Cathedralic Imagery in Kanye West and Jay-Z’s “N****s in Paris” Video
This article was originally given as a paper at the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) annual conference in 2012, Sydney, themed together <> apart. Images shown in the accompanying presentation have been inserted throughout, however I have marked the timing of the different slides below.
In this paper I will examine how Kanye West, in his clip for “N****s in Paris” from his collaborative album with Jay-Z, uses aspects of cathedralic imagery to reinforce his and Jay-Z’s authority. This magisterial imagery is consistent with the message conveyed in the lyrics of the song and the larger message of the Watch the Throne album and tour and, as I will show, consistent with a trajectory towards the use of more imagery in both West and Jay-Z’s clips. As a Renaissance art historian and really theologian, I’m looking at the use or really hijacking, for want of a better word, of certain very specific religious imagery in order to convey social authority. So it intrigues me that a modern rapper, with only a little artistic education, would instinctively reach for such traditional religious imagery himself, for largely the same purpose. West, the producer of the clip, uses images of the audience and performers from his Watch the Throne tour with Jay-Z, as well as still images and footage of Notre Dame and other landmarks of Paris.
Furthermore, he combines this footage with a heavy use of strobe lighting and a kaleidoscopic doubling and splicing of both still and moving images, both of which I will argue echo both the transformative effect of light in the cathedral space, and the stained glass of rose windows, a central feature of several Gothic cathedrals including Notre Dame de Paris. West borrows from a long tradition associating the church with power, and particularly cathedrals with the seat of judicial and social power as exercised by God’s representative on earth, or the bishop whose seat is the cathedral. In this paper I will show how West successfully combines these elements, seemingly at odds with his and Jay-Z’s track, to claim authority for himself and Jay-Z, and also to equally distribute it between the two. Before I go any further, I’d like to show you the clip so everyone knows what I’m referring to!
[Here the clip itself was shown in full within the conference session]
From the very beginning of the Paris clip, West associates himself and Jay-Z with the grandeur of Paris. [Fig. 1] The clip begins with screen-wide letters spelling out the two artists’ names [Fig. 2] and the word Paris, [Fig. 3] with the interior of the letters composed of footage of the concert. This is the viewer’s first cue that the experience they will be afforded by this clip will be something different than what they might expect [Fig. 4].
Music clip theorist Susan Vernallis tells us that many music genres rely on certain cultural and indeed racial stereotypes to construct their video clips. Rap and hip-hop videos are often set outside on the street, to remind the viewer of the singer’s origin and to facilitate connection between the them. However, Vernallis notes, once an artist has reached a particular level, the producer of a clip may be careful to show the singer surrounded by signals of wealth, to show that now they’re a millionaire, there can be no going back. One of the examples she cites here is Jay-Z. West could be added to this upper class of rap artists: in the Paris clip, various visual cues suggest to the viewer that both West and Jay-Z are god-like figures, set apart from the mêlée they perform before.
If one examines simply the shots West has chosen to show of himself [Fig. 5] and Jay-Z, [Fig. 6] the image of authority he aims to project is clear. Both are shown mostly from below, or at a distance, elevated on their stage — or throne — above the crowd. The monochromatic outfits the two wear, surrounded by the plain black of their stage, is also sharply contrasted with the variety of skin colour and hair colour of the myriad viewers below [Fig. 7].
Immediately following the introduction to the song, West splits the screen in half and begins the mirroring effect that characterises much of the clip, and spawned a number of imitations following its release, for its innovative visual form [Fig. 8]. I believe the purpose and effect of this technique is two-fold here: first, it disorients the viewer and produces an experience analogous to sensory-overload or drug-taking, and second, the visual doubling of the audience, the stage and the singers implies equality on the part of both Jay-Z and West — it places to the two on equal footing. I will deal with each of these points here in turn presently.
The images of the crowd [Figs 9 & 10] — some still and some moving, some in slow-motion and some sped up — are interspersed with kaleidoscopic forms composed of beams of light, images of jewels, big cats such as panthers and leopards, or of the crowd itself [Figs 11–13 KALEIDOSCOPE x 3] The lighting for much of the clip, especially in this first, frenetic section, flickers on and off in a strobe effect, close to 11 Hz, or 11 blinks per second, in addition to the shots changing quickly as well. I contend that these techniques combine to produce a rather visceral effect analogous to the experience of a worshipper within a cathedral, which can be read as deliberate considering the references to Paris and to Notre Dame itself. I believe that West, in this clip, deliberately or — if you’re not one of those people who believes he’s the greatest artist of his generation — sub-consciously references cathedralic forms to establish authority and power for himself and Jay-Z, tying in with theme of both the song In Paris, and of the album Watch the Throne.
In the clip for Paris, West demonstrates his understanding of the transformative and indeed transcendental effects of light. This innate power or perhaps property of light is essential to the theory of cathedral architecture. In the clip, light comes mainly from above, in the form of short and hardly illuminating bursts — its purpose is to contribute to the atmosphere for the audience, not to reveal. These lashes or shafts of light serve only to fracture the spatial cohesion of depth in the audience, thereby further disorienting the viewer of the clip. This could be likened to the faint, multi-coloured or often purplish light that filters through the stained glass windows of a cathedral’s clerestory — not designed to brighten as such, but to inspire spiritual feeling in the visitor [Fig. 14].
The light inside a cathedral is meant to be unlike anything the visitor has experienced before — a token of the divine presence of the Holy Spirit. I believe that West, too, aims to create an experience not found anywhere else in the world in his clip for Paris. He has even transformed the transportative experience of the concert itself into something newer and even more rarefied for the viewer of the clip, who experiences a dazzling array of visual effects married to the rhythm of the clip but not predicated by it.
He gives us further cues to the religious basis of these visual effects with the kaleidoscopic collages of crowd footage he flashes up on the screen, [Figs 15 & 16] visually very similar to rose windows which feature prominently in many cathedrals, including Notre Dame de Paris [Fig. 17]. In the Paris clip, we are given a lengthy sequence featuring the western façade of Notre Dame, which also includes a rose window, repeating this form for the viewer [Fig. 18]. The exception to this obfuscating light of the strobes is the occasional spotlight directed onto Jay-Z and West himself — these being akin to the concentration of candlelight surrounding the altar or the pulpit, or those officially endorsed to deliver the Word of God. The heavenly connotations of these beams are clear, especially when the shot is framed thusly [Fig. 19].
The warning at the beginning of the Paris clip gives us some clue as to how serious the transformative effects of West’s use of strobe lighting can be [Fig. 20]. The epilepsy health warning is a reminder of the very bodily effect that strobe lighting can have.
West chooses to show a series of shots of beautiful women in the audience of his show, [Fig. 21] each captured in the midst of dancing to his and Jay-Z’s performance, [Fig. 22] evidence of the full-body engagement of the viewer in the two artists’ particular practice of preaching. Jay-Z and Kanye West, elsewhere on the album Watch the Throne, have likened their music to preaching, of a sort, to a new generation. In the clip for No Church in the Wild, a strong use of classical imagery is contrasted with the bodies of young, predominantly black male protesters engaged in a violent uprising against an impassive police force [Fig. 23].
The lyrics of the track make many references to both church and preaching, and suggest that Jay-Z and West are regarded as preachers by their fans. This bodily sublimation in the experience of Jay-Z and West’s music is similar to the bodily submission before God encouraged by the multi-sensory experience of worship in a cathedral, with its dim, other-worldly light, mass read in Latin, choral music, the rich textures of the clergy’s robes, and the burning of frankincense and expensive candles. The clip for No Church in the Wild, directed by Romain Gavras and shot in Prague, was released after the Paris clip, suggesting that as Jay-Z and West progress with promotion for Watch the Theme, the two are progressing with their use of the church as a symbol of the authority that the two wish to claim for themselves within the music world. The clip for No Church in the Wild also makes extensive use of classical imagery, [Fig. 24] both to project heroism on the part of the protesters, [Fig. 25] and in the shots of various statuary [Fig. 26] that alternates with shots of the young men at key moments [Fig. 27].
West’s solo clips have followed a more conventional rap trajectory, albeit one peppered with perhaps a broader range of pop culture references than some of his contemporaries. West has never made a huge use of “video girls”, but his clips have maintained the focus on the artist and symbols of status and wealth that are more usual for the genre. West has progressed from the somewhat narrative style of Gold-digger featuring retro-style pin-ups as his video girls [Fig. 28], to the more thematic Stronger, [Figs 29 & 30] his collaboration with Daft Punk, which embraced a machine aesthetic that fit both Daft Punk’s music and the particular iteration of West’s musical style at the time.
Over time, his clips have become more stylised and aesthetically streamlined, suggesting that the strong, traditional authoritarian imagery of Paris was inevitable for his oeuvre. Jay-Z, on the other hand, has previously come under fire from Christian fundamentalist groups for employing what some have seen as Masonic or Illuminati symbolism. This criticism was strongest of Jay-Z’s 2009 track Onto the Next One [Figs 31–33].
Briefly — because I don’t think these accusations warrant serious discussion — I would disagree with such a charge, and put it in the same category of conspiracy theory as those that would assign Leonardo da Vinci membership of the same shadowy organisation. Jay-Z’s fans often make the Roc-a-fella Records or “diamond” symbol during concerts, [Fig. 34] which has been construed as a Masonic reference. I would like to highlight here its similarity to the Daft Punk pyramid, [Fig. 35] but I contend that in all likelihood, the diamond symbol is another reference to the wealth and status of the rapper. At the end of the Paris clip, a forest of arms and hands rise from the audience and make the sign. [END OF PARIS].
Towards the end of the track, the ecclesiastical connotations of the clip are supported by the form of the song itself. The pace slows, Jay-Z and West’s voices are accompanied by the sounds of male voices in a choral arrangement, and the movement of the shots on-screen becomes less frenzied. The strobe-like flashing of shots of the crowd is replaced by a long, moving pan of clouds [Fig. 36] — an obvious heavenly reference — interspersed with various shots of classical symbols and references to wealth and grandeur.
These include a fairly broad-strokes approach to conveying the Baroque grandeur of the centre of Paris or the imagined lifestyle of the rich and famous who live there — the panthers [Fig. 37] reminiscent of the exotic private zoos of the nobility, a long, panning view of the rooftops of the buildings that run along the Seine [Fig. 38], transposed to form the border of the image, the glass pyramids at the Louvre, jewels, and some rather generic classicised statuary [Figs 39 & 40]. Most of these images — particularly the statuary — appear on the screen too briefly to be read legibly or consciously by the audience. They contribute rather to a sort of shorthand of grandeur and authority upon which West depends, further cementing the notion that instinctively, this is the imagery of authority that both artist and audience can understand implicitly.
The steady — if brisk — rhythm of the song interests me from the perspective of marrying the track and the clip with cathedralic forms. The decidedly rhythmic progression of vertiginous architectural forms in the interior of a cathedral [Fig. 41] — here Notre Dame d’Amiens — the delicate, bone-like columns which articulate the height of the cathedral space and encourage an ordered progression through the space — I see echoed in the strong rhythmic format of the song itself — with an insistent beat that forces forward motion through the clip and helps make sense of its somewhat tangled visual forms. This rhythm persists almost to the end of the clip, demanding submission and forcing order onto the clip — which, unlike some more narrative clips or artistic ventures such as Michel Gondry’s clips for Bjork, [Figs 42 & 43] which are all but divorced from the substance of the song — here, the clip could not exist independently of the song. It lends a transformative experiential richness to the lyrics of the song, which without the clip, are — it must be admitted — reasonably banal. The two — the clip and the song — touch in unexpected ways — with the clip neither illustrating the lyrics, nor the song suggesting a linear narrative in any sense.
In addition, conceptually the clip can be tied to cathedrals in some unexpected ways. As we know, it is hoped that a cathedral, in its magnificence and communal importance, will act as an earthly representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem, described in the eschatological Book of Revelations. I would contend that the world West depicts in the Paris clip is a representation of his own version of the heavenly Jerusalem, or a realm where his Word has been followed, his Will has been done, and his covenant with his followers has been fulfilled. In the vision West shows us, he performs in the glamorous, fashion capital of Paris, where the men all worship his music and submit to his innate authority, and the women are all scorchingly hot.
Viewers may be interested to learn that gossip magazines posit Kanye has slowly been re-styling the image of his new girlfriend Kim Kardashian, [Figs 44 & 45] ruling out any trashily bright starlet dresses in favourite of a more avant-garde, monochrome wardrobe, not dissimilar to the sartorial aesthetic on show here. The design of West’s heavenly Jerusalem recognises the chaos attendant in West and Jay-Z’s euphoric performance, but imposes order thereon by forcing the chaotic moving mass of the crowd into neat symmetrical shapes and kaleidoscopic forms, redolent of neat rows of pews in the central vessel of a church and the sublime beauty of the stained-glass rose window. In truth, it is this imposition of order onto chaos which links Paris most strongly with the cathedral, which is predicated on the religious impulse to make sense of a senseless universe, and to implicate a creator behind the madness.
