Kanye West - Black Skinhead LIVE on SNL

Kanye West's video for Black Skinhead has been officially launched via kanyewest.com.
Created by the rapper's creative house, Donda, alongside photographer and director Nick Knight, the video plays with the same savage CGI animals and lumbering Sims version of West we saw in the previously unfinished clip. However, this new version hurtles into 2013 with a variety of interactive options including "screen grabbing" and "making Kanye's voice sound really, really slow".
Unless you fancy spending the first 40 seconds wondering why they decided to use the Barry White vocal remix of Black Skinhead rather than the original, then it's important you read the information that accompanies the video before pressing play: The +/- feature on the top right corner of the screen might look like volume control, but it actually changes the motion speed of the track. The thrill of this function may wear off after about 20 seconds, but the zombie-like, droning end of the speed spectrum can make certain moments of the track all the more primal and monstrous. It's a little frustrating that users aren't able to make it play particularly fast, but then West probably realises that lyrics such as "They say I'm possessed / It's an omen" would be sapped of all terror if they sounded like they were coming from the mouth of a Chipmunk.
The other form of interactivity comes from an Instagram button, so that you can screengrab moments of the video to post and share across the internet. So far Twitter and Instagram feeds haven't been filled with stills of West's computer-animated shoulders, but it's not been 24-hours yet … so you never know. It could still go viral.
As this video is streamed exclusively from West's website, it renders the viewer unable to fast-forward or trace backwards: Black Skinhead demands your attention, and so it should. Even if it may have a deeper meaning, to do with the "secondary experience of the traditional music video" (as stated on his website), the video alone is a startling vision of West's most ferocious track.


Kanye West performing Black Skinhead (Live on SNL) © 2013 NBC Studios, Inc. LLC. Distributed by Broadway Video Enterprises. Under License To The Island Def Jam Music Group