New Slaves

The first single from American rapper Kanye West's sixth studio album was released on May 17, 2013 along with its video being projected onto various buildings. The first projection went up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, before being shown in a total of 66 different locations in North America, Europe, and Australia.

The song was produced by West with Ben Bronfman of the production collective Teachers. The pair first met during the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sessions a few years previously. Bronfman had heard West was working on a new record and had around seven beats ready when the Chicago hip-hop star contacted him. "He kept saying, 'Just make it hot, make it really dope,'" Bronfman recalled to Rolling Stone. "He didn't really get into specifics, which is funny - he's the type of person who will get really specific in person, but not on the phone. I heard that they were working on a follow-up to Cruel Summer, so I was just kind of riffing." Among the beats Bronfman passed onto West was one called "Cruel Cold Winter," which was eventually used for this track. Bronfman only heard his beat was being used when West invited him to a secret listening session for Yeezus in Roseland. "I got word, like, 'One of your tracks made it. It's ill. Come to the show, we'll talk about it there,'" he recalled. "He almost accentuated the track more. The only part he took was the beginning part - he made it even more minimalistic."

The song finds West tackling themes centering around racism. He starts by referencing his mom's experiences growing up in the era of segregation in the fifties when there were separate water fountains for white people and African Americans. Ye then tackles being broke and not being able to "touch anything in the store" as he was stereotyped as a black man who probably just wanted to steal something.