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。