Diamonds Are Forever

沒事先來聊聊Kanye West好了，他最新的一張"808's and Heartbreaks"走的風格我個人實在不太喜歡。如果不是那首Amazing被NBA拿來當上一季季後賽的theme song，這張專輯大概聽過一次以後就會永遠被塵封在我的iPod裡面。

所以，我特別懷念他前兩張College Dropout跟Late Registration專輯。這兩張專輯裡面有幾首歌不僅編曲相當巧妙，歌詞也別有深意。Jesus Walk、Never Let Me Down探討的種族、人性題材都非常深入。

這首"Diamonds from Sierra Leone"也是一個好例子。

光看歌名就知道這首歌要講的是來自西非的衝突鑽石，也就是之前電影演過的「血鑽石」。sample來自於1971年的007電影主題曲由Shirley Bassey演唱的"Diamonds Are Forever"。West一直都持續在關注西非血鑽石的消息，當地軍閥政府為了一己利益，剝削人民勞力開採鑽石，甚至虐待童工，以換取政權利益。因此West又重新remix這首歌，重寫歌詞，找來Jay-Z合唱。並且兩個版本都收在第二張Late Registration專輯裡面。

看看歌詞：

Good Morning, this ain't Vietnam still
People lose hands, legs, arms for real
Little was known of Sierra Leone
And how it connect to the diamonds we own
When I speak of Diamonds in this song
I ain't talkin bout the ones that be glown
I'm talkin bout Rocafella, my home, my chain
These ain't conflict diamonds,is they Jacob?
don't lie to me mayne
See, a part of me sayin' keep shinin',
How? when I know of the blood diamonds
Though it's thousands of miles away
Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today
Over here, its a drug trade, we die from drugs
Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs
The diamonds, the chains, the bracelets, the charmses
I thought my Jesus Piece was so harmless
'til I seen a picture of a shorty armless
And here's the conflict
It's in a black person's soul to rock that gold
Spend ya whole life tryna get that ice
On a polar rugby it look so nice
How could somethin' so wrong make me feel so right, right?
'fore I beat myself up like Ike
You could still throw ya Rocafella diamond tonight

歌詞當中他代表在當地受難的非裔同胞向世人抗議，懇求富有的人們放棄手上的閃亮鑽石，即使鑽石恆久遠，但是苦難絕不能永久流傳。

MTV的部份可由此點入觀看。