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The final song of My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy, “Who Will Survive in America” is an abridged version of Gil Scott-Heron’s “Comment #1” that paints a bleak outlook for Kanye’s future and summarizes the entire album: is all the decadence of fame and fortune worth it? What do we lose in the process? And does it really make a difference in the end? The song flows immediately from the end of the previous track “Lost In The World”.
Kanye has always been a big proponent of Scott-Heron samples, whether on his own material (Late Registration’s “My Way Home” features an instantly recognizable bit from “Home Is Where the Hatred Is”) or on production for others (Common’s “The People” takes “We Almost Lost Detroit”).
Scott-Heron died six months after the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at the age of 62. Kanye performed both “Lost in the World” and “Who Will Survive in America” at his memorial service.
In August 2017, comedy legend Chris Rock (who is featured on “Blame Game”) revealed on Questlove’s podcast QLS (Questlove Supreme) that he was instrumental in pushing for this song to be the outro for the album. Good call!
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