In his song, “All Falls Down”, Kanye addresses an issue that almost every individual faces, but is too scared or nervous to openly admit: being self-conscious. The song opens with a prolog in which Kanye states that this is “the real one” since he sampled Lauren Hill’s track “Mystery in Iniquity” for the hook of the song (whosampled.com).
The first verse begins with Kanye addressing a woman who has no idea what she’s doing in college, however, as the title of the album and many other songs in the album (especially the skit about diplomas) suggests, the true audience of this statement is Ye himself. The following line about how she won’t drop out because her “parents will look at her funny” resonates strongly with me. I was encouraged to pursue a degree I had no interest in, but in the end, I made my own decision to study what I wanted. Kanye is speaking to the pressure that many students face about only studying something that their parents want them to study or something that will make them money, rather than doing something that makes them happy. The song throughout resonates with this common theme about being worth more than you are perceived to be.
In one of Kanye’s most iconic lines, he raps “ Couldn’t afford a car so she named her daughter Alexis”, which is a brilliantly crafted pun addressing the issue of materialism. To compensate for something someone may be missing out on in their life, or to create a better image of oneself, the line speaks on how people will turn to material things to fill an empty gap in their life.
Kanye addresses his own insecurity in the final verse of the song, talking about how “ [he]’ll buy a lot of clothes”, how we went to “Jacob with 25 thou” and how he has “a problem spendin before [he] gets it”. To contradict all this, however, he states “I got a couple past due bills”, showing how to compensate for his insecurity, he’s buying all these materialistic things to feel as if he fits in. All of this, however, is designed to make African-Americans feel insecure and use their money to benefit the “white man”.
Ultimately the song addresses the tendency for lower class individuals to compensate for the losses in their life with materialistic items. Kanye is showing everyone that insecurity is within all of us, the only difference is how each of us chooses to cope with it or even accept it at all.
Musical Analysis 