Lost in the World song meaning

“Lost in the World” by Kanye West Reverse Engineering Influences Project

Written by: Eric Seigle
Lost in the world. Reverse Project
The piece of music that I chose from my music library is “Lost in the World” by Kanye West. This song appealed to me for a few reasons. First, I love the overall vibe of the song. It is a relatively sad song and goes from soft and easy acapella, to working its way up to lots of instruments and singing at once, causing commotion. There are many different sounds and musical components to this piece.

The first section of the music is a slow introduction with harmonic singing by two voices that sing the same notes overlapped. One voice is an octave higher and one is lower, the lower voice also seems to drag a little bit after the higher voice. This sound is very pleasing to my ear. Towards the end of the phrase when the voices sing, “I’m building a still, down the time” the higher voice refrains from following the notes and instead does a melisma on the syllable/word “still” hitting at least three different notes that get lower and lower. Then after “time” there is another melisma that goes downward. These melasmas’ are like ear candy to me, and add great flavor to the song.

Next after the acapella intro with the two voices, in comes the instruments and commotion. I like the commotion going on in the instruments because it makes me feel out of control, like the room is spinning, and like I am running through a forest panicking trying to find something, like myself in the world. During this chorus, the drums kick in, the bass and the snare keep a steady pace throughout. The melasmas continue and there seems to be a constant shaking of something like maracas. There are also keys or some sort of synthesizer that plays the same note in between every other bass and snare drum phrase. After that, the melismas continue, a heavenly voice hums long notes, and the drums break out into a mesmerizing tom-tom and bass pattern; that makes me feel like I am rising into the sky. After that the chorus resumes how it started.

Finally, Kanye begins his one and only verse of this song. The instruments for the verse include the steady drums, just like at the begging and end of the chorus, the synthesizer plays a constant steady note in between the bass and snare, and the heavenly humming continues. Next, at the end of the verse the drums do a small drum roll and then the same pre-chorus from the begging starts again, but this time, it is faster and is not acapella, there are instruments steadily bringing the beat along. At the end of the chorus, the song breaks out into a new sequence of sounds. The drums have an interesting but steady thumping of the bass, the snare is not included. There is also a big bassline that gets played that goes along with the thumping of the bass. There is also singing of “Ohh Ohh Ohhh” that goes directly along with the bass. There is a new voice that comes in that asks repeatedly, “Who will survive in America?”

Then after that the chorus resumes how it normally goes at the begging; but towards the end the words stay the same, but the cadence switches up and there is a background singing that repeats what Kanye sings in a robotic voice, that makes it very interesting and a cool switch up at the end of the song. For example, after he says “been down my whole life” the voice in the background repeats “whole life” until Kanye finishes singing “I’m new in the city” then the voice repeats in a low robotic tone “City.” Then the song breaks out into the same mesmerizing tom-tom and bass pattern. The instruments here are the same but instead of long heavenly humming, there is quick short voices that go “Hey! Oh Oh. Hey! Oh oh! Hey-ey-ey-eyo. Hey. Oh oh.” Then the song comes to an abrupt ending by the instruments stopping and the voice sings on last “Hey-ey-ey-ey hey.”

Kanye has a few influences and includes many samples in this musical piece. I think it is awesome how he can take a sample from older pieces and recreate it to fit his music style. The first sample and influence you hear is from the artist Bon Iver. The begging of the song is a direct sample of part of the band’s song called “Woods,” and is sung by their lead singer, Justin Vernon. Kanye tweaks this sound a little bit to create a new distorted sound that includes two voices that overlap each other at different octaves that sound slightly different. In addition, he creates a completely different instrumental that the song goes to, adding drums, a synthesizer, bass, and background humming. While Kanye’s song is only acapella at the begging, the original song “Woods” is a completely, beautiful sounding acapella throughout the whole piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_cePGP6lbU- Woods by Bon Iver

The next influence Kanye West uses is from a Lyn Collins song, “Think (About it).” He takes the drum instrumental and switches up the sound slightly to fit into his song. It is hard to hear at first listen through, but after you listen for a bit you can clearly hear the similar steady bass drum, snare, and synthesizer in the chorus and how it completely mirrors the song by Lyn Collins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKix_06L5AY- Think (About It) by Lyn Collins

After that, he uses the lyrics from the legendary song “Soul Makossa” by Manu Dibango. In his verse Kanye says, “Mama ko mama sa maka makossa.” This lyric refers to his mother Donda West. Michael Jackson has also used this sample in his song, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin.” I am sure you have heard of artists using this sample before, it is very popular, and artists have been sued over using it multiple times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0CeFX6E2yI- Soul Makossa by Manu Dibango

Then, a sample from Eddie Bo’s “Hook and Sling,” is used. At the begging of Eddie’s song, you hear a voice say, “You ready? YEAH. Go.” Kanye speeds up the word “Go” and uses it throughout the song in the beat. When I first listened to the sample, I did not understand how it was used, but eventually you can hear how he uses it in the beat to complement the bass and snare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD7KuDwAuZ8- Hook and Sling by Eddie Bo

Kanye uses a directly sample clip from Gil Scott-Heron’s “Comment #1.” Kanye uses Gil Scott-Heron’s voice from the end of “Comment #1” when he repeats, “Who will survive in America?” Kanye used this sample in other songs on his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, including the preceding song after “Lost in the World” called “Who will survive in America?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B6DVdCzwy0- Comment #1 by Gil Scott-Heron

The last sample used in “Lost in the World” and throughout My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a song from 1978 called “Afromerica” by Continent Number 6. You can recognize this sample from Kanye’s song “Power,” a steady clapping and singing that goes, “Hey, hey, hey aye. aye ey aye aye ey, hey ey, aye ey aye ey, hey aye.” Although this sample is clearly heard in “Power,” you have to have a more precise ear to hear how it is used in “Lost in the World.” Kanye mixed the sound and uses a beat pad to alter the cadence of the singing that makes it a unique new version of the original sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-dtwySzcQc- Afromerica by Continent Number 6

Kanye West was born in Atlanta on June 8th in 1977.His father Ray, was a photographer for the Atlanta Journal newspaper and was politically involved in the Black Panthers. His mom, Donda, was a professor at Chicago State University. Although he has a Godly and interesting, to say the least, way of expressing himself outside of songs, he is considered a hip-hop superstar whose production and raps reinvented hip hop. At the begging of his career he focused on soul beats and lyrics such as “Through the Wire.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE8y25CcE6s- Through the Wire by Kanye West

He has a wide stretch of song tastes, even in the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, going from a sad song like “Blame Game,” to an over powering strong song like “Power.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mp72xUirfs- Blame Game by Kanye West

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUtf9Ajlno4- Power by Kanye West

Kanye has variety. He will sing, rap, and sometimes shout on songs, like in “Black Skinhead.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4xrLKb6oFI- Black Skinhead by Kanye West

In his song “All Falls Down,” Kanye speaks out on Blacks being suppressed in America, like many artists, poets, and speakers before him, Kanye is a Black Activist. “We shine because the hate us, floss ‘cause the degrade us. We tryna buy back our 40 acres” and “I say f— the police, that’s how I treat ‘em. We Buy our way out of jail, but we can’t buy freedom.” This is just one song that Kanye shows his political side, explaining the struggles and racism being a black person in America is like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kyWDhB_QeI – All Falls Down by Kanye West

The main musical influence and “parent” I chose to focus on in Kanye West, “Lost in the World,” is Gil Scott-Heron. Not only is there a sample of Gil Scott-Heron in this Kanye West song, he influenced African-American music, particular hip-hop. He stood for meaningful poems, motivated by the Black Arts Movement. Gil Scott-Heron is known as “the Godfather of rap” and “the black Bob Dylan.” He had a huge part in influencing the hip hop movement, particularly African-American rap that was rich with meaning. Numerus artists refer to him as a main influence in their music including Kanye, Snoop Dog, Common, and Eminem. He is considered the founder of political rap, serving as a platform for political and social activism.

One of Gilberts most well-known songs is “The Revolution Will Not be Televised.” In this song and others of his, he has a smooth way of speaking over soul music, with a catchy bassline and jazzy melody from something like a flute. Gilbert’s lyrics focus on protesting the way that media does not show particular things, they shape things how they want it to be seen rather than showing the truth. I believe Kanye takes this certain style of rap and talks about how media depicts him and suppresses black people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=189&v=QnJFhuOWgXg&feature=emb_title – The Revolution Will Not be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron

Although Gil Scott-Heron was a major creator of rap, he wrote poems over soul, jazz, and blues type music. Gil was born on April 1, 1949 in Chicago Illinois. His mother was an opera singer and his dad was the first black man to play for the Celtic Football Club. When he was 12 years old his grandmother died, so he moved in with his mother in The Bronx. He was a fantastic writer and earned a full scholarship as one of five black students at a prestigious college. It is easy to see how Gil led the way for Black Right Activists and had a strong voice. It is clear that Gil was influenced by African-American right activists such as Malcolm X and Huey Newton. He was influenced by speakers who fought for rights and chose to speak up and reach the people through his poems and music. One of Gil’s main musical influence was James Mercer Langston Hughes, who I consider the “grandparent” of Kanye West’s music, specifically the song “Lost in the World.”

Langston Hughes was born on February 1st in 1902. He, like Gilbert, was always a great writer, and moved to New York city at a young age to pursue his career. He was a powerful social activist who was one of the first people to create jazz poetry. Langston was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes’ great-grandfathers were both slaves, and his grandmother, Mary Patterson, was one of the first women to attend Oberlin College, and was involved John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. It is not a coincidence that Hughes focused on fighting for Blacks Rights and Activism, he chose to do it through music, poems, and even some playwrights. Langston Hughes was a huge voice in the African-American community who directly influenced Gilbert Scott-Heron to also fight and stand for Black Activism through the use of words and music to get to the people; making him the “grandparent” of Kanye’s “Lost in the World”. Gilbert has influenced many modern-day rappers such as Kanye West to do the same, to use their words as a voice for Black Activism. Especially in modern times with the Black Lives Matter movement, it is clear that there is still a crisis in America and rappers are now using the ways of all these previous poet and musical activists to speak to the people in a way that words simply cannot.

Hughes first poem to be published in a nationally known magazine was called “I Have Known Rivers.” He wrote it right after he got out of high school. He compares his soul to rivers, explain how his soul has grown deep like the rivers. Modern rappers such as Kanye West, also use similes and metaphors to expand their raps and explain how they are thinking. One of my favorite Kanye quotes is “Reach for the stars, so if you fall you land on a cloud,” off of the song Homecoming. This metaphor means you should try shooting extremely high, so if you do not get to that point, you are at least relatively high in what you want to do with life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHcUkjbk2Mw- I Have Known Rivers by Langston Hughes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ488QrqGE4 -Homecoming by Kanye West

Langston Hughes was motivated and led by American poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar. Born on June 27, 1872 to slaves who were freed in Kentucky, I chose Dunbar as the “great-grandfather” of Kanye West’s “Lost in the World.” Dunbar was one of the first influential Black poets in the United States, it is more than fair to say Langston Hughes was fueled by Dunbar’s passion to speak up for Blacks through poems. One of Dunbar’s most known works is, “Majors and Minors.” These are a collection of well-known poems by Dunbar that get into racial stereotypes and black heroism.

https://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/dunbar/explore/majors-minors- Majors and Minors by Paul Laurence Dunber

Kanye West also dives into racial stereotypes, for example here is a very powerful verse in “Never let me Down.” “I get down for my grandfather who took my mama. Made her sit in that seat where white folks ain’t want us to eat. At the tender age of 6 she was arrested for the sit-ins. And with that in my blood I was born to be different. Now n—as can’t make it to ballots to choose leadership. But we can make it to Jacob’s and to the dealership/ Swear I hear new music and I just don’t be feelin’ it. Racism’s still alive, they just be concealin’ it”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4NvOKy7GOU -Never Let Me Down by Kanye West

Researching Kanye West’s “Lost in the World” lineage influences have added so much to my understanding of previous Black Activists and Kanye using poems and songs as an outlet to speak to the people and express how they are feeling, and hopefully change the way the world thinks. Now when I hear modern rap, specifically Kanye, I think about all the history behind the Black Civil Rights movements, and hear speakers like Malcom X, Martin Luther, and more influencers in their voice. I can also see how Kanye takes older musical pieces and chops them up and makes them his own style, yet you are still able to hear the older style and sounds; which makes me appreciate his music so much more. I have learned how art, specifically music, is a combination of what a person has been exposed to and heard throughout the years. They take bits and pieces from previous artists they know and combine them to make their own personal artwork/music. Wilson Mizner said “To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.” I believe that is what makes art unique, remarkable, and intriguing.

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