Niggas in Paris

This song deserves so much more attention, and by that I mean for the underlying meaning of the song, not for the beat or the artists involved. For all the criticism 'Ye and Jay have received, I believed they have crafted a song with a message matching it's rhythm and cadence. The parallel I immediately drew is with Ernest Hemingway's famous novel, The Sun Also Rises, the first half of which takes place in 1924 post-war Paris. The characters in the novel all struggle with deep-seeded insecurities concerning their masculinity and social superiority over others, and spend most of their time getting drunk and displaying narcissistic, arrogant behavior to try and impress the most prominent female character in the book, Brett. This allusion would explain the most braggartly lines in the song, including Jay's self-comparison to "Jackson, Tyson, Jordan," the mention of partying with "gold bottles, [while] scold[ing] models," and Kanye's claim that "doctors say I'm the illest." Another recurring motif in the novel is the character's intentional aloofness, their transparent front of general apathy, which they put up to protect themselves from revealing their true feelings. This is also alluded to, as Jay-Z says his "Nets could go 0-82 and I look at you like this shit gravy," and Kanye's line "Fuck that girl she don't wanna dance," feigning disinterest in Jay's heavy investment into the Nets, and what girls think of them to appear powerful. The main character of the book, Jake Barnes, is a veteran of WWI, and goes through the novel drinking and avoiding the subject of the war to dull the emotional pain that stems from the injury he suffered during the war. The injury has left him impotent, relating back to the theme of masculine insecurities and how the characters cover them up. Jay relates to the suffering, saying, "If you escaped what I escaped," (the war for Jake, maybe serious jail time for Jay here?) "you'd be in Paris getting fucked up too." The quips about "hot bitches I own" also mirrors the struggle that the men in The Sun Also Rises go through to control Brett, the flirty, promiscuous female lead that has several destructive relationships with men. The droning, repetitive beat matches the theme of an enduring, meaningless life the characters all live. Even the title of the album "Watch The Throne," evokes the theme of insecurity when striving for a position of power. Jay-Z and Kanye need to act like they cannot be de-throned if you will, from their seats atop the hip-hop industry, but in reality they are all too aware of their critics and the up and coming artists in position to be the next to reign over the rap game (Lil Wayne, Drake anyone?) The song and the album are beautiful, in an understated, prosaic fashion.

"We skate to one song, and one song only"

I actually copied the body of the lyrics from a PDF of the booklet from the digital album. I copied the entire contents and then edited it with the correct spacing for the different sections as the original booklet just has the lyrics in one continuous line, no paragraphs or anything. Also, the original lyrics had been censored which I had to correct to be within the rules of posting lyrics...unfortunately rap albums have a fair amount of swearing so this was a tiresome task as on the booklet they seem to spell certain words in different ways so the 'Find/Replace' option didn't always get them all. Took me a couple of hours. It wasn't a copy and paste from another site, it was direct from the source. Now I don't see the point in going to all that work, when I just get called a 'douche'. I hated that the lyrics have '?' in them when in MS Word they come up with normal apostrophes, I don't understand why that happened? Anyways jjjonatron, I know you won't believe me so it leaves me wondering what's the point in going to all the trouble writing all of this or posting the lyrics in the first place. The weird thing is that you obviously wanted to look at the lyrics so it would seem you came here, read the lyrics, which is what you wanted to do, and then after you read the lyrics, you called me a douche for posting them....I love the interwebs.

this shit crazy!!! haha

Initially, the song appears to be just another rap song about having fun ("I ball so hard muhfuckas wanna fine me") accompanied by awesome beats. However, besides being a great song, I think its background is quite interesting. I think it refers to how black people used to be slaves, especially in Europe, and now they are part of the high society and elite segment ("What's Gucci my nigga? What's Louie my killa? What's drugs my deala? What's that jacket, Margiela?"). This is like an "in your face" statement. In addition, this song does a lot of bragging obviously. "What's 50 grand to a muhfucka like me, can you please remind me?" means that 50 grand mean nothing to Jay-Z because he's so damn rich. They also brag about how much crime or bad things they have gotten away with as stated in the following lines: "We ain't even spose to be here" and "I'm shocked too. I'm supposed to be locked up too. If you escaped what I've escaped, you'd be in Paris getting fucked up too". Moreover, Jay-Z is so huge and popular now that it's okay for him to go "psycho" or "crazy" just like other famous celebrities as stated here: "Psycho, I'm liable to be go Michael. Take your pick, Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Game 6" -who are all black people also :)

"Prince William ain't do it right if you ask me, Cause if I was him I would have married Kate & Ashley" Too true, Too true.

"...married Kate & Ashley"

^ you guys know how this part is slowed down in the song? I wonder if it has anything to do with 'Gimme Pizza." youtube.com/watch

If it is, then that is just fantastically awesome!

There is a somewhat paradoxical contrast between religious-influenced anthemic ending of the 'angelic chorus', and the heavily materialist nature of the lyrics. In trying to align themselves with deity through the use of the chorus and cathedral imagery in the music video, J and K simultaneously divorce themselves from the fundamentals of christian beliefs through the undercurrent of the lyrics... imo

ILLUMINATI!!!!!!!

Rap Genius have some great facts about this song. Check them out :)