Media Meditation #3: Who will survive in America? Runaway by Kanye West

Runaway by Kanye West

Mr. Kanye West has come out with yet again another well filmed music video. However, this new joint isn’t a video at all but rather a short film. The film was directed by Mr. West himself and stars the stunning Victoria Secret model, Selita Ebanks. The writer for film was Mr. Hype Williams, art director Ms. Vanessa Beecroft, and producer Mr. Jonathan Lia.

The film is extremely artful from the costumes to the lighting. As far as short music films go, I feel this is a must see. Many people aren’t a fan of Mr. West’s work as a musician but I urge them to at least watch this short film with the music off. Personally, I feel the music isn’t as good as some of his previous work. Somehow Mr. West transcends a feeling of arrogance for the mass media icon he has come to embody. Many consider him to be a self-proclaimed musical genius. Clearly in this new video Mr. West has a few issues he feels he needs to address and he cannot help but put his thoughts into plane words. (Seriously, no matter how hard he tries to bend his words; they still sound flat and don’t fit into the beat) The music at some points could pass for an outright rant.

The intro to the film starts with Ms. Nicki Minaj speaking in an English accent which slowly fades into an American urban chain of commands. Mind you that Ms. Minaj was born in Trinidad and raised in New York City. I didn’t understand what that was all about. Ms. Ebanks’s character in the film is a fallen Phoenix that has crash landed on Earth in a fire ball directly in front of Mr. West’s Tatra MTX V8 (this car is hot).





Tatra MTX V8i

The Phoenix was naturally shaken (just crashed into Earth) and was taken back to Mr. West’s ballin’ contemporary pad in Prague, Czech Republic (where the film was shot). The first scene with dialog starts out with the Phoenix waking up in Mr. West’s bed and starts to listen to what is being told on the television. It is a news programs and the Phoenix is shocked to find out that in the fire ball she crash landed into Earth in; had started forest fires. Mr. West turns off the Bang & Olufsen television and then utters this statement:

“First rule in this world babe – don’t pay attention to anything you see in the news”

Profound…

The next sense is him playing a beat he made through Bang & Olufsen home audio equipment…tasteful product placement.

After that we move to the next track which has horns in it which is complimented by a marching band with a Michael Jackson head following it. I guess this is Mr. West’s way of paying tribute to the king of pop. The scene is yet again a very colorful light oriented display of fireworks. I’m not even going to comment on the red hoods because I simply don’t know what that is about.

The dinner scene seems like an artful rant and I’m not that consumed in Mr. West’s iconic life to understand its relevance. Just simply watch the Czech ballerinas and note the skin tone on the servants and the dinner guests.

The final scene is a lesson for Mr. West in where statues come from. According to Ms. Ebanks they are Phoenixes that never burned and left to go back to their world. Mr. West doesn’t want her to leave and claims that he’ll never let her burn and proceeds to engage in a romantic evening. I’m not sure how I feel about him take Bon Iver’s Woods track. I thought Jay-Z said auto-tune was dead?



Runaway by Kanye West

Perhaps the most unnerving part about the whole movie is the speech at the end of the movies where this is said. It isn’t Mr. West saying it and I haven’t been able to find out who it is but I think it is Amiri Baraka.

Us Living How We Do On The Side Now,
And the new words of hell is revolution,
people don't even want to hear the preachers spill or squeal,
because gods hoard has been thoroughly peaked
And America is now blood and tears instead of milk and honey,
the Youngsters who were programmed to continue fucking up,
woke up one night diggin far and reveal Thinking Paul revere and mat turner as the good guys
America stripped from bed and we have not all yet closed our eyes

The signs of truth were tattooed across our authentic vagina,
We learned to our amazement the untold tale of scandal,
2 long centuries burried in a rusty altar hosed down daily with gagging perfume,
America was a bastard a illegitimate daughter of the mother country whose legs were spread around the world and a rape as known as freedom,
Democracy liberty and justice were code words, for the (bubbling x4)
In the mother countries crotch,
What does Webster say about soul?
All I want is a good home and a wife and kids,
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?