No Church In The Wild Music Video and Lyrics

[Althusser]

No Church In The Wild - Jay-Z & Kanye West ft. Frank Ocean

Brand New Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJt7gNi3Nr4&feature=player_embedded

Lyrical Breakdown: http://rapgenius.com/Kanye-west-no-church-in-the-wild-lyrics

[Sam_b]

You should probably post these in the Lyrics thread or in the What are you Listening to rather than make a thread about one song.

[Althusser]

You should probably post these in the Lyrics thread or in the What are you Listening to rather than make a thread about one song.

Alright. It's just that the video came out like a half hour before I posted it here, and I thought it was a really cool video. Mods can close this.

[Sam_b]

I'm not going to close it, it's just for your referance. If you're going to start threads, and I encourage you to do so, let's get some opinions: post what you think of the song, what you like about it, and get some discussion going. Just posting a topic with a link borders on spamming, so try and open it up into some direction.

[#FF0000]

I like this and the video a lot, but like everything Jay-Z/Kanye, I can't help but feel like that thing basically ends as soon as Kanye's verse comes in.

Everything he and Jay-Z do is worse because of him.

I get he's a good producer and I like his delivery fine, but I just wish his actual lyrics weren't so fuckin stupid.

[brigadista]

nice video from Roman Gavros but just don't understand the connection with the lyrics?
they seem to be talking about an absence of god amongst chaos[JayZ anyway ] and its odd to see such a video for a song/rap by two extremely rich people ....wont be giving them any more money...

dont get it ..

[Crux]

Kind of related article well worth checking out: Don’t Stop Beliebing (http://thenewinquiry.com/features/dont-stop-beliebing/)

[Martin Blank]

FJt7gNi3Nr4


nice video from Roman Gavros but just don't understand the connection with the lyrics?
they seem to be talking about an absence of god amongst chaos[JayZ anyway ] and its odd to see such a video for a song/rap by two extremely rich people ....wont be giving them any more money...

dont get it ..

I find a rather complex relationship between the lyrics and the video, and the two together quite symbiotic.

Beginning with the hook by Frank Ocean, "No Church in the Wild" is a song about power and truth. Specifically, it is about how those who are seen as having power can be faced with an inescapable challenge to that power. This is why there is a progression in the first part of the hook:

Human beings in a mob
What's a mob to a king?
What's a king to a god?
What's a god to a non-believer,
Who don't believe in anything?
At the same time, those who make the challenges to those with power run a risk of never emerging from their battle. They can be subsumed, consumed or destroyed by it, but ultimately it is a battle to the death. Or, to put it another way, there is no sanctuary once the battle has begun -- hence, "no church in the wild".

Will he make it out alive?
Alright, alright
No church in the wild
Jay-Z's lyrics are a kind of philosophical set-up. The first two lines are direct references to Roman persecutions of the early Christians, but they are also meant to convey how those in power destroy their opponents -- both in life and death. The following two lines introduce the concept of how those in power use lies and hypocrisy to not simply maintain control, but also how atrocities are turned into solemn, even holy, events.

Tears on the mausoleum floor
Blood stains the Colosseum doors
Lies on the lips of a priest
Thanksgiving disguised as a feast
The next four lines are allusion to his past as a drug dealer and his efforts to be seen as legitimate, capped off by a philosophical question about whether his prayers are heard, in spite of his past -- that is, is he seen as redeemed, or is he still perceived as a drug dealer and "thug" by those who hold power above him?

Rolling in a Rolls Royce Corniche
Only the doctors got this, I'm hiding from police
Cocaine seats, all white like I got the whole thing bleached
Drug dealer chic; I'm wondering if a thug's prayers reach?
(Incidentally, "cocaine white" is actually a color of seats used by high-end automakers, like Rolls Royce and Bentley.)

The next lines are certainly a first for rap music. The first line is a reference to Plato's Euthyphro, specifically the part where Socrates asks Euthyphro, "Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" This question is actually an expression of Socrates' dialectics, since it seeks to unwind the questions of morality that are imposed by not only religion, but also the state. After all, if the gods (or other power) favor something because it is pious, and it is pious because the gods (or other power) favor it, then all of morality and that which is "loved" by those in power is a closed system, unable to be changed without changing the character of power itself. When we say capitalism cannot be reformed, only overthrown, we are essentially coming to the same conclusion -- that society cannot be changed without changing the current character of society itself.

The second line is an attempt by Jay-Z to encapsulate Socrates' point behind the question asked of Euthyphro: that there is a "bias", a philosophical standpoint, you accept, no matter where you fall down on the question. For Socrates, the dichotomy was objective versus subjective -- materialist versus idealist. To say something is pious and, therefore, loved, is to subject it to reason and a method of analysis. On the other hand, to say something is pious because it is loved is to turn away from reason and embrace both subjectivity and idealism.

The third and fourth lines are more references to Jay-Z himself than to Plato or Socrates -- a kind of segue into more standard elements. Jay-Z once called himself the "Plato" to the Notorious BIG's "Socrates", seeing himself in much the same way that Plato saw his relationship to the martyred Socrates: as preserving the memory of his teacher, who died unfairly, for the rest of his life. Terms like "screech" (what you're saying) and "ballin'" (competing in life) are fairly well-known slang.

Is Pious pious cause God loves pious?
Socrates asked, whose bias do y'all seek?
All for Plato -- screech
I'm out here balling, I know y'all hear my sneaks
The last two lines are full of Biblical references, with the implication of Jay-Z and Kanye West having a relationship to each other like Jesus and the Holy Spirit did -- i.e., that Kanye, the proverbial builder "laying beats" like Jesus who, as a carpenter, would lay bricks, needed Jay-Z, in the role of the Holy Spirit, to come to him so that "Yeezy" could fulfill his mission.

Jesus was a carpenter, Yeezy he laid beats
Hova flow the Holy Ghost, get the hell up out your seats
Preach
The bridge to the song is meant to be a kind of credo for the "new religion" Kanye mentions in his verse, where love replaces faith and relationships are no longer hemmed in by traditional social norms (morality, monogamy, nationalism, etc.). The reference to "encryption" is to the proverbial firewall that people have between their public and private selves; in other words, it's a plea to be as close to someone as possible.

I live by you, desire
I stand by you, walk through the fire
Your love is my scripture
Let me in to your encryption
Now, Kanye's verse is actually just as interesting as Jay-Z's, although it does not have the deeper philosophical references.

The first two lines are Kanye attempting to redefine racist conceptions by challenging the definition behind the term, "jungle fever". Tradition defines "jungle fever" as a derogatory term for an interracial relationship. But here, Kanye turns it around and defines it as addiction to hard drugs like cocaine. We can also see in this a muted reference to how those in power have used hard drugs as a means of social control. Both of these themes dovetail into lyrics further down.

Coke on her black skin make a stripe like a zebra
I call that jungle fever
The next two lines are a reference to the "Holy Trinity" of Kanye's "new religion": himself, Jay-Z and love. The declaration that this "threesome" cannot be controlled is directed not at the listener, but at tradition -- traditional morals, traditional religion, traditional power. In the meantime, until the expected clash comes, just relax and enjoy yourself ... by "roll the weed up", itself a flouting of the law and "tradition" -- i.e., respect for authority.

[I]You will not control the threesome
Just roll the weed up until I get me some
The four lines that follow the above are more or less the core of his verse. They explain Kanye and Jay-Z's "new religion": one where there is no "sin" to be found among people who are consenting. Now, there are a lot of implications to be taken from this, including support for same-sex relationships, polyamory, and other forms of human relations that are rejected by tradition. At the same time, things that are upheld as virtues or norms by tradition -- exploitation, oppression, war, poverty, violence, etc. -- become sins; moreover, they become "felonies" ("high crimes", to use language from the Constitution) when these involuntary social relations are based on deception.

We formed a new religion
No sins as long as there's permission
And deception is the only felony
So never fuck nobody without telling me
The next four lines set up the late introduction of a woman who has already come to reject tradition and embrace the "new religion" on her own (independence and free will being a running theme in the song). In a sense, the "girl in all leopard" represents Kanye's moment of epiphany -- the moment when the basis for his "new religion" -- his stand against tradition and power -- became clear through the haze of partying and hedonism that Kanye is more famous for rhyming about.

Sunglasses and Advil; last night was mad real
Sun coming up, 5 a.m.; I wonder if they got cabs still?
Thinking 'bout the girl in all leopard
Who was rubbing the wood like Kiki Shepherd
("Rubbing the wood like Kiki Shepherd" is a reference to the co-host of Showtime at the Apollo, and the tradition of the hosts and performers at the Apollo "rubbing the wood" for good luck. Of course, "rubbing the wood" has a very different meaning in the context of a "mad real" party.)

The four following lines are the epiphany itself, with the first two being the trigger and the second two being the realization that such views would never be accepted or expressed by the propagandists of tradition: religion and the state (in the form of schools). Both of these institutions of tradition have enshrined penitence (submission) and monogamy as core tenets, and use their political, economic and cultural power to impose and enforce it. To reject it is to reject core elements of traditional power itself.

Two tattoos: one read "No Apologies"
The other said "Love is Cursed by Monogamy"
It's something that the pastor don't preach
It's something that a teacher can't teach
The last two lines of Kanye's verse speak of death -- the "great equalizer" -- and life. The lyric itself can be seen as a kind of penitence in its own right. Its recognition that "you can't take it with you", combined with an acknowledgment that people often use money as a means of "deadening the pain" of real life (through consumption of drugs, through buying of expensive or outright luxury items, through escapism, etc.), actually stands in stark contrast to how Kanye and Jay-Z have hitherto acted. Whether this a genuine act of contrition or not remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it fits well as the conclusion to Kanye's explanation of his "new religion" -- which, when you get down to it, is not a religion at all, but a fundamental challenge to the institutions and ideologies of tradition.

When we die the money we can't keep
But we probably spend it all cause the pain ain't cheap
Preach
When I said there was a complex connection between the lyrics and the video, it is this recurring theme of challenging tradition and the status quo. From Jay-Z's citing of Socrates and Plato to Kanye's anti-religious "new religion" (which is reminiscent of how ideologies like anarchism, socialism and communism have been called "religions"), the entire theme of "No Church in the Wild" is about a decisive break with tradition and its implications. It is also a cautionary tale, in the sense that it warns the listener that they should not see a challenge to traditional power as being a game or something you can just step back from. It is a war, a battle to the death -- and whether you like it or not, you have to engage it as such, lest you don't make it out alive.

[Book O'Dead]

It sucks.

[Book O'Dead]

P.S.:
Molotov fail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0SInJdbWkA