In the year of 1939, singer Billie Holiday sang and recorded the song “Strange Fruit.” The song centered on racism towards the African-American Community, and the lynching of American-American men. Years later, Kanye West released a song in 2013 called “Blood on the Leaves”. West’s song sampled singer Nina Simone’s version of “Strange Fruit”. Even though both of these songs are decades apart, they both have similarities and differences and each has their own story.
In the song “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, the song revolves mostly around lynching. The Strange Fruit that Holiday is referring to is the dead bodies of African-American people after they have been lynched. The line “The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth” were describing the way that people looked after they got lynched. The remains of their bodies were eaten by crows, as told in the line “Here is fruit for the crows to pluck.” Since crows love to eat dead things, it is almost no surprise that the bodies, in the minds of the crows, are their fruit to eat. …show more content…
Even though this meaning of this song is different than “Strange Fruit” would be, it still has some elements on the song present in his version. West shows that even though most black people are very successful now and making a living out of themselves, they still have to face the oppression and anger of white people sorely because of the color of their skin. Even though things are much calmer now than in the 1930’s, African-Americans are still being harassed, judged, and even shot at. So in a way, Kanye is trying to say that no matter what we do, or what position that we are in at work or how much money that we have, People are always going to treat us different because they only see one thing-the color of your
In the song “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, the song revolves mostly around lynching. The Strange Fruit that Holiday is referring to is the dead bodies of African-American people after they have been lynched. The line “The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth” were describing the way that people looked after they got lynched. The remains of their bodies were eaten by crows, as told in the line “Here is fruit for the crows to pluck.” Since crows love to eat dead things, it is almost no surprise that the bodies, in the minds of the crows, are their fruit to eat. …show more content…
Even though this meaning of this song is different than “Strange Fruit” would be, it still has some elements on the song present in his version. West shows that even though most black people are very successful now and making a living out of themselves, they still have to face the oppression and anger of white people sorely because of the color of their skin. Even though things are much calmer now than in the 1930’s, African-Americans are still being harassed, judged, and even shot at. So in a way, Kanye is trying to say that no matter what we do, or what position that we are in at work or how much money that we have, People are always going to treat us different because they only see one thing-the color of your