In his new song “Wash Us In The Blood” the often megalomaniac rapper Kanye West makes the sirens howl. And he calls on the Holy Spirit.
Billie Holiday once sang about “Strange fruits” hanging from the poplars in the US: The blood stuck to the leaves and the roots, “black bodies swinging in the southern breeze”. Rapper Kanye West (in a version by Nina Simone) sampled the spot with the bloody leaves two years ago in “Blood on the Leaves”, it was about fame and self-destruction. Now he’s rapping blood again: Together with his music colleague Travis Scott, he has released the song “Wash Us In The Blood”, a harbinger of the upcoming album “God’s Country”. It is – also – about the mass protests against police violence against blacks in the United States. Sirens rise: first real police sirens, in the repetition they condense into a leitmotif. They put the listener on permanent alert. The beat is reminiscent of palpitations. West’s rap is angry, but it’s not full of rage.
The video intensifies the restlessness in the listener and viewer. Director Arthur Jafa has cut shaky cell phone pictures. West himself appears digitally alienated, plus a man, distorted image of a stereotypical African American: with wild, frizzy hair, lush gold jewelry and golden “barbecues” over his teeth. Videos of the police violence victims Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor are shown briefly; the latter can be seen dancing exuberantly. And African Americans in shortness of breath who are being treated in hospitals. “I can’t breathe” were the last words from George Floyd, whose violent death triggered the current protests. His words do not appear in the song. “Wash Us In The Blood” is not a charge against brutal and corrupt cops. No “fuck tha police” like NWA 20 years ago or rapper YG a few weeks ago. West, the “college dropout”, broadens the problem: everything is dirty and spoiled. “I grew up in the mud, the top is not enough”. His video shows violence and excess within the African American community. Powerful cars that circle and leave marks on the asphalt. Young men who sell drugs: “Whole life bein ‘thugs, no choice, sellin’ drugs”, raps West. Often there is no choice but to sell drugs. And again, a “life lost”. He doesn’t save in big words, he never does: “Genocide is what it does. Slavery what it does “he thinks.
Slavery and megalomania
He repeats these lines as he raps about the mass incarceration of black people. Director Ava DuVernay also made such a connection between the US prison system and slavery in the documentary “The 13th” (on Netflix and Youtube). The US prisons are a billion dollar business, the vast majority of the prisoners are dark in color. Like the number of those sentenced to death. “Thirty states still execute, thou shalt not kill”, Corapper Travis Scott criticized in the song ambiguously.
It also becomes biblical – as so often with the deeply religious rapper – in the chorus. The lines are reminiscent of the plagues from the Revelation of John: water turns into blood and kills life. Not so with West, who likes to be called Yeezus: He demands blood rain, but not in a martial sense. “Wash us in the blood,” says the chorus. The water is too weak, you need (Jesus) blood to wash yourself in.
Ultimately, it’s still about West itself, how could it be otherwise? The rapper speaks of himself in the third person: “They don’t want Kanye to be Kanye,” he says. “They tryna sign a calm Ye”, they want a tamed Kanye. West’s undeniable genius has already gone on horseback insane. He disturbed with statements about slavery (“For 400 years? That sounds to me at my own choice”). He proudly carried Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” on the cap and was previously seen as a supporter of the US President. He shares the enemy image of the media with Trump. “You know that it’s fake if it’s in the news”, says the current song.
Some call West the personified megalomania. Who else would call the Holy Spirit so demanding? “Holy Spirit Come down, we need you now”, it says at the end of the song, which is not suitable for the protest song. The sirens fade away and you can see West’s little daughter North dancing at a church choir rehearsal. In a troubling way, this seems conciliatory. Or resigned?
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