Kanye West – Runaway lyrics

For anyone seriously interested in understanding this song and why it works allow me to offer insight.
This song is based around the story of a douchebag who suggests his girl run away because he will not change. Secondly, it is a concept, and it's not true to life as in the its not necessarily about his ex or about taylor swift. It's about an action, that's why people can relate to it universally. Whether having been on one side or the other in this story. A girl can cry at this sad song, grieving over her boyfriend who is a complete douchebag. A boy could relate in either that hes a douchebag and will never change, and that he fears his girl will leave him. The character is acknowledging he's a douchebag, but he's not going to change. That's how you can relate this to the Taylor Swift incident. A great point that was brought up was in the line "I'm so gifted at finding what I don't like the most, so lets have a toast.." There's a little charm to the fact that knowing something was bullshit (taylor swift winning best video) and being able to have the balls to say it, but its still a douchebag move. Finally the line "Let's have a toast for the douchebags" is shocking because of Irony. Who's ever heard of toasting to douchebags? Shock value.
The chorus is quite literal in meaning so I will be explaining the verses.
Kanye's first verse:
She find pictures in my email.
I sent this girl a picture of my, d*k
^-(a douchebag move his girl found out about, sets up the story).
I don't know what it is with females
But I'm not too good with that, s*t
^-(such an "unromantic" line, something a douchbag would say, also it "what it is with females" is sort of acting like it's there fault).
See, I could have me a good girl
And still be addicted to them hoodrats.
^-(This douchebag isn't evil, he's human, he can have a good girl, but he's not perfect and still likes to mess around with those hoodrat girls, Showing a persons complexity is more true to life, than saying we are good or bad).
And I just blame everything on you
At least you know that's what I'm good at
^-(She can always count on him being a douchebag).
Than we have the first chorus, now Pusha T comes in and raises the Doucebag level even more. Because he's rapping, he can get away with showing one side of the story and not being apologetic because his raps are hard and not soft, conceptually speaking. So Pusha's verse is meant to amplify the douchebag character.
24/7, 365, pussey stays on my mind
I-I-I-I did it, all right, all right, I admit it.
^-(p***y is always on his mind, typical to a douchebag, also he admits he did 'it' which is probably cheated on his girl).
Now pick your next move, you could leave or live wit' it
^-(It's her decision, she can leave him or just live with it).
Ichabod Crane with that motherfuckin' top off
^-(The convertibles top is off, much like ichabod crane who didn't have a head, Clever metaphor, the materialism plays into his doucebagness).
Split and go where? Back to wearin' knockoffs, ha
^-(where is she going to if she leaves him? He doesn't reference a destination but rather says she would go back to a lifestyle. A less extravagant lifestyle where she's wearing knockoff meaning fake shoes. This means He is her source of income).
Knock it off, Neiman's, shop it off
Let's talk over mai tais, waitress, top it off
^-(with "Knock it off" hes using wordplay, as it sounds like knock off, but Knock it off means, just stop it. "Neimans, Shop it off" - Suggesting by going to neimans and shopping it will relieve the pain a little bit. "Let's talk over Mai Tais, waitress, top it off" - again look at the luxury hes providing for her, hes suggesting they resolve their dispute over an expensive drink and by topping it off, it means he can pay for the drinks to keep on coming.)
Hoes like Vultures wanna fly in your Freddy loafers
You can't blame 'em, they ain't never seen Versace sofas
^-(meaning a lot of hoes would love to be in this girls shoes, and you can't blame them because they've never even seen luxury like this).
Every bag, every blouse, every bracelet
Comes with a price tag, baby, face it
^-(he's saying face it girl, everything you buy with my money has a price tag which affords me the luxury of doing what I want, such as cheating, if I want to).
You should leave if you can't accept the basics
Plenty hoes in the baller-nigga's matrix
^-(If you can't deal with the lifestyle of a "Balla-nigga", meaning a dude with a lot of money, than just leave. A quite douchebag comment to make).
Invisibly set, the Rolex is faceless
I'm just young, rich, and tasteless
(The rolex is invisibly set with diamonds which signifies and certain type of luxury Hes young, rich, and tasteless = Huge Douchebag).
So, Pusha T amplified the douchebag character created in this song with his luxurious rhymes about the good life. Kanye's second verse comes in:.
Never was much of a romantic
I could never take the intimacy
^-(what a douchebag claim, intimacy is a soft tender emotion, and this douchebag's got none of that).
And I know it did damage
Plus the look in your eyes, is killing me
(The second real sign of regret, it pains him as much as he acts tough).
I guess you needed an advantage
Cuz you can blame me for every thing
And I don't know how imma manage
If one day you just up and leave.
^-(The advantage she has over him is she can blame him for all this stuff, and again he's opening up to his heart right now saying if she really did runaway, he doesn't know how he would manage).
In conclusion my point is this: Songs aren't as simple as, oh this one's about his ex or about Taylor. He started with a concept: The douchebag which is universally relateable and than painted a character that is A lot like himself to express this. The song is imitation, it's not real life. He's giving you something that can be true. Historians spit back the facts. Poets let you know how it may happen.
Aristotle said this "the imitation is one when the object
imitated is one, so the plot, being an imitation of an action, must
imitate one action and that a whole, the structural union of the parts
being such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole
will be disjointed and disturbed. For a thing whose presence or absence
makes no visible difference, is not an organic part of the whole. "
What that quote has to do with this song is that with a beautiful song like this, every line adds something to the song, removing even one line would alter the song a bit as not to make it whole.
Anyway I wrote this because somewhere out there I hope there is a younger version of myself hoping to really start grasping lyrics and song meanings. Hopefully this points you in the right direction. Apply this kind of analysis to some of your favorite songs and see if you can understand them better.

I've seen the full length video I thought it was amazing at first I thought it was be such a waste of time to watch this 34 minute video but the deeper it got into the video the more I liked it. This song is great.
People need to stop riding Kayne's * for that whole Swift thing come on now she's moved on y'all little grudge holders need to let it go it doesn't even affect you.

@flicks127:.
To be honest, your little rant just looks like you're some kind of huge immature fan of Taylor. Look at the song. I really couldn't care less if apparently "Kanye and his people hyped up the song to be an apology to Taylor."
I'm not a hater towards Taylor or anything, I believe she's a decent singer, but she is overall completely overrated. People have the right to express their opinion and that's exactly what Kanye did at "that incident." Sure it might've been harsh but it's the truth, and people need to deal with that. People get all pissy and angry about it (or so they act to be) but really, who actually cares for Taylor? She's a celebrity. Unless you're actually a friend of hers don't even bother trying to be genuine. And really, if people could read minds, there would've been A lot of people agreeing with Kanye. Taylor isn't so amazing as the media (if I may brush your comments with irony) "hype" her up to be.
You need to ask yourself if truly Kanye West did a thirty-four minute song for Taylor Swift. The lyrics sound much too far intimate to be related to someone that's just a celebrity. I know that the lyrics may seem just blatant rapper bluntness, but you need to actually listen to the song first.
Nonetheless it really doesn't matter to be in the end what few of you critics and/or haters think about the song, because majority wins, and majority actually had the intelligence to see the true meaning beneath the rapper stereotype for once. For sure, Kanye's an a*****e, I'm not denying that - but everyone is once in a while.
Everyone puts themselves first truly when it comes down to it. Everyone's selfish. It's just about how honest they choose to be about it. So, yeah. : S

I believe this song can be taken in many ways but this is what I think. The begining key notes are just you know life going on possibly in a friends with benefit type relationsip, then when it changes a note something in the relationship changed. Something had happened and at this point kanye thnks this girl has fallen too hard for this guy. This guy likes her but because she has this one thing wrong with her (falling for him) he doesn't want that because he's still addicted to his "hoodrats" (all the other girls he hooks-up with). He at least has the balls to tell this girl to run away as fast as she can. He knows he's an a*e, scumbag, jerkoff, etc. Kanye comes in with the I always find something wrong, in this case her "good girlness. "
Pusha t comes in to explain how a girl can fall for what she likes in a guy but that's when she relaizes that what this guy has stuff she doesn't see or get with any other guy (could be money, s*, etc.) girl realizes guy has plenty of options ie.) "plenty hoes in the baller-nigga's matrix" so she think she has to do more to keep this guys attention. [*wrong*]
Once the girl starts trying to be his center of attention he says, "never was much of a romantic, i could never take the intimacy" this girl has obviously thought there hook-ups meant more. The look in her eyes from his lack of caring, did hurt him some but not enough for him to care. He just hopes she doesn't get up and leave because part of him actually does like the intimacy. But like he said, he always finds something wrong. Probably so he doesn't get to attached. Something about that scares him. But at the end when the chimes and violins come together but the disorteness is still there. There was something beautiful supposed to come out that relationship, but he always finds something wrong. Brittanyc.

Runaway is about a troubled guy who keeps finding himself in the wrong places in life. He's surrounded by douchebags, assholes, scrumbags, and jerkoffs who take all the great things in their life for granted. In his realization that he is a bad influence and person, he tells this great girl to run away as fast as she can so he does not keep hurting her. He wants what is the best for her and knows that he is going to suffer when she is gone, but he will not blame her if she leaves him since he does have a tendency to do bad things.