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.