Bike Zone: Kanye West And Jay-Z Premiere Eye-Popping 'N---as In Paris' Video

Saturday, 11 February 2012

Kanye West And Jay-Z Premiere Eye-Popping 'N---as In Paris' Video

Part live clip, part kaleidoscopic freakout, the 'Paris' video more than matches the song's massive impact.
By James Montgomery

Kanye West and Jay-Z in the music video for "N---as in Paris"
Photo: Roc-A-Fella Records

After the premiere of Kanye West and Jay-Z's new "N---as in Paris" video — which bowed Thursday (February 9) on MTV.com — someone joked that I needed to watch it 13 times in a row to best approximate the experience of the dynamic duo's Watch the Throne tour.

And it's true, Kanye and Jay did play "Paris" a whole lot during their trek ... mostly because the song elicited such a thunderous response from sold-out crowds nationwide. So it's somewhat fitting that the video (which was directed by West) is equally live ... and just as thunderous.

Filmed in part during the run of Throne shows at the Staples Center in Los Angeles — additional footage, one can assume, was shot during a casted performance, unless the Staples crowd was 85 percent female models — the clip captures both the loose jocularity of 'Ye and Jay and the electric energy that coursed through the venue when "Paris" leapt from the speakers (many, many times). West fills the video with eye-catching kaleidoscopic effects, creating dizzying visuals that fold the audience, the stage and everything else in upon themselves, making fractals upon fractals. No wonder the clip is preceded by an epilepsy warning.

Check out epic scenes from the "N---as in Paris" video!

Given the size and scope of both the song and the artists performing it, the "Paris" video is also loaded with lasers, prowling panthers, pop-up-book cityscapes and the aforementioned models. Shoot, even producer Hit-Boy makes a one-second cameo. It's a head-spinning, pulse-quickening mixture of imagery and movement, of sight and sound — an experience unlike any other live clip.

Oh, and yes, Will Ferrell makes an appearance too, though it's in the form of a scene from "Blades of Glory" (guess Ferrell wasn't lying when he told MTV News that plans to feature him in the clip never quite materialized). So truly, there's something for everyone. If you caught the Throne tour, the "Paris" video is sure to inspire heady flashbacks. If you didn't, well, here's what it was like, only pushed to the absolute max. And to further replicate the live feeling, I recommend watching it for roughly the next hour. It's the way the thing was supposed to be viewed, after all.

Did the "Paris" video capture the live Watch the Throne experience? Leave your comment below!

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