No church in the wild – Kanye West

By Matt Morphy

‘No Church in the Wild’ has some interesting implications. The lyrics are up for interpretation, the title of the song itself is a figurative way of saying that religious institutions such as the Church are unnecessary human constructs that are not found in nature which is interesting as the whole video is set in some sort of city of town and there is no sign of wild life or trees or anything like that.

The video starts off with a guy lighting up a Molotov cocktail whilst walking done a street, in front of him are riot police. Shortly after we are rite in the middle of a confrontation between police in riot gear and young rioters. There is no explanation and the rioters have been given no noble cause to defend, even if they do, the viewer is not made aware of it, this to me reminds me of the news and how people are shown senseless violence.

The video features several other dramatic shots of sculptures. Sculptures are often used for symbolism, in the context of this video, showing these stone monuments implacably overlooking the chaos that is happening on the street level is a reminder that the elite are seeing this and approving of it as they are the ones that are responsible of the making of these sculptures in the first place.

Later on in the video, it turns night time and strobe lights appear, the kind you usually see in clubs or raves, these events are associated with young people and its seems that they are being omitted by the rioters, this might suggest that it is the youth fighting against the police with may represent the government. At the end of the video nobody truly wins or loses. Rioters fight back and appear triumphant while police still stand their ground. In other words, nothing has changed and status quo is preserved. An elephant make an appearance in the street reminding the viewers that the ‘wild’ in question is in fact society, where people act like animals and the strongest one wins, survival of the fittest in other words. In this wilderness, there is no Church, no respite from the savagery, just the stone gaze of statues overlooking the violence. These sculptures represent the puppet masters, those who pull the strings on both sides in order to advance their agenda of a more controlled and repressive society.