I am planning to write a more informal article that would appear on a music reviewing site like Pitchfork. I think my audience would likely be people who are interested in Kali Uchis’ current work, as she is a up and coming artist who is rapidly gaining popularity currently. The article will feature imbedded links and pictures. I’ll be referencing “Payments and Social Ties” and “Forms of Capitalism.” The goal of the article is to find why Kanye’s and Uchis’ views of the same subject differ so much.
Genre: Rap/hip hop songs
Audience: Share similar audience of rap and hip hop fans in their respective eras
Setting:
Kanye: Gold digger came out in 2005
Uchis: Came out in 2019, in a year where there are still constant videos that paint a villainous picture of what a gold digger is.
Message: How does each song paint a picture of a gold digger?
Uchis: A woman who does what she needs to do to feed herself and her family. She is defiant, and seems care free, but based on lyrics like “When bellies are hungry, but there ain’t no money, You get it and don’t care how,” it is clear she is carrying some burdens. She is someone that spends her money on what is important for the survival of her and her loved ones, and is empowered by the fact that she is able to find a way to feel those “hungry bellies”
Kanye: A beautiful woman who tricks men into paying for her flippant wants (liposuction, designer bags) and her children with her beauty, and then ties them down financially for “18 years” by getting pregnant with his kid. She is painted as someone who goes to rich man to rich man. She is a woman that Kanye is attempting to warn men of, urging men to protect their money and get a prenup. The woman is painted as irresponsible, constantly spending money on things she doesn’t need.
Purpose:
Kanye: Acts as a warning to alert others to protect their money in the face of “gold diggers.”
Uchis: Defend the work of women who enter into relationships for financial gain
Techniques:
Kanye: Kanye strives to alert men of this “kind of woman” by telling a story from the third person of what can happen to a man who falls victim to a gold digger. Telling a story in this way makes it seem like this is an ongoing phenomena that happens to many people, and helps alert his audience to how a gold digger can realistically destroy someone’s life.
In addition, Kanye samples Ray Charles’ song, “I got a Woman,” a song different literally in sonic tone, but extremely similar in rhetorical tone. This song follows Charles’ account of his own gold digger experience. Using this song from 50 years prior to the release of Kanye’s song that follows the same subject matter gives Kanye’s message more credibility by setting up the idea of a long running precedent of this “kind of woman”.
However, technically in the song, Kanye never labels the woman he is talking about the song as a literal “gold digger.” This could be a technique to resist responsibility to how poorly he is portraying the woman he is rapping about—as he technically “ain’t saying she a gold digger.” Yet, the song is literally called gold digger, the lyrics warn other men of the dangers of the kind of woman he is singing about, it samples a song about a gold digger, and he says gold digger in every single chorus.
Uchis: Rather than telling a story, Uchis tells her perspective directly of what and why her character does what she does to earn her money. By telling her story in first person, it is almost like she is directly answering back to the critics of what she does, such as those who would be following the narrative of Kanye’s song. She literally says “go and say what you want, you’re just a stranger”—an assumption that her listener is automatically critical and ignorant to what she does.
Her tone throughout the song, both in terms of the instrumentals and her vocal tone, sound very relaxed. This could be another technique that demonstrates her direct response to songs like “Gold Digger”. The relaxation in her tone shows how her character is unbothered by the criticism she receives for what she does, and she is confident in what she does to take care of herself and her family.
There is also a feature in the song by Steve Lacy, who repeats during the chorus “She don’t want love, she wants my hundred dollar bills.” Lacy acts as a direct stand in for the kind of man that Uchis is responding to—a man who fails to see the strength in Uchis’ character, and misunderstands her intentions.
Appeals:
Uchis: The biggest appeal Uchis sings about in this song is about why her character enters these kinds of transactional relationships. As she sings, “When bellies are hungry, but there ain’t no money, You get it and don’t care how.” This directly subverts the idea of the financially irresponsible woman in “Gold Digger” who uses the money meant for her children’s toys instead for liposuction. This appeals to her audience’s sense of empathy, as most people would do what they need to do to feed the hungry bellies of the people they love.
Types of Payments: How does each artist see the payment’s a “gold digger” receives?
Kanye: In “Gold Digger,” the most prominent kind of payment featured is an entitlement the woman receives through child support from the man she tied down for “18 years”. I think the men rapped about in Kanye’s song do not see “gold diggers” as doing work—but rather agents that manipulate men into giving them entitlements. It is apparent that the characters in this song don’t believe the women deserve this payment through entitlement, as Kanye’s character urges other men to sign prenup agreements—which would deny the woman any more entitlements upon divorce. In summary, the characters in this song see gold diggers as agents that receive undeserved entitlements from the men they engage with in relationships.
Uchis: I think it is seen that Uchis sees the money she earns through her ties with the men she meets as compensation. Rather than tricking men into “owing her money she deserves”, I think it is demonstrated that Uchis sees what she does as a direct and fair transaction that men tend to misconstrue. To Uchis, being this character that men desire is work. This is demonstrated in the lyric “Be the one that everyone likes, just approval ’til they die.” She is working hard to be the fantasy that these men approve of and desire, and therefore believes she deserves direct compensation for her emotional labor.
Comparison: I think a major tension between these two songs is the idea of whether or not “gold diggers” deserve the money they receive, and I think this tension can be seen in the concept of “entitlement” versus “compensation”. While “Gold Digger” criticizes a woman who does nothing yet is entitled to a man’s money, “Just a Stranger” responds back by demonstrating a woman who believes she is earning compensation for a direct transaction of emotional labor to economic capital. Seeing the gold digger’s earnings as compensation or entitlement dramatically changes how the listener empathizes with the different parties in this transaction, and can either paint a picture of a lazy “gold digger”, or a woman who uses her social ties and emotional labor to earn money.
