Street Lights

this is freakishly the most beautiful song i've heard this year. I think if you handed this to someone and didn't tell them it was Kanye West they'd be impressed. And then theres the factor that it IS kanye west and your respect for him as an artist just gets higher. This whole cd is mind blowing really, and how good his melodies are. He really has crafted an excellent Pop Art cd.

This song is just 2 unreal... so good

This song reminds me of living in the city so much. It perfectly captures that weird feeling you get when you're walking through a big city at night by yourself, and you're just thinking about everything, and the lights are passing you by out of the corner of your eye. It's nostalgia and an odd romance and a loneliness that I can't get enough of.

Fuck, I love this song. I can't stop listening to it.

No one has yet addressed the meaning of the song, so here it is:

The first two verses are about 'ye questioning himself and second-guessing his own feelings. To him, he feels like all these wonderful moments in his life came and went before he even had time to appreciate them. Dude is questioning whether it's normal to be this nostalgic, to think back on those moments, and whether he'll ever just live in the present and not think back on those moments that occurred over years or decades, but you only have a quick memory of them.

Dude's emotional, and he wants to just escape. He has all these emotional problems, and he just wants to be somewhere else, but as he sees these lights pass him by, he thinks of all these moments that escaped him before he had the chance to appreciate them.

His "destination" is a truly happy life, but there are all these memories haunting him -- reminding him.

He paid his fare -- he struggled and underwent a lot of pain, that was his payment. But he still has to deal with the pain of his past before he can be truly happy -- to arrive at his destination.

Child-like, he ends with "life's just not fair." This is self-explanatory, and you've all cried and felt this at one point.

i was walking down times square at like 3 in the morning the other night just smoking a cigarette and this song just completely came to my mind....after moving out of my parents house a couple years ago and moving to the city, i've adapted to life here so well that when i'm just walking i completely know where im headed but i dont think about it at all, i just walk. where im headed is complete instinct which i sorta think is what he means by all this...its like he's so set in his way of life, he knows exactly where he's gonna end up, but where he ends up isn't where he wants to be...and he explains this better in Welcome to Heartbreak.. where he talks about seeing people around him who enjoy the simplest but most needed joys in life, while he has whatever he's ever wanted but he misses out on these simple joys normal people have. so in street lights it gives off the notion that he's so adapted to his new way of life that he just runs on instinct, but subconsciously there's a different place he wants to be in. he wants to be in a different position he's in now. he wants to enjoy the simple things people do...i understand that bc ive adapted to this new way of life, that everything i do, i do instinctively and when i was walking in times square, i knew i was headed for home which was my destination but when i got there it wasn't home or where i truly wanted to be. i realized how much i missed my parents and my family and my old life when i was a kid, and i just thought about this song that i never really grasped the meaning of until that day.

Let me know, do I still got time to grow...

I think this song is about changing from a self-contained good person who cannot get over the cruelty and evil that exists in this world. The fact it is followed by Bad News and See You in My Knightmares reflects the trasnformation into a man unafraid to be cold to a cold world.

street lights and coldest winter are my favorite songs off of 808s and heartbreaks. Kanye's new album is so dark and mysterious. its amazing how mature it sounds being completely new for him.

This song reminds me of passing through a beautiful scenery or "street lights" and being very nostalgic in the moment, even blue which is the tone of this song (the whole album;)... And not exactly feeling like your satisfied... I've had a lot of those... Good song even better album!

i agree with solarflair - this song perfectly describes the feeling of nostalgia and living in a city and that feeling of missing a place that you can't even call home anymore. i often feel like i'm always looking forward to the next thing that i don't even take time to appreciate the good things why they're happening to me. because of this life passes me by - and by the time i realize this it's just a series of memories. i know where i want to be and i have goals but i'm "just not there". he captures this so accurately not just in the words but the rhythm of the song.

i can see the vividness of being in a cab and speeding past all the lights and wondering where the time is gone and how i've gotten here so fast.

meaning aside, this song is beautiful. aside from driving in the car, dancing, or working out, i hardly ever listen to rap. but there is a deeper meaning in this song, and it reminds of the music i really listen to in order to feel some emotion. kanye is really saying something in this song. i love kanye’s regular stuff --but he really goes above and beyond with this one. good work, yeezy.

I was watching Grey's Anatomy Thursday and at the end I thought I love this song and then it hit me, this is from the new album, and its presence made the final scene so beautiful, especially ending with 'life's just not fair' over and over