The Greatest

What does she mean by "Oh, the livestream's almost on"? I don't really understand the outro tbh 

 

If she is saying livestream, I interpreted it as follows:

 

She lists all this sad stuff that is happening, but she gets distracted once the livestream comes on, kinda like a take on the world. We get all caught up in the sad events, and then just as quickly we are focused on the next thing, in this case it's a livestream.

On another note, I agree that "the culture is lit" is a play on words, like the culture is on fire and it's a mess, and ties into "I guess that I'm burnt out after all"

I think it's

Kanye West is blunt & gone.

Wait, it's about global warming and the apocalypse, isn't it?! Suddenly "lit" means something completely different--war, bombs, etc, the world literally set on fire. The near-miss in Hawaii, the fires in L.A...she's afraid, with so many disasters happening, it could be The End at any time, so if it's the end of the world, this is her signing off. We'll have to move to Mars because we've ruined our planet...at the end, she's listening to it live on the news right before we all die...and then just near-silence for almost a minute, because the world has ended.

 

Mind. Blown. I see why Jack said it was her best: it's about losing our Mother Earth, the greatest loss of all.   

Literally the greatest song on the record so far

Does anybody know what might mean “ The culture's lit and if this is it, I had a ball”

I mean what is the idea behind “ball”

Does anybody know what might mean “ The culture's lit and if this is it, I had a ball”

I mean what is the idea behind “ball”

i had a ball means smth like "i had lota of fun, had a great time" etc

In the second chorus I hear “when wasted, don’t leave I just need a wake-up call”

i had a ball means smth like "i had lota of fun, had a great time" etc

I thought it meant "I had enough, I had my share" wow that changes quite a lot

Kanye disses are all well and good, but I'm afraid there's an unfortunate, unintentionally problematic reading of these lyrics.
 
She's nostalgic for the Beach Boys.

I miss the bar where the Beach Boys would go
Dennis' last stop before Kokomo
Those nights were on fire
We couldn't get higher
We didn't know that we had it all

Not that there's anything wrong with that. (Hey @Monicker!)
 
But the Beach Boys exemplify and are inextricably bound up with the period when rock and roll, originally a black genre, became thoroughly appropriated by white artists (*cough cough* "Surfin' USA" *cough*).
 
Then there's these lines which echo "So Legit" and AFFA:

I miss New York and I miss the music
Me and my friends we miss rock n roll

The so-called "death of rock and roll", largely at the hands of rap and hip-hop, newer less-appropriated black genres, is something mostly lamented by white people.
 
She cites this as symptomatic of the cultural aspect of the civilizational decline she's singing about.

I'm facing the greatest
The greatest loss of them all
The culture is lit and I had a ball
I guess I'm signing off after all

 
And who or what does she pick as the embodiment of this cultural decline?
 

 
No surprise, it's Kanye West sporting his MAGA hat over bleached blonde hair. Almost as if to say that not only has rock and roll been supplanted by rap and hip-hop, but rap and hip-hop in the degraded form of a rapper who has in some sense disappropriated his own blackness. (The blonde Kanye line reminds me a lot of that Hooper X quote analyzing Star Wars in Chasing Amy about how "Vader's beautiful black visage is sullied when he pulls off his mask to reveal a feeble, crusty old white man".)
 
In the next line she references David Bowie, a white guy obviously.
 
 
Don't get me wrong. I love this song and really feel the general civilizational decline she's speaking to and even some of the specific sentiments in isolation. But the way she strings them together, without any positive references to black artists and the only reference to a black artist being used as a sign of the decay, reads problematically.

Kanye disses are all well and good, but I'm afraid there's an unfortunate, unintentionally problematic reading of these lyrics.

 

She's nostalgic for the Beach Boys.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. (Hey @Monicker!)

 

But the Beach Boys exemplify and are inextricably bound up with the period when rock and roll, originally a black genre, became thoroughly appropriated by white artists (*cough cough* "Surfin' USA" *cough*).

 

Then there's these lines which echo "So Legit" and AFFA:

The so-called "death of rock and roll", largely at the hands of rap and hip-hop, newer less-appropriated black genres, is something mostly lamented by white people.

 

She cites this as symptomatic of the cultural aspect of the civilizational decline she's singing about.

 

And who or what does she pick as the embodiment of this cultural decline?

 

 

No surprise, it's Kanye West sporting his MAGA hat over bleached blonde hair. Almost as if to say that not only has rock and roll been supplanted by rap and hip-hop, but rap and hip-hop in the degraded form of a rapper who has in some sense disappropriated his own blackness. (The blonde Kanye line reminds me a lot of that Hooper X quote analyzing Star Wars in Chasing Amy about how "Vader's beautiful black visage is sullied when he pulls off his mask to reveal a feeble, crusty old white man".)

 

In the next line she references David Bowie, a white guy obviously.

 

 

Don't get me wrong. I love this song and really feel the general civilizational decline she's speaking to and even some of the specific sentiments in isolation. But the way she strings them together, without any positive references to black artists and the only reference to a black artist being used as a sign of the decay, reads problematically.

it takes some mental gymnastics for me to see the lyrics in the same light as you  

it takes some mental gymnastics for me to see the lyrics in the same light as you  

tea

I LOVE this track, probably my favourite from the new album (although I haven't heard all of the songs yet) but the Kanye West namedrop is just unnecessary and does not add anything to the lyrics. Especially the way she just drops it during those last slow outro-lines.

I think the lyrics in the second verse/chorus are:

 

I miss New York and I miss the music

Me and my friends we miss Rock ‘n’ Roll

I want shit/it to feel just like it used to

When, baby, I was doing nothing the most of all

 

The culture is lit and if this is it, I had a ball

I guess that I’m burned out after all (no-oh)

 

When wasted, don’t leave, I just need a wake-up call

I’m facing the greatest, the greatest loss of them all

The culture is lit and I had a ball

I guess that I’m burned out after all

i refuse to believe she says Hawaii there.

 

Why would she pronounce it Ha why?

i had a ball means smth like "i had lota of fun, had a great time" etc

I'm also v sad that the new generation doesn't know what I had a ball means 

Kanye disses are all well and good, but I'm afraid there's an unfortunate, unintentionally problematic reading of these lyrics.

 

She's nostalgic for the Beach Boys.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. (Hey @Monicker!)

 

But the Beach Boys exemplify and are inextricably bound up with the period when rock and roll, originally a black genre, became thoroughly appropriated by white artists (*cough cough* "Surfin' USA" *cough*).

 

Then there's these lines which echo "So Legit" and AFFA:

The so-called "death of rock and roll", largely at the hands of rap and hip-hop, newer less-appropriated black genres, is something mostly lamented by white people.

 

She cites this as symptomatic of the cultural aspect of the civilizational decline she's singing about.

 

And who or what does she pick as the embodiment of this cultural decline?

 

 

No surprise, it's Kanye West sporting his MAGA hat over bleached blonde hair. Almost as if to say that not only has rock and roll been supplanted by rap and hip-hop, but rap and hip-hop in the degraded form of a rapper who has in some sense disappropriated his own blackness. (The blonde Kanye line reminds me a lot of that Hooper X quote analyzing Star Wars in Chasing Amy about how "Vader's beautiful black visage is sullied when he pulls off his mask to reveal a feeble, crusty old white man".)

 

In the next line she references David Bowie, a white guy obviously.

 

 

Don't get me wrong. I love this song and really feel the general civilizational decline she's speaking to and even some of the specific sentiments in isolation. But the way she strings them together, without any positive references to black artists and the only reference to a black artist being used as a sign of the decay, reads problematically.

This is such a reach.. No one who isn't actively looking for any reason why this song might be problematic will see it this way.

What does she mean by "Oh, the livestream's almost on"? I don't really understand the outro tbh 

 

All this daydreaming about youth and the past is done and she just remembered she's now a celebrity. She's about to perform on stage, the livestream's almost on... 

 

and I'm late to the party but she says Livestream in Venice

it takes some mental gymnastics for me to see the lyrics in the same light as you  

Perhaps your mind needs the exercise then.

 

This is such a reach.. No one who isn't actively looking for any reason why this song might be problematic will see it this way.

In a song about civilizational decay, literally every cultural reference she makes to an idealized past is to white musicians or white-dominated music and her one exemplar of cultural decay is a black rapper. Not exactly a big reach to see why someone might find that problematic.

All this daydreaming about youth and the past is done and she just remembered she's now a celebrity. She's about to perform on stage, the livestream's almost on... 

 

and I'm late to the party but she says Livestream in Venice

thank u

Perhaps your mind needs the exercise then.

 

 

In a song about civilizational decay, literally every cultural reference she makes to an idealized past is to white musicians or white-dominated music and her one exemplar of cultural decay is a black rapper. Not exactly a big reach to see why someone might find that problematic.

What a twisted definition of racism. You don't habe to habe black buddies to not be a racist and you don't have to mention how great Nina Simone is in order to be allowed to critisice Kanye Wests support of Donald Trump (a rwcist, btw).

Black idiots are just as much idiots as white idiots. I don't like the name dropping but you are trying to hard to make an issue out of nothing here.