12. Jay-Z / Kanye West: "N***** in Paris" [Def Jam/Roc-a-Fella/Roc Nation]
"Got my n***** in Paris and they goin' gorillas, hah?!" There it is: hah?! Go ahead. Say it. Out loud. It's fun. And there's nothing that summarizes the wonderfully obnoxious platinum-crusted one-percent-ness of Watch the Throne better than Kanye West's go-to ad lib. Hah?! is funny, memorable, annoying, dumb, genius, earth, water, sky-- it's the entire known universe in one impossibly indignant syllable. Nobody knows what it means because it means everything.
Kanye actually says hah?! in "N***** in Paris", but this instant new stadium-rap blueprint is also the closest Mr. West and Jay-Z came to translating hah?! into song form on Watch the Throne. It is essentially one long hah?! The raps are on super-stunt, always. This is one of those tracks where a mere mention-- Olson twins, Margiela jackets, Audemar watches, motherf****** fish fillet sandwiches-- is akin to being knighted with relevance both actual and meme-based. Co-producer Hit-Boy's instrumental isn't shy either as it hurdles asteroids upon some tranced space-invader s*** handed down from Bambaataa's "Planet Rock". On a scale of hah? to hah! the beat is HAH! No question.
i love this write-up
or should i say
HAH?!
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all you need