West performed this song,already saturated with meaning, at the VMA awards in front of a purposefully lighted and positioned backdrop of a photo by film director Steven McQueen. The photo depicts a tree in New Orleans that was the site of racially charged lynchings. It’s lit and positioned in such a way that as West performs in front of it, he appears as a shadow, his erratic movements almost resembling a man hanging from the branches. The shadows of the audience’s raised hands appear at the bottom of the frame, as if coming out of the ground, representing the scores of victims buried at sites like this across America