A Guide to Kanye References About the Violence in Chicago

A little too much fire.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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It's no secret that Kanye West wears his hometown on his sleeve. Yeezy and Chi-town are like, well, Yeezy and self-indulgent hubris: inseparable. Between songs like "Homecoming," Common's "Southside" (which features West) and, more recently, "Way Too Cold," listeners can find a whole anthology of serenades to the Chi.

Unfortunately, the city that raised a rap demigod has become synonymous with something else as of late: homicide. Like anyone living outside a vacuum, Kanye knows The Windy City has become a very dangerous place in the past few years. He dedicates so many bars to namedropping Chicago that it'd be almost criminal not to mention the city's recent scourge.

Chicago recorded 500 homicides in 2012, dozens more than New York, a metro three times its size. Just last weekend, as Easter festivities ramped up and wound down in Chicagoland, gun violence across the city left 25 wounded. The shootings occurred amid news that the homicide rate had fallen dramatically during the previous month. One step forward, a couple dozen back.

As the violence spiked in late 2011, the multi-platinum rapper dedicated a song off Watch the Throne to the issue. Of course, that wasn't the first time he's given mention to Chicago's history of violence. Not even close.

Peep our Guide to Kanye References about the Violence in Chicago for a glimpse into the hip-hop icon's pain.

RELATED: 10 Reasons's Chicago's Murder Rate May Rise in 2013
RELATED: R.I.P.: Remembering the Lives of Every Teenager Killed in Chicago This Summer

"From the place where the father's gone, the mothers is hardly home/And the Madigon's lock us up in the Audy Home."

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Year: 2005

An early reference to Chicago's institutional dysfunction involves a double entendre. "Madigon" can double as a slur and a reference to an Illinois political power-family, the Madigans. Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general known for her tough stance on gang violence, is the adopted daughter of another bigwig in state politics. Michael Madigan has been speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives for the better part of a quarter-century. The Audy Home, meanwhile, is an infamous under-18 prison in the Chicago area.

"It's time for us to stop and redefine black power/41 souls murdered in 50 hours."

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Year: 2011

While the violence resulted in few fatalities, 41 people were actually fired upon within 50 hours in a rash of South Side shootings between March 31 and April 2, 2010. Kanye is surely referencing this horrifyingly short span of time in "Murder to Excellence."

"From the home of gangbangin and we all outdoors/Southside, outside, Westside, let's ride."

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"What has the world come to, I'm from the 312/Where cops don't come through and dreams don't come true."

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Year: 2012

Yeezy not-so-affectionately references Chicago's downtown area code (outside the loop, it's 773) in this track off Cruel Summer. The rest of the lyric is self-explanatory. Dreams don't come true for anyone whose life is cut short. Now more than ever, the question rings true—what has the world come to?

"It go my way, Chi-Way/This way or the highway/Shots'll lay you off on your day off, like Friday."

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Year: 2005

In a track off his 2005 mixtape Freshmen Adjustment, Kanye alludes to Chicago's foolproof method of conflict resolution. It won't come as a surprise to anyone who's seen Friday, a movie in which Ice Cube loses his job and subsequently finds himself dodging gunfire from every direction.

"Then they ran up and shot him right in front of his mom/40 killings in a weekend, 40 killings in a week/ Man the summer too hot, you can feel it in the street."

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Year: 2012

"Cruel Summer" is a fitting description for the chaos that unfolded on Chicago streets in 2012. While the notion of "40 killings in a weekend" is a bit exaggerated—it's tied to a Noah's Ark reference further down in the verse—it's not as far from the truth as we'd like. Gun violence in Chicago during Memorial Day Weekend left 11 dead and more than 40 hurt. Moreover, 152 people were killed in Chicago between June 1 and August 31.

"I know that people wouldn't usually rap this/But I got the facts to back this/Just last year, Chicago had over 600 caskets/Man, killin's some wack shit."

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Year: 2007

The rapper's "facts" here have a glimmer of truth to them. We're not sure when Kanye penned the lyrics above, but if he was referencing Chicago's murder count—it last climbed over 600 in 2003—he's right. Besides, it's a sad state of affairs when we're agonizing over a number rather than lamenting the loss of individual lives. Killin, at any rate, is some certifiably "wack shit."

"I walk through the valley of the Chi where death is."

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Year: 2004

Only God can help Kanye in a city shrouded by so much darkness. The reference to Psalm 23, as Rap Genius points out, rebrands the "shadow of death" to "the Chi where death is." If murder rates are any indication, the city has seen plenty of death since those words were first uttered.

"It's a war going on outside we ain't safe from/I feel the pain in my city wherever I go/314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago."

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Year: 2011

The most memorable lyric from "Murder to Excellence" recalls some startling figures from 2008. As the Associated Press reported, 314 American soldiers died that year in Iraq, a country we'd been waging war upon for half a decade by then. Meanwhile in Chicago, 509 fell victim to gun violence on the streets. If that's not a war in itself, we're not sure what is. Take it away, Kanye.

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