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A perfect apostle for the Church of Yeezy. The tattoos spell out his new philosophy–there’s no shame in rejecting monogamy, as expectations of monogamy doom sacred love. That may not be what most Christian churches teach, but w/evs, ‘Ye’s not going to hell anyway.

“Love is Cursed by Monogamy” can be read in two different ways:

  • Monogamy is a curse and you cannot express your love and yourself because of that. It’s a chain that doesn’t allow you to give love to anyone that deserve it. You cannot fuck around.

  • Monogamy is just how the real world is. You cannot pretend to be in love with thousand of women. The only way to find the real love is to choose your own and unique princess.

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Hov is expressing a rare shock at his own success. Not because of any doubts about his talent or worthiness, but simply because the societal odds against him were so long. Given his past as a drug dealer (and little incidents like this and this), he probably should have been in prison. But hey, he made it now and there’s really no going back.

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Neither Jesus nor Yeezus were held in high regard in their early days; Jesus worked manual labor as a carpenter, and Ye hustled his instrumentals around in hopes to make it big. It wasn’t until the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus at his Baptism that he was able to begin his ministry, and Kanye couldn’t begin a career as a rapper until Jay endorsed him.

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Kanye West alludes to the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, which took place in April 2011 and was still in recent memory when this track dropped. He refers to actresses and twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, playing on the name of the former—perhaps to suggest that William also should have married Pippa Middleton.

Interestingly, West makes use of double syntax by combining two meanings of one word (married/Mary) into two phrases.

Kanye and Mary-Kate were rumored to have actually hooked up in 2011.

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As JAY-Z said on November 2007’s American Gangster track, “Success,”, he has watches that he hasn’t seen in months.

Audemars Piguet is a luxury watch company from Switzerland. Some of their timepieces require daily calibrations in order to keep accurate time. Jay also mentions his Rolex collection. In the past, one way to spot a fake Rolex was to watch its second hand. If it ticked every second it was fake, because the real ones gave off the illusion that they were “sweeping” around the dial. All of Jay’s Rollies are real.

Note that, of the ultra-luxury watch houses, Audemars Pigeut’s diamond-covered mode might be the most famous example of a diamond heavy timepiece.

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Hov reiterates the Pledge of Allegiance language from above, but this time swears his allegiance to all of the hustlers. This ties in to his career-long project, which has been to humanize and tell the stories of the hustler.

Interestingly, he portrays this song and the stories it contains as his version of the national anthem.

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Jay smartly brings together two images here – his desire for a “piece of the [economic] pie” and the cliche of something being “as American as apple pie”. In this case, Jay’s piece of the American dream came through his drug dealing. Baking soda is an active ingredient in crack cocaine

A far more subtle implication is that unethical business deals (drug dealing is commonly considered one) are nothing new and, like the apple pie mentioned at the line’s beginning, are a quintessential symbol of America.

Jay’s affinity with apple pie can be traced back to 2002’s “Guns & Roses”:

Cause who knew dude that loved apple pies from McDonalds
Would soon be the boss of the Big Apple, ya know

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Jay begins this verse with a theme that runs throughout – a creative repurposing of patriotic language. In this case, it’s the Pledge of Allegiance. This motif goes right along with the theme of the song – namely, how he and Kanye “made it” in a country with a legacy of vicious racism.

Additionally, that he pledges allegiance to his grandmother rather than America, especially in light of the song’s title (Made in America), means Jay is placing his family above any allegiance to America.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz7aCArZRCk

True enough. This story on the making of The Blueprint points out that Cam'ron was originally working with the Kanye beat that would later become “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” (and, though it wasn’t a ‘Ye beat, the article points out that Ghostface originally had the “Girls, Girls, Girls” beat – we’d love to hear that track someday!)

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As producer No I.D. explains in this interview, Kanye’s mother actually met No I.D.’s mother first, and approached her about the older producer (who was barely out of his teens at the time) mentoring the then-teenage West.

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