Kanye West And Jay-Z: Song Analysis

Introduction and Background I will be analyzing the song "Murder to Excellence" by song artists Kanye West and Jay-Z. To begin I will provide background on the song as well as the artists, the meaning behind the song, and the genre. Secondly, I will explain why I chose this song to analyze, and what this means to me. Then, I will discuss how this fits into my culture and why it's useful. Lastly, I will end with closing thoughts. Kanye West and Jay-Z, songwriters, producers, and icons to keep it brief, are not only business partners they're also longtime friends. These two collaborated on various songs throughout the year 2010, which ended in them working together on the album Watch the Throne in 2011. The song I have chosen, Murder to Excellence,
Only spot a few blacks the higher I go.” (lines 54-55), as he continues to give a shout out to Will Smith and Oprah. The meaning behind his metaphor is how in the game of dominoes the person with the fewest numbers of pipes (black dots) has the highest score and wins the game. Which is what Jay-Z is hinting at, the higher his celebrity and business status gets the less black people he sees, and is why he ends with, “That ain’t enough…we gonna need a million more.” (line 57). Another metaphorical line used by Carter is when he says in lines 35-36, “If you put crabs in a barrel to ensure your survival. You're gon' end up pulling down niggas that look just like you”. That meaning goes to say, if you have ever seen a lot of crabs in a bucket and one is just about to the top, a crab on the bottom pulls back down and tries to take his spot. Then he says that they’re going to end up pulling down their own people, just like in our world there is always someone there waiting for your demise praying for your failure. To end that verse Kanye says, “What up Blood? What up, cuz? It’s all black I love us”, referring to the rival gangs that’s been beefing for years on