Listen (Like, Actually Listen) to Blood Orange's Epic "Do You See My Skin Through the Flames"

Artwork by Robert Mapplethorpe

Do you feel heartbroken by current events? Are you unsure what to make of all the racism and virulent hatred in the world? So is Dev Hynes. This afternoon, he released a song—if that's the word for it—called "Do You See My Skin Through the Flames." It meanders through a few different piano and guitar parts, and it's awfully pretty. But it's also crushingly real, taking on Hynes's "frustration and depression" about race and about talking about race in a quick, searing spoken word section. There's also a story about police harassment in France and a monologue about the origins of his last name, Hynes. It's not exactly easy listening, but it's powerful and worth listening to.

"This is not from my forthcoming album, just some things on my mind," Hynes wrote on Soundcloud. But what's on his mind should be, in some form or another, on everyone's mind. Check out the lyrics to the first portion and the full 11-minute song below:

frustration and depression breaks me down
descending like they wanted underground
the further our journey the less you care
that's why you laugh at Kanye when he's talking in a chair
but the same conversation but replaced,
is good enough for laughs or a smile on your face,
happy to be singing all our songs to survive,
but when we need help, you don't get off til 5.
it's powerful to feel so alone in a group

let me break this down for you and tell you how we feel again,
your fear is all you hold on to, so when you see me it's not fair
i have nothing left to give when you don't notice what is wrong,
Charleston left me broken down but it's just another day to you

i ain't got nothing left to give you
and i'm too tired, to even talk about it
while watching the fire,

tasting pain coming from a place of truth

to be another in a messy world
to feel like giving in another turn?
you wouldn't listen if i told you

so how can i become anyone?

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