You will find whatever the Kanye West you want to see in the new video for Wash Us In The Blood, the first single from the rapper’s upcoming album God’s Country.
The Kanye West who appeared at a Chicago Black Lives Matter protest last month? He’s in there. So too is the Kanye West who reportedly donated US$2 million (AU$2.9 million) to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, three Black Americans whose recent deaths sparked international outrage.
That Kanye is present, swapping bars about bloodshed and genocide with Travis Scott.
But if you look hard enough, you might equate imagery of roiling chains with Kanye’s 2018 assertion that slavery was a choice; when you hear him rap about mass incarceration, you may picture the Kanye who has openly barracked for US President Donald Trump – a man who threatened to sic the US military on those same Black Lives Matter protestors not even a month ago.
The video, directed by artist Arthur Jafa, shows Kanye’s faced wrapped in a kaleidoscopic mask. It changes each time you look at him.
Kanye claims “They” will “Cut a whole sentence to interlude / You know that it’s fake if it’s in the news.” Serves us right for latching on to a version of him that he may have already discarded.
Watch the clip below:
