"That's why shorties hollering "where the ballas' at?/ Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack/ And a white man get paid off of all of that…" But it doesn’t stop there, because the same psychological mechanism that exploits minorities works on women! Kanye uses cliché to highlight racism’s distant cousin, sexism and its relevance to this discussion. Women (still) earn approximately 75 cents for every dollar earned by men. Subjugated and relegated to second class status for centuries, European women have long been pressured to cling to symbols of masculine wealth as an avenue to financial and social liberation. Indeed, “strong enough for a man; made for a woman” still resonates. Contemporary young black women navigating this neo-American landscape personify such age-old tendencies in a phenomenon we call gold digging. Kanye identifies with (or at least understands) the complex implications of having to look to men for economic security. Note for example, how on "Gold Digger" [click to read] the first single off of Late Registration [click to read], he says: “Now I ain't saying you a gold digger; you got needs.” Ultimately though, the indictment is still on capitalism, because to equate capital with freedom is a farce no matter whether you’re talking race, gender, or Jordan.

"But I ain't even gon' act holier than thou/ 'Cause fuck it, I went to Jacob with 25 thou/ Before I had a house and I'd do it again/ 'Cause I wanna be on 106 & Park pushing a Benz"… In a rare glimpse of vulnerability and transparency, Kanye admits that, for all his social criticism related to capitalism, he’s also a willing participant and therefore helping to perpetuate the very system he rails against. Anyone, myself included, can be critical. But to realize and acknowledge one’s own culpability in the grand scheme of things is not only commendable, but a necessary first step in effecting change. Said another way, it’s art.

"I wanna act ballerific like it's all terrific/ I got a couple past due bills, I won't get specific/ I got a problem with spending before I get it/ We all self-conscious I'm just the first to admit it." When we consider what is currently happening with the credit crunch and sub-prime mortgage crisis, this bar from 2004 seems absolutely prophetic. Millions of dollars have been lost, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes through foreclosure, and even the most optimistic experts are saying that things are looking grim. Fact is, the American Dream is largely built on the “buy now, pay later” model that allows us to drive cars, own homes, and watch televisions that take us years to pay for. When a platinum selling producer and rap star tells us that he’s got a problem with spending, we should listen. We should listen because Kanye’s point is that it is not only the poor and disenfranchised that suffer under the system- everyone does. On the verse prior to this one (cheating I know…bear with me) he says: "It seems we living the American dream/ But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem/ The prettiest people do the ugliest things/ On the road to riches and diamond rings."

This, I believe, is where it ultimately "All Falls Down." Like Wu-Tang’s "C.R.E.A.M." [click to read], Biggie’s "Things Done Changed," and 50 million dead prez songs before it, this verse captures the irony in how the pursuit of meaningless things in the name of success becomes the very device that prevents us from achieving true freedom and dignity. It also begs the question: Where do we turn once we realize that those we emulate are not only fucked up, they are also just like us?

_{1U.S. Census Bureau. 2000 Census of Population and Housing.
2U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics}