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Love Lockdown Analysis

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ESSAY Africa, Africans and African-ness can be signified in various ways. Some are more positive and others are stereotypical and harmful to those with an Afican identity. This essay will discuss the ways in which Kanye West’s music video for “Love Lockdown” refers to Africans and the female black body to express his feelings of love and hurt. This video was released in 2008 and was inspired by West’s break-up with designer, Alexis Phifer (Songfacts 2015:1). It was directed by Simon Henwood, who had designed West’s Glow in the dark tour (Songfacts 2015:1). In this music video, West tries to represent the feelings he experienced during the breakup by referenceing Patrick Bateman’s apartment of the film, American Psycho, as well as some traditional african warriors, dancers and other signifiers (Dorian 2013:1). I believe that this music video represents Africans and African-ness. The video does not use one signifier but a collection of them. This is seen in the various types of body paint, beads, masks and dress. However there are scenes within the film that reference American Psycho that contridict the idea of tracitional Africa. One could argue that in this particular case West was also trying to reconnect to his African heritage. Figure 1 Warriors Running. Simon Henwood (director). Kanye West - Love Lockdown. 2008. (Screen shot by author) (Henwood 2008) In Figure 1 we see Africans with masks, traditional dress and wooden spears and weapons running towards the

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