Chain Heavy - Intellectual

Referring to Kanye’s meme phrase spoken during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; Kanye exaggerates the effect his words had on the media’s coverage of Katrina

In his memoir Decision Points, President Bush refers to Kanye’s emotional exclamation as one of the “lowest points” during his presidency. Kanye recently sympathized with the president during an interview with The Today Show

Also, this is probably also a shot at many people who said that Katrina happened because of the greed and general sinfulness of the New Orleans, which brings a whole ‘nother set of unfortunate implications given that NO is a majority Black city.

Two schools of thought:

The Great Sphinx of Giza’s nose was destroyed by a Muslim traveller who was upset that peasants were making offerings in the hopes of a better harvest.

Or to the conspiracy theory that white archaeologists removed the Sphinx’s facial features to obscure its African origins. As a “fuck you” to these alleged re-writers of history, Kanye goes extra hard. Although there’s little to back this claim up, it goes along with Kanye’s conspiracy/black history motif throughout the song.

Kanye, offended by this iconoclasm, asks his good buddy Jacob the Jeweler (see the two of them pictured below) for three or four more chain links on his chain for each inch of the nose. Given that the nose was one meter wide, that’s a shitload of links…

In the aftermath of the 2009 VMAs incident, the then-new and rising social media platform Twitter became lit afire with discourse, including some less than charitable accusations towards West, particularly from white people given the digital courage of anonymity to call Kanye one particular slur, repeatedly.

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Sadomasochism is giving and recieving punishment (usually phyisical) or humiliation, but enjoying it. To put it simply, it’s like rough sex but worse. Whips and chains are two tools those that enjoy S&M would use.

Whips and chains also represent cars and necklaces, respectively. Many rappers become obsessed with buying expensive versions of these items in order to flaunt their wealth and one-up their peers in the rap game. The pain from these whips and chains may hurt a lot later if their value has greatly depreciated when it comes time to resell them.

In a solar eclipse, the moon blocks the suns light from reaching earth. This line can mean two things, his flow covers other peoples flows as his are ever so better, and it could also mean that his flow is black, like the earth when a solar eclipse happens, keeping up with his previous lines about race and the treatment he receives just for being black.

Kanye West was, at the time of the song’s recording, working on his next studio album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which was set to be his return to glory after the harsh reaction he had garnered from his 2009 VMAs incident. He had believed it to be a masterpiece, and according to critical and public reception it certainly was.

Kanye comments on present racism amongst buying houses as realtors often try to persuade black people to live amongst other black people

This could mean several things as periods are experienced by many womens differently.

Kanye could be implifying that life is stressfull and making him anxious as those kind of emotions can be experienced during periods that are very painfull

When rappers tried to start something with Talib, he didn’t quiver with fear; he just laughs it off, because he knows he’s always got lyrical superiority on his side.

Kweli also uses his wordplay to call the people who want to beef with him “corny”, referring to corned beef.

A Hip-Hop “Purist” is someone who believes that only certain rap music, usually 90' era or earlier, is “real”. Talib Kweli is an artist who is usually considered to be real by purists. He claims that you can only understand his rhymes if your a purist and a real hip hop fan rather than just a “tourist”.

In his hood,feebler people are robbed of their jewerly (“Juks” is slang for stick-up).Maybe they’d tuck their chain like Red on Friday
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=szFUbTbC5cU

Given the message of this line, it’s surprisingly hard to find a picture of Talib Kweli in a suit! Best we can do is that he’s on the left here in this photo from his 2011 appearance on The Colbert Report

But it’s fitting for Kweli to endorse suit-wearing on this 2010 Kanye track. During this era, Ye required people to wear suits while creating My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. As Chris Rock commented:

All the the guys… all the engineers were in black suits, white shirts and black ties. He set up a mood. When you walked in there you felt this mood.

Conversely, others are bound to suits in their positions, either trying to make ends meet or trying to keep their foothold in society. They don’t strive for anything, they remain stagnant and wear the suit like it is imposed on them, rather than being embraced by them.

GOAT was a book about Muhammad Ali, published by Taschen in 2004. This line continues the list of great yet controversial black men of the last five lines and serves as a reminder of how we can grow to love someone we’ve once hated, and just how far black people have come in America (from chattel slavery to cultural icons).

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A reference to the classic Public Enemy track “Burn Hollywood Burn” – an anti-establishment creed of early rap

Also a reference to the prolific novel ‘The Day of The Locust’ in which all of hollywood burns down for being a fake, superficial place. Also a reference to the L.A. riots of 1992 and 1970.

This line may connect to the previous, because if someone who was not already dark skinned tried to “get extra black”, they would most likely get sunburned.

While WASPs like to portray Jesus Christ as a white dude, the rest of the world knows that Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew and probably black if The Book of Revelations has any meaning, see Chapter 1, Verses 13 through 16:

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

This is also a continuation of the theme of the song; Kanye West carrying the burden of all the hate he was receiving. The chain that the media put on Kanye was almost too much — almost leading him to kill himself — but through the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy he was able to break out of those chains.
In this context, Kanye juxtaposes his chains with the cross that Jesus had to carry up the mountain, but also frames himself as Jesus.
He is black, just like Jesus, and has frequently referred to himself as a god, so it is not a stretch to interpret this as him talking about himself as well.

Kanye west wearing a crown of thorns, similar to Jesus

Kanye is referring to the lack of representation that black celebrities get in the media, especially in the entertainment capital of the world; Hollywood. He emphasizes the unreasonably large amount of time it takes for black celebrities to get the recognition that they deserve when he says that he’ll probably get cremated before he gets his urn, meaning that as a black man, he’ll probably perish before he even gets a chance to get his deserved recognition, purely because of the color of his skin.

Yes, Kanye actually had diamond dentures implanted on his lower set of teeth. As he said on The Ellen Show:

It’s just certain stuff that rock stars are supposed to do, you know?

To be fair, he already had fake teeth in his mouth. The real ones were knocked out in the car accident he speaks about in “Through The Wire”. If your teeth are fake they might as well be made of diamonds… right?

Double entendre:

Ye' is getting the crowd hype as fuck and got them sweating.

Ye’s chain is so heavy it’s making him sweat. Him being the show off he is probably wants that to to happen so people will know his Chain Heavy.

Plus knowing how he’s on that stadium status he has a lot of sweaty people in one place.

It’s also worth noting these lines are interpolated from a cut My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Song known as “Sweat On My Face”.

Not only is Kanye’s physical chain heavy, his metaphorical chains are too. After a year of being reviled by pretty much everyone, Kanye was done being painted as the bad guy. He broke free of the chains placed on him by the media and rose back to prominence like, well, a phoenix

The song and hook also seem to be a play on the song “Heavy” by Gucci Mane.

Kanye is actually using a double entendre here; he’s using the definition of the word flooded as in an area which is filled with liquid, and using another meaning of the word flooded often used by various hip-hop artists as a way of emphasizing the cost of their jewelry.

B.A. Baracus was a character played by Mr. T in the ‘80s TV show The A-Team.

Mr. T was known for wearing gold chains.

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Racial ‘chains’ that are forced upon minorities through systemic racism tend to be big focal points within Talib Kweli’s music, such as in “Get By.”

From infractions at simple traffic stops leading to court for things that often didn’t happen, were exaggerated, or were out of someone’s control, many people of color — especially from lower income areas — find themselves in the prison system.

This form of racism has been passed on for generations, stemming from 19th and 20th century black codes like “Vagrancy” and even earlier instances of biased laws. Talib Kweli, as a teenager that grew up in Brooklyn, had seen firsthand many of the long term effects of these bygone laws in the modern age, which was one of the main reasons why he chose to become a rapper.

It’s worth noting Kanye said post-Taylor Swift incident that he wanted to return to the music his fans originally started loving him for. Kweli has an excellent guest verse on Kanye’s Get Em High from The College Dropout, and his work with Mr. West goes back even further (Wack Niggaz)

A continuation of his self-depiction as Jesus, Kanye posits himself as a martyr here.

The frequent lashes that Jesus had to deal with on the long journey up the mountain to be crucified did not break his spirit or will, and never made him change his true self.

Similarly, the harsh criticism that Kanye received after his controversial interruption at the 2009 VMAs ultimately failed to deter him from the limelight, as he released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and was propelled back into fame. He never changed either, with the album being considered a ‘backhanded apology’ by many, and he has since published many controversial lines, statements, and opinions that many have found distasteful.

“Chaining Day” is what some rappers like to refer to the day they get their “official” chains from their labels/crew. You can see the phrase in the video for “Through The Wire” and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy recently recounted the story of how the band received their Roc-A-Fella chains from Jay-Z in a semi-official ceremony.

J. Cole would later call a song Chaining Day.

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Q-Tip, who produced “Chain Heavy”, is a famous producer/MC known for being one third of A Tribe Called Quest.

Although you can’t really find a Kanye song with a hook regarding slaves (maybe a slight reference to slavery being on the hook to “Spaceship”), he has referenced slavery in the past.

One time being on “Crack Music,” although he didn’t say this himself:

Now the former slaves trade hooks for Grammys

Another being on a track that made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy:

The soul music of the slaves that the youth is missing

Later in Kanye’s career he made a song all about how us human are now slaves.

A reference to the slave chains (literal and figurative) that bound and continue to bind the African-American community. In addition, Kanye correctly predicts MBDTF’s future status as a masterpiece of rap (and music, period) thus giving Kanye (and other Black men involved), the ability to buy back [their] 40 acres, and free themselves from the grip of corporate White America.

The last two words of this line could also be a double entendre paying homage to Master P.

Many rappers over the years have flipped the “don’t make dollars it don’t make sense/cents” line. Kweli does it here too

Thanks to DJ Quik for the dollar/sense/cents meme!

This is word play off of men calling their wives/girlfriends the “old ball and chain” (the next line mentions a girl)

Kanye’s Rosewood Movement is a reference to the Rosewood Massacre of the Civil Rights era, where tons of black demonstrators were savagely killed

The Dior Homme black denim suit is Kanye’s official Rosewood suit

Surprisingly, the two actually appeared together on a song. Granted, it was a remix for the NBA, and they probably never came face to face… and it featured Shaquille O'Neal… but that still counts, right?!

Ice Cube was hard and “black.” Willing to say things like, “fuck the police.” (“All Falls Down” (Original))

Michael Jackson wrote amazing pop hits and classics that will never die. Michael Jackson was also a black male who “was white.” I believe this is a reference to how many people think that Kanye doesn’t “act black.” (“Everything I Am”)

West is calling himself the combination of a hard black man who isn’t afraid to say what he believes, and a man who “acts white enough” for white america to be comfortable with him “[getting] them singles though.” ‘Ye’s gonna sneak into the suburb and then “Get extra black on 'em.”

Also important: White people hate Ice Cube. White people love Michael Jackson. Or maybe, “A nigga you love to hate.” (“Take One for the Team”)

DOUBLE ENTENDRE ALERT

When people text, or chat with all caps, it usually shows that the person is pissed off or mad at something. When he Twitters, Kanye often uses the “Caps Lock” key to VENT HIS FRUSTRATION

The trend among rappers has been to cap their teeth with gold or diamonds. Yeezy’s taken it to another level – he’s removed his lower teeth and replaced them with diamonds!

The best part: grillz rot your teeth, whereas Yeezy’s diamond caps will provide him with decades of dental comfort

Most well known for his Academy Award-nominated performance in Hotel Rwanda, Don Cheadle is a darker-skinned black man, the shade Kanye prefers. Get extra black also means that he has to act more black. The previous line says “Why y'all got all caps on?” This is a stereotype for black people.

This line is also similar to a line on Mos Def’s 1999 song “Do it Now”:

I’m black like Don Cheadle shoutin' power to the people

Mos Def and Kanye West were frequent collaborators around this time, working on songs like “Lord Lord Lord” and “Don’t Look Down.” The overall message of the lines is very similar as well, with “all caps” being comparable to “shoutin'.”

NAACP stands for National Advancement Association Colored People

Muhammad Ali’s original name was Cassius Clay. Often considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, this meaning of the line follows the theme of African American ‘GOATS,’ including Miles Davis, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jackson, who specialized in jazz, basketball, and pop music respectively, and all of which — with the exception of Miles Davis — Kanye met. Like Jesus and Kanye West, they were all controversial, whether it be Ali’s refusal to enter the military, Davis' rampant arrogance (similar to Kanye West’s), Kobe’s sexual assault case, or Michael Jackson’s pedophilia allegations.

In this context, he proposes the question “How many Cassius' will we see in one lifetime?” as a way to suggest that the new era of the United States is filled with talented African Americans, a triumphant juxtaposition to some of the other themes present within the song that deal with systemic racism and other societal injustices. He also likely is implying that he is included in the list of talented African Americans, similar to the earlier line “What color was the skin of the man who beared the cross?”

Additionally, Kanye employs a brilliant equivocation with “Mike” in order to make the listener guess whether he’s talking about Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, or Mike Tyson — who were all three famous African Americans — considering the fact that the three prior examples of Miles Davis (a musician), Muhammad Ali (a boxer), and Kobe Bryant (a basketball player), all mirror the professions of Jackson, Tyson, and Jordan respectively.
This is similar to Jay-Z’s line on their collaborative song “Niggas in Paris”:

Psycho, I’m liable to go Michael, take your pick
Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Game 6

Kanye West and Muhammad Ali in 2008

Kanye references theories regarding the Pyramids of Egypt and how Aliens were involved in their creation.

Additionally, he may be alluding to the alien ambience of the beat for this song which was produced by Q-Tip, and how it sounds similar to films or music with the same topics.