Black Skinhead
"Black Skinhead" (also stylized as "BLKKK SKKKN HEAD") is a song by American rapper Kanye West, from his sixth studio album Yeezus (2013).
The song's accompanying music video was directed by Nick Knight and features computer-generated imagery of West, with interactive options including "screen grabbing" and adjusting the speed of his vocals.
A remix featuring Miley Cyrus and Travis Scott, recorded shortly after the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, leaked online in January 2016.
"Black Skinhead" features production by French duo Daft Punk (Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter) the album's major producers, who had worked with West on "On Sight", "I Am a God" and "Send It Up".
"[4] Before the album's liner notes confirmed otherwise, many speculated that the song's beat was sampled from "The Beautiful People" by American rock band Marilyn Manson.
[5] The song's title uses "skinhead", which originated as a description of a 1960s British working-class male subculture whose members often had closely cropped hair.
[13] "Black Skinhead" has an industrial-sounding beat, and is part of the Yeezus character's opening segment of gnarled electro and pounding industrial rap.
[14][15] West begins the song with the lines: "For my theme song/My leather black jeans on/My by-any-means on" a reference to "Good Morning", the opening track of his third studio album Graduation.
This reflects his awareness, expressed on his 2005 single "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", that money and possessions are often equated with self-worth by young black men.
[18] He performed the song in front of a projected backdrop, which alternated between abstractly disturbing black-and-white imagery with colorful vintage price tags and the declaration "Not for sale.
Chris Martins of Spin described it as providing "the sort of aplomb and production value that the show hasn't felt since ... well, probably the last time West visited", noting "'Black Skinhead' documents Ye's dynamic transition from rap champ to rock star.
"[19] Stereogum's Liz Pelly branded the song an "aggressive new track" and claimed that "West's stage presence on SNL was full of rage.
It is the second track on West's sixth studio album Yeezus,[22] and was sent to UK contemporary hit radio stations on June 19.
"[25] On June 28, 2013, Def Jam Recordings confirmed the song would be serviced to US radio stations as the first single from Yeezus at the same time as a clean version was released to DJs.
[29] The staff of Popdust rated the song five out of five, describing it as what "would've sounded at home on Top 40 in the late-'00s, at least if you stripped away all the growling bass and the background yelps and turned the drums down in the mix considerably".
[30] The Guardian's Alexis Petridis pointed out "the battering bovver-glam drum and sampled screaming of 'Black Skinhead'" is an example on the album where, "West appears to be operating under the influence of industrial music".
[32] Jon Pareles of The New York Times described West as "angry" as he snarls "over a track that switches between a blunt glam-rock drumbeat and a distorted synthesizer line.
"[34] Rolling Stone named "Black Skinhead" the third-best song of 2013, saying: "'Ye rapping rabid over an industrial glitter-rock stomp pumped with heavy breathing and Tarzan screams.
"[36] NME named it the tenth-best song of 2013, writing: "There isn't a more fascinating pop star in the world than Kanye West right now.
'Black Skinhead' was a microcosm of why that's the case: three breathless and almost-punk minutes that covered the central complexes – ego, messiah and persecution – of his dark and twisted psyche.
"[37] Ranked 43rd by Spin, their staff said that "Our Lord and Savior Yeezus Christ blacks out about mass incarceration and never-not-mutating racism atop a vaporous mountain of Louis Vuitton pipedreams.
[40] For the five months leading up to the single's announcement, West worked on a music video for "Black Skinhead" with photographer Nick Knight.
[42] Shortly afterwards, West stated via Twitter that the leaked version of the video was incomplete and released without his approval; the song's title was stylized as "BLKKK SKKKN HD" in the tweet.
[43] Its interactive portion allows users to control the video's speed down to almost one-sixteenth the normal rate, as well as take screenshots for use on social media platforms.
[46] The primary action takes place in the middle portion of the screen occupied by a shirtless, computer-generated version of West, wearing a long chain and leather pants It raps the song's lyrics and dances.
[50] Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly viewed the music video as something that "looks pretty awesome", writing: "It's impressive, though honestly it's not nearly as good a promotional clip for 'Black Skinhead' as the trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street.
[77] He would perform it again with added instrumentation from an electric guitar for the Free Larry Hoover Benefit Concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on December 9, 2021.
[79] A mashup of it with "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson was played by American DJ Girl Talk at a North Carolina show in July 2013.
[81] A mashup of "Black Skinhead" and "Shoot the Runner" by Kasabian was performed by indie rock band Catfish and the Bottlemen on the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge in February 2015.
[83] It was used in the opening scene for the 2016 period drama TV series Underground,[84] and a cover by Jacques Slade, THURZ & El Prez was featured in the 2016 American comedy film Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising.
