Me and this latest characterization of Kanye West ain�t never been friends. Maybe associates in passing, but never in constant rotation on my playlists. There was no urgent need for me to watch West�s �Monster� video. I avoided it like I avoided my mom with a hotcomb as a kid. With all the uproar surrounding West�s latest efforts, I took the plunge and braced myself as the video loaded.


�Monster� is a brazen visual of West�s battle with black masculinity, whiteness, and art. Horrific images of hanging women, the bleakness of the plot and setting, and other representations of a distorted reality are significant because of the hypervisible and hypersexual presence of whiteness. �Monster� forces notions of white supremacy to become visible to the audience, especially with West�s treatment of white women.

While I do not intend to suggest West�s �Monster� is not problematic, I am intrigued by his treatment of what John L. Jackson refers to as �racial paranoia.� Kanye West is not the only artist that picks my interest with teasing out the relationship between racial paranoia, performance, money, and Hip Hop. I�ve pondered similar musings about other rappers including T.I., Rick Ross, and Waka Flaka Flam. The jury�s still out.

It is certainly no surprise that the most recent cycles of corporate or mainstream Hip Hop cop the top spot as capitalism�s poster child. Quips and undertones of materialism and succumbing to a cloaked form of capitalism under the more street-credit worthy �game� run rampant. This peculiar social-historical moment of American culture, however, presents a unique intersection of race and economics seldom experienced by previous generations of (African) Americans.



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