"New Slaves" is a song by American rapper Kanye West from his sixth studio album, Yeezus (2013). The song features additional vocals from Frank Ocean. It was produced by West and co-produced by Benjamin Bronfman, while Mike Dean, Noah Goldstein, Travis Scott, Sham Joseph, and Che Pope contributed additional production. West, Bronfman, and Dean co-wrote the song with Ocean, Cyhi the Prynce, Malik Yusef, Rhymefest, Elon Rutberg, Sakiya Sandifer, King Louie, and Anna Adamis, with Gábor Presser receiving credit due to a sample of his composition. In May 2013, the song was previewed by Hudson Mohawke at the Polish Free Form Festival and formally announced by Virgil Abloh. West debuted it with video projections of him rapping on buildings worldwide in locations like Los Angeles, London, and Amsterdam.
An industrial hip hop, political rap, and gothic rock song with electro and heavy metal elements, the production of "New Slaves" is minimalist and based on synths. The song samples "Gyöngyhajú lány" by Omega and "HBA War" by Dutch E Germ. Lyrically, West discusses racial politics as he connects black people's wealth classes to how consumerism holds them back. The song received widespread acclaim from music critics, who mostly highlighted West's lyrical message about racism. Some commended the style of the industrial production and saw it as an album highlight, while a few critics praised Ocean's contributions. The song was listed as one of the best tracks of 2013 by multiple publications, including Complex and Paste. At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, it received a nomination for Best Rap Song.
In the United States, "New Slaves" reached number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. West first performed it live on Saturday Night Live in May 2013, backed by projections of his face and discount price tag images. Later that year, he performed the song during The Yeezus Tour (2013–14). West stated that its second verse was the best rap verse of all time in July 2013. Presser issued a lawsuit over the song's allegedly unauthorized sample of "Gyöngyhajú lány" in May 2016, accusing West of not having made a formal deal. The two reached an undisclosed out-of-court settlement in March 2017, although it was reported that Presser had known of the sample prior to release. Hit-Boy re-worked the song on "New Chains" in July 2013, which was inspired by the freedom of James Somersett.
Background
In 2011, singer Frank Ocean was featured on the tracks "No Church in the Wild" and "Made in America" for Kanye West and fellow rapper Jay-Z's collaborative album Watch the Throne. After the appearances, Ocean developed more of a following and embarked on a tour for his debut album Channel Orange (2012). Ocean appeared on "New Slaves" in 2013, the same year as his feature on Jay-Z's song "Oceans". The singer's vocals on the song were revealed during West's video projections prior to release, with his mother confirming the appearance via Twitter. "New Slaves" was produced by West and co-produced by Benjamin Bronfman, with additional production from Mike Dean, Noah Goldstein, Sham Joseph, Che Pope, and GOOD Music signee Travis Scott. The first three producers served as songwriters with Ocean, Cyhi the Prynce, Malik Yusef, Rhymefest, Elon Rutberg, Sakiya Sandifer, King Louie, and Anna Adamis, with Hungarian composer Gábor Presser receiving a songwriting credit due to the sample of "Gyöngyhajú lány". After Yeezus production consultant Arca introduced West to "HBA War" by Dutch E Germ, he sampled it on the track.
On May 12, 2013, Scottish producer Hudson Mohawke previewed the song during his set at the Polish Free Form Festival. The preview featured the phrase "new slaves" repeatedly, although the title was not officially known nor if it would be on the album at the time. "New Slaves" was subsequently confirmed as the title by West confidant and fashion designer Virgil Abloh, and the song was also announced to be part of Yeezus. A 73-second snippet of the studio version was leaked to SoundCloud on June 5, 2013, becoming the first leak from the album. In a 2014 interview with Zach Baron of GQ, West recalled having engaged in around 30 meetings where he was advised to "Stay in your place". West elaborated that the conversations encouraged to "Stay in your box" and not go outside of his creative reach, which moved him to create tracks such as "New Slaves" and "Blood on the Leaves" for Yeezus, ideally setting out "a protest in music".
Composition and lyrics
Musically, "New Slaves" is an industrial hip hop, political rap, and gothic rock song, with elements of electro and heavy metal music. Its production is based on sparse, pulsing synths. The synths have a staccato rhythm that consists of stabs, with influences of punk rock rather than West's signature kicks and snares. The song has a minimalist melody, including a rhythmic breakdown, choral swirl, and Ken Lewis' noises and vocal sounds. It begins with a soft, dark bassline. The beginning also features a slowed sample of Dutch E Germ's "HBA War", which is interrupted by a three-note riff. For the outro, it moves into a chipmunk soul coda that lasts for a minute and 15 seconds. The coda combines pitch-altered vocals from Ocean with a sample of the 1969 single "Gyöngyhajú lány" by Hungarian band Omega. West delivers an aggressive performance, rapping in double-time and he does not deliver any hooks. Towards the end, he utilizes Auto-Tune to sing.
In the lyrics of "New Slaves", West links the wealth of different classes of black people to the counterproductive consumerism holding them back, referencing racial politics as he compares segregation to capitalism and companies controlling the citizens. He addresses the economic disparity between poor and rich African Americans, comparing the poor's racism of "Don't touch anything in the store" to the rich's "Come in, please buy more" in the first verse. The rapper blames the government and prison–industrial complex of the United States for the lack of a black middle class, accusing the Drug Enforcement Administration of working with the Corrections Corporation of America. West acknowledges the situation of leaders like himself and their followers, declaring that he would "rather be a dick than a swallower". He intones the N-word repeatedly and also mentions seeing "Blood on the Leaves", a reference to Billie Holiday's song "Strange Fruit" that is sampled on the album's track of the quote's name. West threatens prison owners living in the Hamptons of Long Island as he insults their spouses and houses towards the end, followed by Ocean delivering a freestyle falsetto that includes coos on the outro.
Release and promotion
"New Slaves" was included as the fourth track on West's sixth studio album, Yeezus, released on June 18, 2013, through his labels Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella. Prior to the song's release, West unveiled it with video projections at 66 buildings across the world on May 17, 2013. West posted the locations and times of the screenings via his website, including Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Toronto. A black and white projection of West staring onwards rapping the song was shown; Miriam Coleman of Rolling Stone said that the simplicity "provided a striking context for the rapper's searing lyrics on race and materialism". The projections launched the promotion of Yeezus, concluding with its title and release date of June 18, 2013. They were also shared via YouTube and Vine. Another projection at Miami Beach, Florida was shut down by police, albeit leaving fans excited and eager to see the song's then-upcoming performance on Saturday Night Live (SNL).
West updated his website's map with 24 other locations for projections on May 24, 2013. The locations included US cities like Atlanta, Austin, and Philadelphia, in addition to European cities such as Amsterdam, Birmingham, and Milan. Three of the projections were cancelled in Houston, including one at the Rothko Chapel due to a lack of permit. West also cancelled a screening in San Antonio for the same reason. West followed the projections of "New Slaves" by projecting other songs from the album on buildings across the world in June 2013, including North America, Europe, and Oceania. On December 23, 2013, West ranted during a concert at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on The Yeezus Tour that the song was part of the representations of "the opportunities and the blessings that I had in my life". West tweeted that the song's second verse was the best rap verse of all time in July 2013, an opinion he reiterated in his interview with GQ one year later.
Reception "New Slaves" was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, with general praise for West's lyrics about racism. Robert Christgau of MSN Music cited "New Slaves" as a highlight of the album, as did The Daily Telegraphs Helen Brown. Brown said that West takes on racism "with a ferocious urgency", despite the message becoming confusing. Writing for Drowned in Sound, Kyle Ellison hailed the song as the strongest track on Yeezus with its message of "anger and self-hatred", calling out "society's culture of aspiration" from West's insider position within society. He elaborated that West demands for listens by moving towards "the brutalist, industrial arrangements", deploying the "consumer and race politics" from throughout his career. Also picking "New Slaves" as the album's best track for the Los Angeles Times, Randall Roberts lauded it as a jam with "a nuanced rhythmic breakdown" that is just as aggressive "as it is hardened". Michael Madden of Consequence saw clarity in West's concept linking blacks of different classes with consumerism, listing it as one of the "essential tracks" of Yeezus. For The Fly, Alex Denney noticed how West manages to "swipe the double-time raps of Kendrick Lamar" and take from Lex Luger's production techniques for his minimalist work, calling out the racism of those assuming blacks "want nothing more than the symbols of conspicuous consumption" while condemning the prison–industrial complex. In MusicOMH, Jordan Mainzer was taken aback by the track's discussion of the economic and class differences between different African Americans. Mainzer elaborated that West laments the lack of a middle class for the group as he characterizes a larger society as "in on preventing it from flourishing", seeing the track as a version of Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music (2012) with Ocean's stylized outro. Jamie Milton of DIY was impressed with the track not holding back on its double-meanings by perfecting a "documentation of expectations on [the classes of] black America". He thought it jumps rapidly from the abrasive verses to Ocean's cries supported by the "Gyöngyhajú lány" sample, "a eureka moment" that validates the album's almost unattainable expectations.