Violent Crimes

Mood

Production Style

Background

The album's closing track was written as a meditation on fatherhood and specifically on Kanye's fear for his daughter North's safety in a world in which he himself — a man who has treated women badly by his own admission — is a model for how men behave. It is one of his most uncomfortable acts of self-examination.

Meaning & Interpretation

The song is structured as an apology offered to his daughter before she is old enough to need it. Kanye looks ahead to North's adolescence and adulthood and imagines the men who will be in her life, recognizing himself in them. The violence of the title is the violence that women navigate as a matter of routine, and the song asks whether a man like Kanye can protect his daughter from men like Kanye.

Notable Moments

• A verse about how he used to look at women — with objectification and entitlement — framed as a warning about what North will face, is one of hip-hop's most awkward but honest acts of self-reflection.

• Lines about wanting to keep her young forever, knowing he cannot, make the song's protectiveness and its futility simultaneous.

• 070 Shake's vocal outro, again, provides the emotional close — her voice as the daughter's perspective that Kanye cannot inhabit himself.

Cultural Impact

One of the most praised tracks on ye, it demonstrated that Kanye's capacity for genuine moral reflection had survived the public controversies that preceded the album.

Personal Connection

North West was four years old when the album was made, and Kanye's relationship with his children has been described by those close to him as the emotional center of his life.