I'm sure by now lots of people have heard about Kanye West's comments during a Katrina victims's fundraiser. On national TV, he was able to say "George Bush doesn't care about black people," before being cut off. He also mentioned how the lack of National Guardsmen was hurting the effort to actually save lives and how they now have "shoot to kill" orders.
Check out the video of all this here:
http://www.dharmaboost.com/kanye-west-slams-bush-nbc-red-cross-fundraiser.html
More below the flip.
Or if you'd rather, here's the Alternet article on his comments.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03574702.htm
Kanye's a great rapper. I've liked him since his fist single, Through the Wire, dropped a while ago. In his second single, he hit on some heavier issues, which kind of cemented my liking of him (and has helped bring back a socially aware voice into rap that has been missing for some time).
We shine because they hate us, floss cause they degrade us
We trying to buy back our 40 acres
And for that paper, look how low we a'stoop
Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coop/coupe
Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack
And a white man get paid off of all a dat
He is about to release his second album. The first two singles have come out. The second, Gold Digger, features Jamie Foxx and lyrics about how women should stand up for working class men. The first single, Diamonds from Sierre Leone, takes samples from Diamonds Are Forever and some pretty heavy lyrics, very contrary to the idea of bling.
Though it's thousands of miles away
Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today
Over here, its a drug trade, we die from drugs
Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs
And recently, on MTv, he spoke about homophobia in rap music. While he is not the best at articulating speech, his point was made that homophobia is wrong and has got to end. Which is a very powerful message, and he layed it down pretty well.
http://gaylife.about.com/b/a/195376.htm
You can listen to a couple of new tracks on his site www.kanyewest.com if you want to check him out. A new face for popular protest music. Something we really need more of right now.