"Who Will Survive In America" is the thirteenth and final track from Kanye West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010).[1] It acts as an outro to the previous track, "Lost In The World".
The song solely uses vocals from Gil Scott-Heron's 1970 spoken poem, "Comment #1".[2] Kanye did this to prove that all of the fame and money isn't worth it in the end.[3]
At Gil's memorial in June 2011, Kanye performed "Lost In The World" and this song.[4]
Production[]
Along with Gil's vocals, the song also samples its drums from Mountain's 1972 song, "Long Red".[2]
Background[]
Originally, the track was not meant to release separately with "Lost In The World".[5]
Lyrics[]
Us living as we do upside down
And the new word to have is revolution
People don't even want to hear the preacher
Spill or spiel because God's whole card has been thoroughly piqued
And America is now blood and tears instead of milk and honey
The youngsters who were programmed to continue
Fucking up woke up one night digging
Paul Revere and Nat Turner as the good guys
America stripped for bed and we had not all yet closed our eyes
The signs of truth were tattooed across her often entered vagina
We learned to our amazement untold tale of scandal
Two long centuries buried in the musty vault
Hosed down daily with a gagging perfume
America was a bastard, the illegitimate daughter of the mother country
Whose legs were then spread around the world
And a rapist known as freedom, free-doom
Democracy, liberty, and justice were revolutionary code names that preceded
The bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling
In the mother country's crotch
What does Webster say about soul?
All I want is a good home and a wife
And a children and some food to feed them every night
After all is said and done, build a new route to China if they'll have you
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Credits[]
Adapted from Spotify[6]:
- Performed by Kanye West
- Written by Jeff Bhasker, Alfred Scramuzza, Edwin J. Bocage, Gil Scott-Heron, Kanye West
- Produced by Kanye West, Jeff Bhasker
References[]
- ↑ https://open.spotify.com/album/20r762YmB5HeofjMCiPMLv
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.whosampled.com/Kanye-West/Who-Will-Survive-in-America/
- ↑ https://genius.com/Kanye-west-who-will-survive-in-america-lyrics
- ↑ https://pitchfork.com/news/42708-kanye-performed-at-gil-scott-herons-memorial/
- ↑ https://krakenfiles.com/view/5T4a873J5x/file.html
- ↑ https://open.spotify.com/track/4e5IPJxSGVWPsaxQzdRseN