How does Kanye West’s “Murder to Excellence” represent the Black community?

Growing up in Chicago, one of the biggest murder capitals in the world, most residents are taught to survive as opposed to live: making it past 25 for Black youth living in Chicago is something of luck and mere chance. In Murder to Excellence, West represents the Black community as having an extreme amount of internal crime (also referred to as Black on Black crime). This could be the result of multiple facets, however most of this crime is caused by lack of funds in youth education, as well as the way the United States political economy was designed to work. Black youth, instead of being taught the importance of community needed within the Black community, is taught to protect themselves over anything, even if it includes inflicting pain on others. “No shop class, but half the school got a tool” (Kanye West, Murder to Excellence). This quotation from the second verse alludes to the idea that there are not enough funds in Chicago schools to teach Black youth basic life skills, and essentially leads to these kids possessing real guns opposed to glue guns in classrooms. Because of this “I could die any day” (Kanye West, Murder to Excellence) attitude, most people living in the hood act as if their actions have no consequences, due to the mindset that they don't envision themselves being here for too long: which causes them to act against their own community, in hopes of gaining street credit or reputation. “The paper read “Murder”, Black on Black murder” (Kanye West, Murder to Excellence). West wanted to portray how sad it was to see black men and youth killing each other when they should be doing the opposite to fight the real current issues that affect the Black community every day. “And I’m from the murder capital where they murder for capital” (Kanye West, Murder to Excellence). This quotation refers to the idea that the Black community has had to resort to crime to get regular income, and this can arguably be because of the racism alive in today’s society, and the idea that Black men are 24% more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts. The Black community resorts to internal crime against other Black people to ensure they get the most income, as street reputation has also become a main goal to be attained on the streets of Chicago.