Tragedy and struggle can truly motivate one to be the best they can be. Its evident that this is what happened for artist Kanye West. On October 23 2002, Kanye's life changed for the worst. He was in LA at a music studio working on up and coming tracks for certain artists. It was about 3 am when Kanye decided to leave. Being extremely tired, he crashed head on into another vehicle. Luckily Kanye didn't die. He did have some serious injuries though. His face was completely damaged and unrecognizable. Kanye West was soon rushed to the hospital where they had to insert a metal plate into his chin, and his jaw wired shut. His jaw remained wired for two months. (Shmoop Editorial Team)
His jaw was even wired shut while recording the song "Through The Wire". A song inspired by the accident and the trials and tribulations of his life. The title itself even has a meaning of its own because he had to speak his lyrics through the wire, if that makes sense. The whole idea for the song sort of came to him while he was in the hospital. He was lying in the hospital bed, as he heard Chaka Khans "Through The Fire" on the radio. He sampled the lyrics from the original song to use for his chorus. (Shmoop Editorial Team) Though he slightly changed the lyric from "through the fire" to "through the wire". Both have the same similar meanings of beating hard times, and triumphing.
This song has a bevy of memorable lyrics. But one that sticks out to me the most is this one. "If you could feel how my face felt, you would know how mase felt. Thank god I aint too cool for the safe belt". Kanye is basically describing how much pain he was in from the accident. When he says " you would know how mase felt", he is refferring to how rappers mase and ghostface killa got into a fight, and resulted in mase's broken jaw. He is also saying that if it wasnt for the seat belt, he wouldve been dead.
The song was a hit, and sprung Kanye West from the backgrounds of being a producer, to being a household name. It was a single off College Dropout, which went on to sell 3 million copies in the US. (Shmoop Editorial Team)
This is fascinating! I didn't know of his accident and his recording while having his jaw wired shut. Now that's dedication. Good background on some of the lyrics as well.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite songs when I was growing up. I like your blog and how you show a song and explain the background history about the person. The lyric you choose was one of my favorites in the song and I could never understand the Mase line.
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