After changing the name of his new album multiple times, Kanye West settled on The Life Of Pablo . Despite wife Kim Kardashian's Twitter polls, it looks like SWISH and Waves got canned. This is West's seventh solo album and he is debuting the tracks at Madison Square Garden on Thursday during his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show in New York City. Because when you're Kanye, you don't just release your album, you have an entire fashion line to go with it. Lamar Odom even made his first public appearance at the event. While this all sounds a bit overwhelming, don't worry. There's one TLOP track that you should listen to first — "Feedback." (Update: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to this song as "Freestyle 4," prior to The Life Of Pablo being fully released.)
On YouTube, a fan live-streamed West's performance of the song, which truly stands out from the rest. The track really shows West's social conscience. At around the 0:45 mark, you can hear him make a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement. West says,
Hands up, we just doing what the cops taught usHands up, hands up and the cops shot us
This is an overt reference to the "hands up, don't shoot" chant, which has been associated with Ferguson and Michael Brown's death. Earlier in the song, West says, "Hands up, we just doing what the cops taught us" twice, but by the end it changes to "shot us." Clearly West is highlighting the ongoing activism that's fighting for racial justice. A similar message is conveyed in Beyoncé's latest track and video "Formation."
You can hear a snippet of the song below:
Of course, West is never one to shy away from voicing his opinion — even if that gets him in trouble. In this case, it's great to hear him raise his voice for such a strong movement. It's also worth noting that TIDAL (which is live-streaming the album at the Yeezy 3 show) reportedly will be donating $1.5 million to the Black Lives Matter movement and other social justice organizations, according to an exclusive report at Mic. So not only does West's song back the cause, but the streaming service does as well.
Who says music can't have an impact on social change? West totally proves that it's possible.
