The other day, I had some music playing while I was studying. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it at first, until I heard something that piqued my interest:
“It seems we’re living the American Dream / The people highest up got the lowest self esteem.”
After I heard this, I decided to take a deep look into the song’s lyrics to see what I could find. “All Falls Down” is the fourth track on Kanye West’s debut album The College Dropout. I feel like the album as a whole relates to the American Dream; not the idea of a collective American Dream, but each individual’s American Dream. The entire theme of the album can sort of be summed up as “make your own decisions and be your own person”. But this isn’t about the album, it’s about “All Falls Down”.
This song focuses on the ideas of materialism and consumerism that are extremely prevalent in the American Dream. The first verse is about a woman who goes to college, not because she wants to, but because she feels pressured from her parents and society as a whole. She also works as a hairstylist on the side, and she uses that money to buy expensive things, such as “Airs” (Jordan’s). The second verse is about West himself. He raps about how he keeps buying expensive designer clothing, not because he wants them, but because he can brag to others about owning it. The third verse continues by describing the effects of materialism as a whole. He talks about how drug addicts use their money to buy more drugs, and then their drug dealers use that money to buy expensive, materialistic things. By doing so, he points out that the rich CEO earns money in a very harmful way, but doesn’t seem to care.