Many musicians have attempted to grasp the ears of society through their music by using catchy beats and off-the-wall phrases in their songs that send out multiple messages. However, Kanye West is one of the very few artists that speaks about everyday stipulations and has it relate to a large amount of people while still producing great music. Kanye West’s hit song, “Heard ‘em Say”, featuring Adam Levine from Maroon 5, from his 2005 album Late Registration produces a soulful mood that complements the instrumentation and the words that are spoken through the lips of the musicians. The beautiful work from Kanye and Adam’s distinct voices creates a spin to the message that is made in the song. This is achieved through tone and beat, lyrics, instrumentation, and the structure of the song.
The song structure of “Heard em say” uses the basic song format which is the introduction, the verse, chorus, verse and lastly the chorus until it fades out. The way the song is formatted actually makes sense because Kanye is expressing his thoughts in the first verse about everyday life and the many common problems that individuals face in today’s society. By Kanye proceeding to the chorus after the first verse, one can think of it as a problem-solution aspect or a problem-advice aspect because the chorus has a positive tone and it is a rebound to the negativity in the verses. Also, the song is fairly short. This may conclude that Kanye is just looking to give out his message and run with it.
The theme that is presented to the audience through the lyrics is the oppression of the African-American society and how they have to go the extra mile to reach achievement. Kanye has multiple themes in this song and another theme could be how his culture and his community of people rely on faith and religion to get them where they want to be. A lot of times, African Americas rely on faith to get through their hardships. The last theme that is found in the song is that many...