civil rights sign” to describe his fist during a sexual encounter with a woman, thus demonstrating his lack of respect for the historical civil rights movement and even human life in general. Furthermore, West’s usage of “Strange Fruit” and the words “blood on the leaves” in both “New Slaves” and “Blood on the Leaves” demonstrates the way in which West relates the past struggles of African Americans to his personal struggles as a celebrity, promoting the hardship and recklessness that is symptomatic of life in the national spotlight. The only time that the reference seems at all related to the civil rights movement is when the words themselves are used, mainly in Simone’s cover. However, the references speak for themselves, and West does not speak for them; because West does nothing in his music to expand the racial protest that Holiday began, it becomes evident that he has nothing to contribute in the way of racial politics. In fact, West feels very little of the racial prejudice in his production of “Blood on the Leaves” that Holiday faced in the publishing of “Strange Fruit.” While Holiday was only praised for her work so long as it lacked any sort of social commentary, West is praised when he combats authority to any degree, even if his message is not entirely ethical or important for the majority of the race that he claims to represent.

Kanye’s vanity is the primary example of how all of his musical endeavors ultimately promote his own fame and commercial success. West once admitted in an interview with the New York Times that “Kanye and vanity are like, synonymous.” While West’s vanity initially appears as a method of black empowerment through unabashed self-love, it quickly becomes clear that Kanye really only expresses excessive self-love because it enhances his career as a performer. Kanye talks about the importance of his “‘gevity,” (longevity) as an artist in the spotlight, as well as the idea that he is the embodiment of “complete awesomeness.” When he talks about giving back to the community of fans that support him, he states that he wishes to do so through providing them with the fashion line of clothes he makes, because his “passion is for humanity.” But with his long-time position in the spotlight, West neglects to mention that the clothes he designs and manufactures cost hundreds and thousands of dollars. In that case, it’s clear that Kanye doesn’t understand the lives of common people; all he truly understands is how much money and commercial success he wants to make. How does expensive clothing have anything to do with a passion for humanity? Just one example of his out-of-touch lifestyle, Kanye West clearly has lost touch with what it feels like to be an ordinary American – African American or otherwise. If he can’t understand the lifestyle of the majority of the nation, how can he even begin to combat the struggles they face? He has the platform, but lacks the comprehension that the political and social protest requires. With regard to his role as a representative for the common masses, specifically with regard to race, West makes his most ridiculous remark yet in an interview reported by the Daily Currant, West says, “I am the next Nelson Mandela… I’m going to be a bigger hero than he ever was. Nelson Mandela did a lot of good work, don’t get me wrong. But I think I’m on track to do something even bigger. I liberate minds with my music. That’s more important than liberating a few people from apartheid or whatever.” West’s work of “liberating minds” may be true through the outward use of creative license in his music, but this has no social impact if minds are liberated but not actually moved to action. Whereas Mandela liberated lives physically and mentally, improving the social and political environment of an entire nation through his actions, West thinks that his raps about sex, money, fame, and drugs means that he is making more effective moral achievements than Mandela ever did. The remark, in retrospect, is despicably ignorant and demonstrates that Kanye really doesn’t understand social issues, or even care enough to truly research what it’s like outside of the bubble of fame. He claims that he now wants out of what he worked so hard to achieve, but it’s doubtful that West could last a day as an ordinary citizen, given his utter lack of understanding of the world around him. While West does demonstrate his unique moments of musical or creative talent, he still has his flaws: is he a once oppressed, daring musical activist, or just a self-absorbed performer trying to create a bigger name for himself? Listen to Yeezus with the supposed idea of racial protest in mind, and then decide. Artists like Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, and countless others were able to respectably execute their racial protests; it’s hard to tell if West is falling appropriately in the path behind them, or if he’s accomplishing his goal of creating his own unique path. Our biggest problem as listeners and consumers is that we often choose to listen to and share his music before we decide if that path is truly good or bad.