I take this song to me as being a bit of a warning against overconfidence, which is the opposite of what we expect from kanye, so i will try to back this up as well as possible. To me the chorus usually has the most concise meaning of the song, and it talks about his girlfriend/ex showing off too much: "As I recall, I know you love to show off. But I never thought that you would take it this far." Here he's saying that he's shocked at the lengths that his girlfriend goes through to show her confidence. This possible meaning fits in with the first verse, which shows that the girl is obsessed with buying material objects to glorify herself. Kanye says that he hates the paparazzi, probably because cameras seem to show off the people we love or condemn the people we hate... they glorify the stars, making them seem larger than life, making us wanna be larger than life, cuz every1 wants to be a star. The cameras also put celebrities under way too much pressure, because with the dramatization of everything that goes on, we as the public either love them or hate them. (I think he got a tip or two from lupe fiasco's song superstar; the two are good friends.) Ok, so Kanye thinks that the girl has gone too far with her overconfidence, and this is hurting him big time, as he tells us in his second verse: his girl needs to come back home, come back down to earth, cuz shes getting caught up in the fame. Hmm, maybe the same is true with kanye, maybe he acknowledges that he has to come back down to earth, or he'll crash and burn like he did in his touch the sky video. The last chorus was probably the most interesting part of the song, cuz he switches you, which could with I (kanye of course), sayin "As you recall, you know I love to show off. But you never thought that I would take it this far. What do you know?" I think he's sayin that yes we know that he loves to show off, and didn't think he would be as cocky as how he appears today, but what do we know? Who are we to say that we know him? If he wants to show off, we can call him cocky, but beware that everything is magnified by the lens of the camera, and that he may not be as arrogant & self-centred as we believe him to be.
I take this song to me as being a bit of a warning against overconfidence, which is the opposite of what we expect from kanye, so i will try to back this up as well as possible. To me the chorus usually has the most concise meaning of the song, and it talks about his girlfriend/ex showing off too much: "As I recall, I know you love to show off. But I never thought that you would take it this far." Here he's saying that he's shocked at the lengths that his girlfriend goes through to show her confidence. This possible meaning fits in with the first verse, which shows that the girl is obsessed with buying material objects to glorify herself. Kanye says that he hates the paparazzi, probably because cameras seem to show off the people we love or condemn the people we hate... they glorify the stars, making them seem larger than life, making us wanna be larger than life, cuz every1 wants to be a star. The cameras also put celebrities under way too much pressure, because with the dramatization of everything that goes on, we as the public either love them or hate them. (I think he got a tip or two from lupe fiasco's song superstar; the two are good friends.) Ok, so Kanye thinks that the girl has gone too far with her overconfidence, and this is hurting him big time, as he tells us in his second verse: his girl needs to come back home, come back down to earth, cuz shes getting caught up in the fame. Hmm, maybe the same is true with kanye, maybe he acknowledges that he has to come back down to earth, or he'll crash and burn like he did in his touch the sky video. The last chorus was probably the most interesting part of the song, cuz he switches you, which could with I (kanye of course), sayin "As you recall, you know I love to show off. But you never thought that I would take it this far. What do you know?" I think he's sayin that yes we know that he loves to show off, and didn't think he would be as cocky as how he appears today, but what do we know? Who are we to say that we know him? If he wants to show off, we can call him cocky, but beware that everything is magnified by the lens of the camera, and that he may not be as arrogant & self-centred as we believe him to be.