"Ni**as In Paris": Iconic Jay-Z & Kanye West Collab Goes Diamond After Nearly 12 Years

BYHayley Hynes3.9K Views
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Kanye West and Jay-Z onstage at the Tidal launch event #TIDALforALL at Skylight at Moynihan Station on March 30, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
This marks the second Diamond certification for Ye, and the first for Hov.

Kanye West and Jay-Z may no longer be friends in the same capacity they were before, but that doesn't mean they didn't grace us with some serious hits over the years. We've heard them on "Run This Town" with Rihanna, "Monster" alongside Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj, and Beyonce's "Drunk In Love (Remix)," just to name a few. Of course, there was also 2011's Watch The Throne album, which has just earned Hov his first RIAA Diamond certification.

As HipHopNMore notes, Ye's "Stronger" single was his first Diamond plaque, but adding another to the collection is still exciting nonetheless. His second comes from his and Jay's work on "Ni**as In Paris," which has now moved upwards of 10 million copies in the US alone. Other popular titles from the collaborative project include "No Church In The Wild" with Frank Ocean and The-Dream, as well as "Otis" featuring the legendary Otis Redding.

Jay-Z and Kanye West Achieve Another Milestone

It's been quite some time since we've seen West and the New Yorker link up on stage, but the year after dropping "Ni**as In Paris" they famously performed it 11 times in a row. The moment took place during their Watch the Throne concert in Paris, France in 2012, and has since been immortalized as a piece of hip-hop history. The last time we heard Hov on a Kanye track was on 2021's DONDA, though recently leaked documentary footage shows the 46-year-old threatening to remove his frequent collaborator from the album.

At this point, it seems unlikely that we'll see the two work together in such a close capacity again, but still, we'll hold out hope for a reconciliation. Elsewhere in the news, Jay-Z's name became a hot topic this past weekend after R. Kelly's former cellmate alleged that the convicted sex offender had previously shared theories about Hov trying to kill him. Read all about the rumours at the link below, and tap back in later for more hip-hop/pop culture news updates.

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About The Author
Hayley Hynes is the former Weekend Managing Editor of HotNewHipHop, she stepped down after two years in 2024 to pursue other creative opportunities but remains on staff part-time to cover music, gossip, and pop culture news. Currently, she contributes similar content on Blavity and 21Ninety, as well as on her personal blog where she also offers tarot/astrology services. Hayley resides on the western side of Canada, previously spending a year in Vancouver to study Fashion Marketing at Blanche Macdonald Centre and Journalism at Mount Royal University in Calgary before that. She's passionate about helping others heal through storytelling, and shares much more about her life on Instagram @hayleyhynes.
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