Jay-Z and Kanye West Make Victoria’s Secret Models Look Awkward


This year’s Victoria’s Secret fashion show, which aired last night on CBS, was a bit gullier than usual. That’s because, alongside all the usual frilly pageantry — the bedazzled undergarments, the kissy faces, the Adam Levine — Jay-Z and Kanye West showed up to do “Niggas in Paris.” The Watch The Throne staple (it’s being played an exponentially increasing number of times per night during the power duo’s current tour) was the obvious choice for the evening. But that didn’t mean the delirious Hit Boy beat — certainly a harder-knocking sound than the Victoria’s Secret spectacular is typically accustomed to (again: Adam Levine) — sat too well with the models. Gloriously, every cut-away to a backstage shot of a beautiful person attempting to dance in this video is an instantly GIF-able bit of awkward magic. Why can’t these models dance? Is this that thing where good-looking people never get told they’re not good at something? (The theory was explicated on 30 Rock, in the brilliant episode in which Jon Hamm attempts to order off the menu — “a catfish po’ boy and a diet raspberry Fanta” — at Barney Greengrass). Doing much better at the “looking cool while at a show” thing: Beyoncé, hanging in the front row with a Danny Brown impersonator; Orlando Bloom, in his most visible role since Elizabethtown; and the general audience, who obey instructions to throw their hands in the air with all the dead-eyed obedience of a cult assembly. Just one question: where the hell is ‘Ye’s skirt?

Filed Under: Jay Z, Kanye West, Watch the Throne

Amos Barshad has written for New York Magazine, Spin, GQ, XXL, and the Arkansas Times. He is a staff writer for Grantland.

Archive @ AmosBarshad