Kanye West Co-Signs "N*ggas In Paris" Subway Performer

Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West has officially co-signed a new viral video showing a New York City pedestrian singing "N*ggas In Paris" while riding on the subway.
After the viral video emerged online last weekend, Ye posted the clip to his Twitter page days later.

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMIw82pX4mA&sns=em," Kanye West tweeted December 21st. The YouTube link brings readers to a clip titled "Guy Singing 'N*ggas In Paris' on NYC Subway. The video is nearly three minutes long and already has nearly one million views. (Kanye West's Twitter)

The viral video has become an online hit and spun various jokes.

In addition to trying to break records, this 'Ye and Jay-loving (and purple-loving!) citizen also creates the best fitness routine since Bon Iver's "Lift/Rest." The N*ggas in Paris" Workout is a pretty simple way to burn calories: First, nervously shake your right leg back and forth, as if you have no control over your own appendages. Then, with the iPod in your left hand, pump your right fist in the air. After one verse, switch the iPod to your right hand and raise your left arm. Most importantly, scream out the lyrics as loudly as you can for as long as you can without inhaling. Finally, for the cool down, wobble around with hands on hips, glance toward the people with their cell phones out, and ask "What, they recording?" If all goes well, you'll be sweating more than if you actually performed "Paris" 11 consecutive times onstage. (SPIN)

Along with the New York pedestrian, "N*ggas In Paris" has been performed by other artists including Maybach Music Group's Meek Mill and R&B singer Robin Thicke.

Hey guys, you heard this awesome new song called "N*ggas in Paris"? It's got Kanye and Jay-Z and Blades of Glory samples and some word that nobody's ever used before and the beat has the ability to make normally sane people to absolutely weird and unconscionable things. Well, if you have heard it, apparently you're not alone--everyone from R&B singer Robin Thicke to hip-hop superproducer Timbaland to Philly rapper Meek Mill to some random over-enthusiastic dude on the subway has been performing it recently. Plaintively singing the song's outro lyrics, unnecessarily inserting beatboxing between bars of it, or just shouting it as loud as humanly possible--the song is good enough to sound awesome in just about any capacity. (Pop Dust)

In November, actor/comedian Will Ferrell reacted to Hov and Ye sampling his Blades of Glory 2007 flick for the avant-garde track.

"Kanye reached out to me and I said, 'Of course,' " Ferrell wrote in an e-mail referring to the Blades of Glory sample request. "I was completely flattered when they asked if they could sample me into the song ... and when I heard it for the first time, I just started to laugh because it felt so surreal. But I really did like the song." So much so, in fact, that Ferrell said he's hoping to take the Throne collaboration to the next level -- "We were trying to film a piece that they would use on the video boards of their concert, but haven't gotten it together," he wrote -- and the whole process has opened his eyes to an entirely new career opportunity: Being the go-to sample guy on the hip hop circuit. "I think [something from] 'Step Brothers' would be good [to use in a song]," he wrote. "Or the Woody Allen movie I did, 'Melinda and Melinda.'" (MTV)