The 50 Best Kanye West Songs Ever

27. New Slaves

Release Date: June 18th, 2013

Album: Yeezus

Writer(s): Kanye West, Christopher Breaux, Cydel Young, Bon Bronfman, Malik Jones, Che Smith, Elon Rutbeg, Sakiya Sandifer, Louis Johnson, Mike Dean, Gabor Presser, Anna Adamis

Producer(s): West, Bronfman, Dean, Travis Scott, Noah Goldstein, Sham Joseph, Che Pope

Notable Lyric:

“So go and grab the reporters

So I can smash their recorders

See they’ll confuse us with some bullsh*t

Like the New World Order”

There might not be a better example of the darkness that preceded “Bound 2” than “New Slaves.”

Laid over the top of aggressive-but-minimalist industrial beats, Kanye argues that the black man in America remains a slave. Perhaps not literally, but in the sense that they are obsessed with unattainable dreams and oppressed by institutions that have been slow to catch up with what progress has been made over the last century.

The politics inevitably gives way as Kanye finds new ways to insult and demean — particularly about his adventures on a trip to the Hamptons — but it remains a powerful song on a powerful album. Sometimes Kanye’s scatter gun approach can distract, but sometimes — as in “New Slaves” — it enhances.

Next: 26. Heard 'Em Say