Will Ferrell is Spinning in His Grave: Katy Perry Covers “Ni**as in Paris”

Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 03/19/2012 at 11:07 AM News

The Popdust Files: concerts, covers, jay-z, kanye west, katy perry, Niggas In Paris

“This is about to get reaaaal embarrassing,” Katy Perry prefaces her BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge performance of Kanye West and Jay-Z’s “Niggas in Paris.”Actually, for the singer of “Teenage Dream” and “Firework” to be performing a live acoustic cover of one of the most iconic rap songs of the 21st century, Katy’s “Paris” could be a lot more humiliating. Katy’s flow is decent, she doesn’t lose her basic personality in shameful attempts at gangstadom, and the instrumental arrangement is surprisingly successful. The only really embarrassing parts are the necessary sections of self-censorship—”that shit cray” becoming “that so cray,” “niggas in Paris” becoming “ninjas in London,” etc.—and even that’s more the BBC’s fault than Katy’s.

Not like this is gonna replace the original for us or anything, and we might never listen to it again after the once, but for a potentially disastrous one-off performance, Katy could’ve done a whole lot worse. Plus, while Jay-Z may claim to “bleed blue,” has he ever actually dyed his (non-existent) hair blue underneath that fitted Yankees cap? Unlikely.

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