strange as it seems, there is a connection between the Grammy-award winning rapper and the nineteenth-century German philosopher, albeit a very vague one..
one of Frederic Nietzsche’s most famous quotes, “That which doesn’t kill us, only makes us stronger” is repeated as a line by West on his hit single ‘Stronger’, in which the rapper says “That what don’t kill me, only makes me stronger”
I don’t believe West intended to imbed Neitzsche’s philosophy in one of his tracks, although his ego tends to be similar to Nietzsche’s theories about the Ubermensch, which translates as ‘superhuman’, in which he believes to be better than every artist currently performing..
this is open for debate..
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One Comment
chris horrie Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
February 14, 2008 at 9:59 am
How do you know that this is not explicit. There is a big connection with ideas of black nationalism and radical anti-democratic ideas such as those of FN – Franz Fannon, Malcolm X and this is often expressed in rap music and the specific tradition of New York rap music – The Last Prophets; Gil Scott Heron, Michael Franti, Chuck D and public enemy.
The importance of rap music as a form of journalism is something that I am interested in, and want to develop as an area of study – “Music as Journalism” (as opposed to “Music Journalism”. I am very interested in Chuck D’s famous comment that “rap music is the black person’s CNN”.
There’s interesting things that need to researched along these lines about calpyso in the caribbean and how that evolved into a form social commentary. There is Fela Kuti in Nigeria. There is the oral and praise-singing tradition throughout Africa.
It is perfectly possible that the exposition on FN is deliberate. Why don’t you contact him or at least his PR people explain that you are starting out as a journalist and ask how it came to be that he is quoting FN in this way – the song and video is a clear reference to cyborgs, superhumans, manufactured people, blade runners, posthumans, replicants… etc
Maybe it all radical chic (in Tom Wolfe’s phrase from that article Radical Chic). Some people have expressed an interest in fashion – and the ‘radical chic’ is ther starting point for that really.
see also – Nietzsche, blade runner, popular culture, human evolution, eugenic effects of slavery, Malcolm X, Black Power, 2001, Kubrick… etc
Nietzsche’s embrace by popular culture is a very common form in undergraduate media studies work. It is very interesting disturbing stuff – used with u-grad arts and media students the world over.