Kanye West (ft. Mos Def) – "Drunk and Hot Girls" (2007)

Driving around town

Looking for the best spot

For the drunk and hot girls

Eastern Shore Undercover is a social media-based news source for the good citizens of the lower Eastern Shore region of Maryland – Wicomico and Worcester Counties, to be precise. 

Click here to visit its website, which has links you can use to follow Eastern Shore Undercover on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram.

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Most of Eastern Shore Undercover’s content relates to incidents that resulted in calls to local police and sheriff’s departments.  (It looks like they get much of their information by monitoring law enforcement radio communications.) 

There are items relating to complaints about domestic abuse, illegal panhandling, public intoxication and drug use, fights, and various other low crimes and misdemeanors – as well as 911 calls about traffic accident injuries, heart attacks, and the like. 

Here’s a recent Eastern Shore Undercover Facebook post that caught my eye: 

As you can see, that post had attracted 259 comments at the time I viewed it.  

No surprise that most of the comments were from men:

But quite a few ladies chimed in as well:

I have to say that the women of Salisbury, MD sound like they are a lot of fun:

Last but certainly not least:

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We’ll feature some more Eastern Shore Undercover items in the next 2 or 3 lines.

In the meantime, click here to enjoy “Drunk and Hot Girls” from Kanye West’s best-selling 2007 album, Graduation.  (I don’t know if the young lady walking around the Irish Penny Pub & Grill parking lot nekkid as a jaybird was hot, but she must have been very, very drunk – after all, it was below freezing in Salisbury that night.)

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Kanye West (ft. Desiigner) – "Pt. 2" (2016)

All his cash

Market crashed

The stock market certainly didn’t crash in 2017 – the S&P 500 ended the year almost 20% higher than it was at the beginning of 2017.  

That was good news for Kanye West, among others.

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Ladies, were you happy with the Christmas gifts your husband and/or boyfriend gave you this year?

Kim Kardashian West

I’m pretty sure that Kim Kardashian was happy with the gifts she received from Kanye West.

When Kim opened the box that Kanye gave her, she found items from Disney, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, and Adidas.

For example, there was a Disney Mickey Mouse figure, a pair of Adidas socks, Apple headphones, and Amazon and Netflix gift cards.

“And I’m like, ‘That’s so sweet!’” Kim said.

Kanye gave Kim Adidas socks . . .

I guarantee you Kim was not really thinking “That’s so sweet!” when she opened Kanye’s gift.  She was thinking WHERE ARE MY F*CKING DIAMONDS???

No need to get your knickers in a twist, Kim.  Kanye’s no fool – he knows better than to think you’ll be satisfied with socks, headphones, a couple of gift cards, and a stuffed Mickey Mouse.

It turns out that Kanye not only gave the missus trinkets from Disney, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, and Adidas.  He also gave her hundreds of shares of stock in those companies.

A photo Kim posted on Instagram (she later deleted it) shows the stock certificates that were in the gift box that Kanye gave her for Christmas.

For example, she received 920 shares of Disney stock.  Those shares have a market value of just under $100,000 (which may explain the odd number of shares he gave her).

. . . as well as Adidas stock

Kanye gave Kim 995 shares of Adidas stock, which have about the same value as the Disney shares.    Assuming he gave Apple, Netflix, and Amazon stock worth the same amount, his gift was worth a cool half million altogether.

Which isn’t all that much, relatively speaking.  (Forbes magazine says Kim’s 2016 income was $45.5 million.  That’s over twice as much as her hubby’s income, although Kanye’s net worth may be double hers.)

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“Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 2” was released in 2016 on Kanye’s seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo.  “West just drops broken pieces of his psyche all over the album and challenges you to fit them together,” according to Rolling Stone, which called the album “both a mess and a masterpiece.”

West first said that The Life of Pablo would only be available through Tidal, a new streaming service owned by Jay-Z, West, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Jack White, Daft Punk, Madonna, Jason Aldean, and a number of other famous musicians.  After an updated version of the album was released for streaming on Spotify, Apple music, and Google Play, a class-action lawsuit was filed that claimed that West never intended to make the album available only on Tidal, but said that in hopes that his fans would download and use the struggling streaming app. 

The day that The Life of Pablo was released, West tweeted that he was $53 million in debt and asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to invest a billion dollars in his ideas.

Here’s “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 2”:

Kanye West (ft. Jamie Foxx) – "Gold Digger' (2004)

Now, I ain't sayin' she a gold digger

But she ain't messin' with no broke n*ggas

  

If you listen to a lot of news/talk radio, you’ve probably heard the commercials for TermProvider, Inc. – also known as “Big Lou Insurance” – which claims to be one of the largest term life insurance brokers in the country.

Big Lou’s message is quite different from the typical life insurance advertisement.  His target is the middle-aged guy who’s put on more than a few pounds and is taking meds for elevated cholesterol levels and high blood pressure.  At some point, he’s traded in his first wife for a newer model, who is afraid that he’s going to drop dead of a heart attack or a stroke any day.  So she’s been nagging him to pony up for a big-ass life insurance policy that will allow her to continue to live in the manner to which she’s become accustomed if he suddenly keels over.

Here’s one of Big Lou’s charmingly honest radio spots:

Do you have three ex-wives, and your current trophy wife wants a life insurance policy three times the size of the policies you had to purchase for your previous mistakes?  If so, you need to call Big Lou. . . . Big Lou is intimately familiar with your problems, and if you’re 50 or 60 years old and in reasonably good health, a one million dollar policy should only cost about a hundred to two hundred dollars per month.  Big Lou may have a solution for your previous policies as well.  You may even save enough to lighten the load on your new one million dollar policy.  Remember, call Big Lou.  He’s like you . . . except he’s only on number two.  

(You can click here to hear that radio spot.)

Here's a Big Lou ad that's aimed at trophy wives: 

Ladies, is his waistline expanding? . . . If so, you need to call Big Lou.  Big Lou can fit him into a term life policy even if he is a bit porky, has type II diabetes, or has high blood pressure. . . . Big Lou can show you affordable rates for one million in coverage – instantly making your man a bit more attractive, if you know what I mean.  

(Sounds like the honeymoon is over, pal.)

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A word of advice to all you trophy wives whose hubbies buy insurance from Big Lou: be patient!

I understand that it’s no fun when Mr. Expanding Waistline has one drink too many and gets all frisky.  It will be tempting to take matters into your own hands rather than biding your time.  But the spouse is always suspect number one when there’s a murder.  

Better to keep feeding him big steaks and baked potatoes with plenty of butter and sour cream, and saying “You stay on the couch and watch your football game, honey – I'll bring you another beer.”  Pretty soon, nature will take its course.

Even if you’re a few years past your prime when that heart attack occurs, you’ll still be able to attract a virile young boy toy with the help of that million-dollar insurance payout.

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Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” (which features Jamie Foxx) is a match for Big Lou’s radio commercials when it comes to cynicism.    

West originally intended the song for the female rapper Shawnna, and the lyrics were written from a female’s point of view:

I'm not sayin' I'm a gold digger

But I ain't messin' with no broke n*ggas  

But Shawnna decided not to record the song, so West rewrote the lyrics to make them more suitable for a male singer.

“Gold Digger” was a huge hit.  It sold a million digital downloads in only seven weeks, and quickly rose to #1 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 2004.  

Here’s the Hype Williams-directed music video for “Gold Digger” (which features the "clean" version of the song):

Click below to buy the explicit version of the song from Amazon:

James Brown – "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1966)

Man made the cars to take us over the road

Man made the train to carry the heavy load ...

This is a man's, man's, man's world

Every so often, 2 or 3 lines feels compelled to write a long, involved “think” piece on some complicated and controversial topic.

Whenever 2 or 3 lines does this, things never turn out well – especially when the complicated and controversial topic involves women.

But 2 or 3 lines never learns.  Hence, today’s post.

My choice of the 1966 James Brown hit, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” as the featured song for today’s post proves just what a well-developed sense of irony I have.  Because it is most definitely NOT a man’s man’s man’s world fifty years later.

To wit:

– Only 49% of college-age Americans are female.  But women are now receiving some 60% of all degrees granted by American colleges and universities.  (When men constituted 60% of the college population, that was viewed – and rightfully so – as a clear indication that women weren’t being treated as equals.  But have you heard any expressions of concern about the fact that the tables have turned and 60% of new college graduates are female?)   

– Women now dominate the service professions, while industries that have a higher proportion of male employees – like construction and manufacturing – are shrinking.  In fact, three-quarters of the eight million jobs lost during the Great Recession of 2008-09 were lost by males. 

– The number of female voters has exceeded the number of male voters in every presidential election since 1964.  And the gap is growing, too: ten million more females than males voted in 2012.  (If you women out there don’t like the last half-dozen or so Presidents we’ve elected, you have only yourselves to blame.)

– Within a few months, women will likely be leading the governments of the United States, Britain, and Germany – the three largest Western economies.  (This is good news for American, British, and German males: it won't be our fault when things go FUBAR, which things always do sooner or later.)

In 2010, an Atlantic magazine cover story famously declared “The End of Men.”  

Perhaps the most startling fact noted in that story was how rapidly the traditional gender preferences of prospective parents around the world were changing.  According to that article, American parents who utilized a new sperm-selecting technology that enabled them to choose whether they wanted a boy or a girl were choosing to have a girl 75 percent of the time.  

Even feminists are realizing the pendulum has swung too far.

The Washington Post recently featured a column by Cathy Young, an “equity feminist” (that’s the best kind), who decried male-bashing:

[A] lot of feminist rhetoric today does cross the line from attacks on sexism into attacks on men, with a strong focus on personal behavior: the way they talk, the way they approach relationships, even the way they sit on public transit.  Male faults are stated as sweeping condemnations; objecting to such generalizations is taken as a sign of complicity.  Meanwhile, similar indictments of women would be considered grossly misogynistic.

For example, it is now common for women to complain about “manterrupting,” a neologism that is used to describe the supposedly common male practice of interrupting female speakers in business meetings rather than listening to what women have to say.

Kanye West "manterrupting" Taylor Swift

Here’s what a Time magazine columnist had to say about “manterrupting”:

[A]sk any woman in the working world and we all recognize the phenomenon.  We speak up in a meeting, only to hear a man’s voice chime in louder.  We pitch an idea, perhaps too uncertainly – only to have a dude repeat it with authority.  We may possess the skill, but he has the right vocal cords – which means we shut up, losing our confidence (or worse, the credit for the work).

But there’s a teeny-weeny problem with all the talk about “manterrupting.”  

While a 2014 study confirmed that male listeners interrupted female speakers more frequently than they interrupted male speakers, that same study found that female listeners interrupted female speakers even more often than male listeners did.  

Maybe “manterrupting” should be “femterrupting”?

More from Cathy Young’s Post column:  

Things have gotten to a point where casual low-level male-bashing is a constant white noise in the hip progressive online media.  Take a recent [online] piece titled, “Men Are Creepy, New Study Confirms.”  The actual study found something very different: that both men and women overwhelmingly think someone described as “creepy” is more likely to be male. 

PSYCHOLOGY

Men Are Creepy, New Study Confirms

Imagine if a study had found that most people think that someone who is described as “cheap” is more likely to be a Jew.  Can you imagine a story reporting on the findings of that study being headlined, “Jews Are Cheap, New Study Confirms”?

What’s bad for the goose is perfectly OK for the gander when it comes to misogyny (bad!) vs. misandry (not a problem)  at least in the eyes of those feminists who view sexism as a one-way street.  They believe that gender-based prejudice isn’t sexism unless it’s directed against the oppressed and disadvantaged – i.e., females.  Since males hold the power in our society, they’re fair game.

Except for the fact that males don’t really hold the power any more.  Remember: ten million more women than men voted in the 2012 presidential election.  

That trend may sound like a bad thing for men, but it does offer one big advantage for males.  We’ll explain what that advantage is in the next 2 or 3 lines.

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“It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” was recorded back when males did hold the power in our society.

Officially, the song was co-written by James Brown and his girlfriend Betty Jean Newsome.  Brown later said she had nothing to do with the song, while Newsome claimed just the opposite and took the “Godfather of Soul” to court – unsuccessfully.

Betty Jean Newsome in 2007

The Village Voice published a long and sordid story about the Brown-Newsome relationship and the squabbling over who deserved credit for writing “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” in 2007.  Click here to read it.

Here’s my favorite paragraph from that article:

[Newsome] says Brown asked her to have a baby with him, but she rebuffed him, saying, "I ain't gonna be having one of your little monkey babies."  The Famous Flames, Newsome recalls, marveled at the fact that James didn't kill her right then and there.

Here’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Katy Perry (ft. Kanye West) – "E.T." (2011)

Kiss me, kiss me

Infect me with your loving

Fill me with your poison

I used to think that Katy Perry was a completely generic pop star – someone who came right off the teen-idol assembly line.

But Katy's got a little more going for her than I thought.  You don't sell 11 million albums and 81 million singles and get picked to headline a Super Bowl halftime show if you're completely devoid of talent and brains.

Katy is listed as at least a co-writer on most of her big hits.  Some people say she doesn't contribute that much to most of the songs she records, while others give her more credit than that for her songwriting.

Kanye West and Katy Perry

Of course, she's no Kanye West.  Once I saw that Yeezus had contributed to "E.T.," it was a no-brainer for me to feature their collaboration today. 

The following lines could have been written by no one other than Mr. Kim Kardashian:

Tell me what's next – alien sex?

Ima disrobe you

Then Ima probe you

According to the Urban Dictionary, "Ima" – which is short for "I am going to" – is the only triple elision in the English language.  ("I am going to" = "I'm going to" = "I'm gonna" = "Ima.")

Do these lines from Kanye's "E.T." verse remind you of anything?

I know a bar out in Mars

When they driving spaceships

Instead of cars

How about these lines from Blondie's 1980 hit, "Rapture"?

'Cause the man from Mars 

Is through with cars

He's eatin' bars

This post is scheduled to appear at precisely 6:30 pm – which is the official start time for Super Bowl XLIX.  (I'm rooting for the Patriots because I think Tom Brady is dreamy!)

Here's "E.T.," which is the second-biggest-selling single of Katy Perry's career.  It  sold five million digital copies in 2011 and spent five weeks as the #1 song on the Billboard "Hot 100" chart:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Jack White -- "Weep Themselves to Sleep" (2012)

And men who fight the world and love the girls 
That try to hold their hands behind them
They won't be left behind by time
Or any rules that try to bind them

I don't think Kanye West was talking about Jack White when he uttered these immortal lines in "N*ggas in Paris":

That sh*t cray!

That sh*t cray!

That sh*t cray!

Kanye followed up "That sh*t cray" with this line:

What she order?  Fish filet?

Rap Genius offers this annotation of that line:

My coworker at our Firestone tire store in Inglewood [CA] used to always complain about women ordering fish filets when he took them to McDonald's because they were more expensive: "She even ordered two of them things.  It's not Easter, b*tch!"

That's a fact, Jack -- it sure as hell ain't Easter!  It's the Fourth of July!  (Or it was when I wrote this post.)

By the way, the Filet-O-Fish is far from the most expensive sandwich at McDonald's. 

The Big Mac is $3.99.  A Quarter Pounder with Cheese (or a "Royale with Cheese" if you're French) is $3.79 -- same as a Filet-O-Fish.

Of course, a Double Cheeseburger is only $1.59.  That's what 2 or 3 lines orders, boys and girls.  (It's delicious!)

But we were talking about Jack White -- whose sh*t is truly cray!

Jack White

Here's some stuff I pulled at random from Jack White's Wikipedia page:

In 2005 on 60 Minutes, White told Mike Wallace that his life could have turned out differently. "I'd got accepted to a seminary in Wisconsin, and I was gonna become a priest, but at the last second I thought, 'I'll just go to public school.'  I had just gotten a new amplifier in my bedroom, and I didn't think I was allowed to take it with me."

It gets weirder:

At 15, White began a three-year upholstery apprenticeship with a family friend, Brian Muldoon. White credits Muldoon with exposing him to punk music and pushing him to play music with Muldoon as a band: "He played drums, well I guess I'll play guitar then."  The two recorded an album, Makers of High Grade Suites, as the Upholsterers. 

And weirder still:

White later started a one-man business of his own, Third Man Upholstery.  The slogan of his business was "Your Furniture's Not Dead" and the color scheme was yellow and black -- including a yellow van, a yellow-and-black uniform, and a yellow clipboard.  Although Third Man Upholstery never lacked business, White claims that it was unprofitable, because of his complacency about money and his business practices that were perceived as unprofessional, including making bills out in crayon and writing poetry inside the furniture.  Shortly thereafter, White landed his first professional gig, as the drummer for the Detroit band, Goober & the Peas.

White formed the White Stripes in 1997 with wife, Meg White.  For some time, they claimed to be brother and sister instead of husband and wife.  (Her real last name is White.  His isn't.)

Meg and Jack White

Jack and Meg White got divorced after releasing two albums as the White Stripes.  They then released four more White Stripes albums.  

White formed the Raconteurs in 2005.  That band released two albums.

He then formed Dead Weather in 2009.  That band also released two albums.

White released his first solo album, Blunderbuss, in 2012.  (Today's featured song is from that album.)  It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and was nominated for the "Best Rock Album" and "Album of the Year" Grammies.

When White toured in support of Blunderbuss, he played with both an all-male backing band (called the Buzzards), and an all-female backing band (called the Peacocks -- although calling them the Peahens would have made more sense).

I've chosen to feature "Weep Themselves to Sleep" from Blunderbuss in part because its dominant instrument is the piano -- a/k/a "The King of Instruments" -- rather than the guitar.  

The pianist featured on this recording is a classically trained pianist and composer named Brooke Waggoner.

Jack White and Brooke Waggoner

I'll have more to say about Brooke in the next 2 or 3 lines.  But all you need to know about her right now is that Brooke and her piano own this song!  (I kid you not!)

Here's "Weep Themselves to Sleep," featuring the fabulous piano of Brook Waggoner.

Click below to order the song from Amazon:

Kanye West (feat. Nicki Minaj) -- "Monster" (2010)

Pink wig, thick ass, 

Give them whiplash

I think big, get cash, 

Make them blink fast

In today's 2 or 3 lines, we conclude our conversation with the fabulous young critic, essayist, and blogger, Brienne Walsh -- or as I like to call her, "The Next Big Thing."

Author Brienne Walsh

(I suck up to all the young musicians and writers I feature on 2 or 3 lines, hoping that one of them will hit it big some day and I'll be able to ride on his or her coattails.  I think there's a pretty good chance that Brienne will be that person.)

Click here to read part one of the Brienne Walsh interview.

I really enjoy Brienne's blog, A Brie Grows in Brooklyn.  I've never lived in New York City, and seeing life there through her eyes is compelling stuff.

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

She recently wrote about the trials and tribulations of living in Brooklyn in a post titled "A Dispatch from White Yuppie Utopia."  

Brienne used to live in Williamsburg, a section of Brooklyn that is known as a major hipster neighborhood, and she describes life there as noisy and chaotic, but liberating.  Carroll Gardens, the Brooklyn neighborhood she and her boyfriend live in now, is quite different:

[Carroll Gardens] is white yuppie utopia.  Everyone knows how to follow the rules.  No excess noise.  No drug addiction.  No mixed race coupling, unless the female is Asian.  They’ve been following the rules all of their lives, which is how they ended up in white yuppie utopia. 

Brienne worries that she and her boyfriend have changed since moving to Carroll Gardens -- and not for the better:

Caleb and I have been transformed.  It’s like the f*cking body snatchers over here.  We’ve gone from being fun people to being uptight white yuppies.  Next thing you know, and I’ll be running a corporation while Caleb stays at home and plays nanny with our two adorable children named Edith and Jerome. 

(I'm not sure about those names.  A boy named Jerome would definitely get his lunch money stolen every day in just about any school in the country.)

Brienne and Caleb with their white yuppie car

Brienne and Caleb have few secrets from their upstairs neighbors:

[O]ur upstairs neighbors have] heard all of the fights that Caleb and I have had.  They know all of our darkest secrets.  Until you live in an apartment in an old building in New York, you have no idea what intimacy really means.  They hear us when we f*ck.  They hear us when we fight about money. They hear what television programs we watch, and they can smell what we cook when our friends come over.

Of course, Brienne knows all their secrets as well:

Sometimes, in the bathroom, we could hear them fighting through the air vent.  “Maybe we should walk the dog,” I heard her say one day.

“Maybe I’m taking a sh*t on the toilet,” he said.

Things went from bad to worse when Brienne's Yorkie, Franke, got loose one day and went for the neighbor:

The turning point in our relationship with them came when the girl upstairs walked through the front door just as we were putting on Franke’s collar to take her for a walk.  Franke ran straight for her leg, and latched on hard. “Franke!” we screamed. “Franke!”

Brienne with Franke

When we finally got her unattached, we apologized profusely.  “I’m so sorry,” we said.  Apologizing for Franke is a routine we’ve rehearsed many times before, considering she bites f*cking everyone we’ve ever known.

“It’s not a big deal,” she said in a chilling tone.  To my ears, it sounded like: “I f*cking hate you.” 

Click here to read the entire post (and to see the rather surreal selection of photos that accompanies it).

Brooklyn-style dog

Actual dog

Now let's continue our conversation with Brienne Walsh:

2 or 3 lines: Brienne, you know how much I enjoy reading your blog, A Brie Grows in Brooklyn.  Speaking of blogs, I know you're a huge fan of 2 or 3 lines.  In your opinion, what is it exactly that makes 2 or 3 lines so special?  Don't hold anything back -- be honest!

Brienne:  I love 2 or 3 lines because even though we've never met, you seem like you're middle-aged, and you still love hip hop!  It's sort of awesome!

[NOTE:  I'm sure Brienne meant that answer to be complimentary, but it is  depressing.  I'm not middle-aged, I'm old -- or, as Brienne might put it, "f*cking old" -- so I should be happy to be described as middle-aged.  But I'm not happy to be described that way.  I'm not happy at all.]

2 or 3 lines:  There are a lot of interesting female rappers out there today -- most of whom are even  dirtier than their male counterparts.  You introduced me to Iggy Azalea, whose song "Work" was the subject of the previous 2 or 3 lines.  Iggy looks a little like Gwen Stefani, but I think her rap style is more reminiscent of Nicki Minaj.  Are you a fan of Nicki's?

Nicki Minaj

Brienne:  My favorite female rap moment is Nicki Minaj rapping on Kanye West's track "Monster."  I'm also into Azaelia Banks's "Harlem Shakes" video.  I aspire to twerk like her in that video.

Click here to read the 2 or 3 lines post featuring Nicki's "Did It On 'Em."

2 or 3 lines:  What other music are you listening to these days?  You like new stuff, old stuff . . . ?

Brienne:  I'm listening to Kanye West's Yeezus and the Solange EP right now. [NOTE: Solange Knowles is Beyoncé's younger sister.]   The rest of it, I won't tell you, because it's too embarrassing.  I have terrible taste in music. 

2 or 3 lines:  Final question.  Where do you envision your writing career going in the future?  Where do you see Brienne Walsh in ten years?

Brienne:  I want to write for the New Yorker.  I want to be Joan Didion.  I want to be David Sedaris.  I want to be Julie Hecht.  I want to be James Salter.  I think I can do it as long as I don't sabotage myself emotionally.  I have the luck of the Irish on my side. 

Novelist James Salter

2 or 3 lines:  Oops, I almost forgot.  I want to ask you about Kim Kardashian -- I know you find her fascinating, and so do I.  Plus I need an excuse to insert this pic, which always does wonder for my page view numbers.

You once wrote this about Kim:  "It’s no secret that I love Kim Kardashian. I love her so much I made a nickname for her: Kimmy K.  I love her so much, I check her Instagram up to 50 times a day.  I love her so much that if she doesn’t leave the house, I know it, and want to call 311 in New York to ask them why."

What is it about Kim that is so intriguing to you?

Brienne:  For that, I will refer you to my Kim Kardashian post.

Click here to read Brienne's post, "On Kim Kardashian and Her Pregnancy Weight."

She's hot but struggles with things that the average girl struggles with -- weight, dressing for her body, criticism, bad relationships. I guess she is average in all ways, except for the fact that she's gorgeous and extremely famous. 

2 or 3 lines:  Brienne, thanks so much for agreeing to be interviewed for 2 or 3 lines.  If you ever want to interview me for the Village Voice, or feature 2 or 3 lines on the Huffington Post, just ask -- always happy to do you a solid!

Brienne:  It was my pleasure, and I can't wait to interview you considering that I just found out that you're a famous lawyer, and friend of the guys at Rap Genius.

"Monster" was the third single from Kanye West's 2010 album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart and sold almost half a million copies in the first week after it was released.  Many critics ranked it as the best album of 2010 on their year-end lists.

Baby papa Kanye, baby mama Kim

"Monster" brings together an impressive group of musicians -- in addition to Kim Kardashian's baby papa, Kanye West, it features Bon Iver, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, and the larger-than-life Nicki Minaj.

Nicki was a relatively new artist when "Monster" was released.  In fact, at the time this song was recorded, she had yet to release an album of her own. 

But she had proved in her guest appearances on other rappers' songs -- like Ludacris's "My Chick Bad" and "Bottoms Up," by Trey Songz -- that she could steal the show in just one verse.  As she says in "Monster,"

So let me get this straight

Wait -- I'm the rookie?

But my features and my shows ten times your pay?

Fifty K for a verse, no album out

Kanye didn't let egos get in the way of talent when it came to assigning verses to the rappers who contributed to "Monster."  He let Nicki anchor "Monster" over established superstars like Jay-Z and himself, which is a tribute to his musical perspicacity.

Nicki absolutely pones all the other featured artists on "Monster."  She crushes them.  

Click here to listen to "Monster":

Kanye West, Jay-Z & Nicky Minaj - Monster - Official Music Video (Final Version) sur wat.tv

Click here to buy the song from Amazon: