Reader's report on Kanye West's "Diamonds from Sierra Leone"

To the Publications Committee:

In this song, Mr. Kanye West looks at the layers of conflict in what are known as conflict diamonds. Conflict diamonds are the diamonds purchased largely, the song would have us believe, from Sierra Leone, but of course we know that this particular phenomenon is not limited to S.L. But you do have workers, the indigent and destitute, who are forced into a dangerous labor in which, as West accurately points out, "people lose legs, arms, for real!" These laborors are the source of most of our diamonds in the west, such as those sold at Jacobs. (NB Jacobs is a recurring presence in the work of Mr West. CF, "we can't make it to the ballot to choose leadership/but we can make it Jacobs and the dealership.") We have here a narrator who is conflicted himself about these conflict diamonds, which is an intriguing topic. There is an element of self awareness that is frankly compelling - the narrator, himself adorned in jewelery, disarmingly notes, "I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless." But it's not - why? As West goes on to say, "till I seen a picture of a shorty armless."


West is particularly sensitive to the layers of this conflict. He sensibly asks what does Sierra Leone have to do with life here, in the US? He answers his own question when he writes "over here there's the drug trade, we die from drugs/over there they die from what we buy from drugs." West has a good and keen sense of irony.

However, I do think that the song ultimately disappoints and I'm afraid I have to advise against publication. It is set up as a searching piece, and we've already seen that West is self aware narrator, attuned to ironies, not all of which are flattering, and yet he does two things that fail to convince. First of all, he paints the central struggle here in following terms: "it's in the black person's soul to rock that gold/spend your whole life trying to get that ice/...how could something so wrong make me feel so right?" That is a controversial statement and West doesn't back it up, and by attributing the desire for material goods to a - what? - genetic impulse?, we lose any sort of moral, or even of further criticism of that very impulse. Why doesn't West take a moment to think critically about the culture? Or even about capitalism? Secondly, before Shawn Carter picks up the second half of the narration, West seems to say that hey, it's ok. "Throwing your diamonds in the air" seems to be ok as long as you support Roc-a-Fella records. If this were presented as some sort of Faustian bargain, with West being aware that this is wrong, but doing it anyway, compromising his morals for Mammon, it would be one of the more interesting songs that this reader has come across in years. However, as it stands, West's capacity for self criticism, otherwise admirable, fails him most distressingly.

A final word. Carter's contribution is an embarrassment and I recommend you cut it. Technically, of course, it is good like all of his work - it's smooth, clever ("I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man") and yet in the context, it mystifies. The themes West raises in this song, however unsatisfactorily, are completely avoided by Carter. He instead talks about his own ability in the rap game, and in a particularly confusing bit recounts a litany of label mates who have his back. Indeed, he also discusses wealth in such a way that gives this reader absolutely no sense that he was even listening to the first part of this song.

Sorry for being so negative, but I hope these comments are useful.

Best regards,
Professor Xavier O'Malley