All of the Lights

I feel this song is about the consequences of being in the lights and how people really dont know what really is goin on with celebrities

Rihanna Hook/Verse "Turn up the lights in here, baby Extra bright, I want y'all to see this Turn up the lights in here, baby You know what I need Want you to see everything Want you to see all of the lights

Fast cars, shooting stars Until it’s Vegas everywhere we are If you want it you can get it for the rest of your life If you want it you can get it for the rest of your life"

I take this as meaning that she wants you to see everything not just what is portrayed on TV…And the second part I feel is sayin that if you want it you can have the fame for the rest of your life…but is it something good?

Kanyes verse blatenly is about things that we as the public wouldnt know or think was going on, Exposing us to ALL OF THE LIGHTS. When Kanye explains the different LIGHTS and different LIFES. The lights I feel are representing ones that bring into the vision to be seen (cop lights, flash lights, strobe light, street light {also these lights can be seen as different shades of life you can be seen in criminal, paparazzi, party, drug…which all someway somehow creat attention}) The lifes are styles that rappers portray and people imitate.

Clearly Kanye doesn't really have a daughter, but instead it represents music. When he "slapped his girldfriend" i can see that having to do with what he did to Taylor Swift and how everyone react negatively towards him afterwards. He "did his time" is when he was gone away from the public for awhile after his public relation fiasco. Now he's back and willing to be more "supportive" of his music and learned from his mistakes.

Cudi’s part I feel plays into the imitation point I just made “You should go and get your own” I feel means that you should be yourself because he is getting his

Fergie plays into the theme of the song by tellin you the struggles that you dont know. Thus I feel making her say “We goin' all the way this time” meaning im goin to expose ALL OF THE LIGHTS if thats what you want

Let's remember that before Fergie was with the BEP's, she had a very serious drug addiction problem and she talks about that in her short verse.

Every guest fits well in this song

wait wtf elton john??

This song is too good... I bet that this song makes it onto radio stations.. If not, then radio is dead to me.
Kanye's latest album proves that 'popular music' can also be 'great music'. This song is so 'radio--friendly' (minus Fergie's verse), that it should blow up on the radio.. Then again, almost every single song on this album should be on the radio..

9.5/10 for this song and for the album. Good job Kanye!

My own intepretation kinda takes the lyrics a bit more literally. To be sure, there's a sense of exhilaration in the song, fun and cool and beautiful, but it hits really hard, too.

I'm seein' this song as a narrative almost bout a guy losing control of his "rock life," despite caring about his family. First few verses with the abuse, the affair, the restraining order, and the public visitation let us know that the familial situation ain't working out well, so when you hear that grit in Kanye's voice when he sings about "flashlights, spotlights, strobelights, street lights," it sounds like bitterness.

Next, Kid Cudi comes in talkin' sense (because he's awesome like that), leading finally to a breakdown; Fergie's verse is, narratively (and musically) speaking, the low point, where the speaker really goes all the way with his "line" and nearly loses it. Personally I think the song almost O.D.'s with the line "going all the way this time! thistimethistime!!!" after which, the quietest moment in this super-busy song comes. I take that as seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. The end.

But the speaker isn't going for that; Rihanna begins singing again with that beautiful voice of hers. The song's revived and we got Elton John crooning that the speaker's tried to show their family, their friends, the world what his life's been like: "I tried to tell you, but all I can say is: oh..." In my interpretation, the speaker can only show through MUSIC that their super bright, super cool life hasn't all been rainbows and butterflies (something you DON'T want "for the rest of your life"), and for now, the effort in the music is enough, and they can keep on carrying on. The salvation for the speaker is in the refrain: "Turn up the lights in here, baby, extra bright! I want y'all to see this. Turn up the lights. You know what I need? I want you to see everything!" The medium is the message.

Dammit, Kanye!! Too !#^@!n' good.

Repetition is important in interpretation in my opinion. Whenever a writer repeats things, it's usually intended to be an emphasis or comparison. I find two interesting repetitions here. First, Kanye has had previous songs with the word "lights" in the title. "Flashing Lights" on Graduation, "Street Lights" in 808s & Heartbreak. In Street Lights, the lyrics are "Seems like street lights glowing/Happened to be just like moments passing in front of me". In this way, I think that lights, for Kanye, are metaphorical for an illumination of a specific moment, the way that a camera flash illuminates and captures a specific image. Accepting this, we can say that All of the Lights is the culmination of this idea, with specific examples of lights being explored before, in this song, Kanye speaks about all of them at once.

There's also a repetition in the lyrics of this song, a reference to "that ghetto university" is used twice. In the first verse, Kanye talks about a man who slaps his girlfriend, and ends up doing some jail time as a result. When he returns, there is another man in his bed with his girlfriend, and he assaults the man, saying, "I had to take him to that ghetto university". In the next verse, this man sees all the consequences of his actions. He is separated from his daughter, a woman he loved, and is unable to support either of them. He now says he "can't let [his daughter] grow up in that ghetto university". The salient point is that now he is afraid that his daughter will learn the lessons he learned from growing up in the environment he did, that caused him to make the mistakes he made. Looking back upon his regrets, he is desperate to ensure his daughter is not nurtured by the environment that encouraged the behaviours he chose.

I think this is the universal moment at the heart of this song. A man makes mistakes, regrets them, and then seeks to ensure the next generation doesn't make the mistakes he made. Truly, this is the struggle at the heart of the human condition, told through an urban lens.

One of my favorites on the album. I cannot get this out of my head.

"I slap my girl, she call the Feds I did that time, and spent that bread I'm headed home, I'm almost there I'm on my way, headed up the stairs To my surprise, a nigga replacin' me I had to take him to that Ghetto University"

I think this has to do with how Kanye had to take a break from music after "you know what". Then as he was making new music he noticed that some new artists might have taken his spot, but he schooled them with this album.

yeah i don't even mind fergie showing up... though why is she here at all, really?

Can someone please explain to me, what is going on in this song?