Eight years ago today, we were blessed with a historic release day in hip-hop. Kanye West released his experimental Yeezus. J. Cole dropped his sophomore studio album Born Sinner. And Mac Miller came through with his album Watching Movies with the Sound Off. All three bodies of work went on to become defining moments for each respective artist. The top-performing album of the bunch was Yeezus with fans flocking to the strangely-curated, yet somehow beautiful album by one of the all-time greats.
As we celebrate the anniversary of all three of these amazing pieces of work, we’re shining a spotlight on “New Slaves,” which still hits ridiculously hard eight years later. Always ahead of his time, Kanye’s “New Slaves” sounds like it could have been a recent experimental record, so it’s wild to think that he made this almost a decade ago. With Juneteenth right around the corner too, fans are pointing out Kanye’s lyrics on Twitter, trending the title of the song as they remember what a time it was to be alive back in 2013.
Take a trip down memory lane by reading our new article: The Day Kanye West, J. Cole, & Mac Miller Took Over.
What do you think of “New Slaves” eight years later?
Quotable Lyrics:
So go and grab the reporters, so I can smash their recorders
See, they’ll confuse us with some bullshit like the New World Order
Meanwhile the DEA teamed up with the CCA
They tryna lock n***as up, they tryna make new slaves
See, that’s that privately owned prison, get your peace today
They prolly all in the Hamptons, braggin’ ’bout what they made
Fuck you and your Hampton house, I’ll fuck your Hampton spouse
Came on her Hampton blouse and in her Hampton mouth
Y’all ’bout to turn shit up, I’m ’bout to tear shit down
I’m ’bout to air shit out, now what the fuck they gon’ say now?