Jay-Z and Kanye West only play “Niggas in Paris” like 158 times at every performance, so there’s been some speculation as to why they’ve taken so long to make a music video for it. Now, it seems like they may have delayed the concert footage-heavy clip simply to build our curiosity about what it’s like to see them do the song live. So, was it worth the wait? Well, that depends on how you feel about strobe lights, Gothic architecture, Will Ferrell interludes, big cats, and feeling like you’re trapped inside a kaleidoscope with the rappers and their hot-girl entourage. Watch and decide after the jump, but first a word to the wise: That epilepsy warning at the beginning of the video is no joke.

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We’re not sure exactly what’s behind the recent nail art explosion, but as long as it continues to produce amazing pop-culture tributes on a tiny, personal scale, it has our attention. Last week, we brought you the blood-flecked fingertips of a Dexter groupie and some Arrested Development Mr. Banana Grabber press-ons in our roundup of amazing TV-inspired nails. Before that, we went highbrow with literary nail art paying tribute to everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Harry Potter. Now, nail art superfans, are you ready to rock ‘n’ roll? Today’s haul of musician-inspired nail art includes a dazzling riff on David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, a set of crazy Nicki Minaj claws, and even a perfectly executed Daniel Johnston manicure.

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1. According to The Observer, Kanye West is planning to shoot a short film — much like his 30-minute clip for “Runaway” — in the Middle East. Says their source: “There’s a lot of preconceived notions and stereotypes about Emiratis and Qataris, which Westerners often play up. [His reps] discussed how Kanye is looking to bridge the cultural divide and break misconceptions.”

2. It looks like Darren Aronofsky may have found someone besides super busy Christian Bale to play Noah. The director is reportedly eying Russell Crowe to star in his epic film, with rumors of Liam Neeson being cast as its villain. [via Slashfilm]

3. Apparently Scott Speedman would be totally down with the idea of a Felicity reunion — but there’s a not so tiny catch. “But if I’m doing a reunion, I’m doing it fat, that’s for sure,” he told E!. “My character’s a giant fat guy.”

4. Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska died yesterday at the age of 88 from lung cancer; despite a career spanning six decades, she only published 400 poems during her lifetime. “There is a trash bin in my room,” Szymborska once explained. “A poem written in the evening is read again in the morning. It does not always survive.” [via Gawker]

5. This is what it sounds like when Orbital joins forces with Zola Jesus. Wonky, the UK dance duo’s first album in eight years, drops on April 3rd here in the US.

Bonus Buzz: 15 Examples of How Cereal Boxes Have Changed Over Time

1. During last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama decided to top that awkward salmon joke from last year with a bit about spilled milk that was just as groan-worthy; as to be expected, political observers’ immediate response to the cringe-inducing moment on Twitter wasn’t exactly kind. [via Daily Intel]

2. Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming film project Side Effects has lost its financing — apparently the director’s rumored casting of Blake Lively is part of the reason why, but Haywire’s weak box office performance might also be a factor. [via The Huffington Post]

3. Vanessa Paradis insists that rumors that her 14-year marriage to Johnny Depp is over are totally false: “All this is, I don’t know, because the Queen of England didn’t lose her teeth this week and there’s nothing happening.” [via People]

4. There are now two Beauty and the Beast-related TV projects in the works for next season. The CW is moving forward on an update of the 1980s CBS drama that starred Linda Hamilton; meanwhile ABC just announced a version that will go the classic fairytale route. [via THR]

5. “I’ve been talking to [Dave] Chappelle a lot. Been trying to get Chappelle to go on tour. You know I’m not the hard one, but I’m trying to make that happen. After seeing Kanye and Jay-Z, I was like, ‘Me and Dave should do this.’” — Chris Rock gets our collective hopes up during a conversation with Vulture at Sundance.

Bonus Buzz: If the GOP Debate Was a Rave

1. The New Yorker’s Ben Greenman has come up with a list of a day’s worth of facts to get you through Wikipedia’s 24-hour blackout. [via McSweeney's]

2. In a move that rivals that woman who was upset that Drive wasn’t enough like a Fast and the Furious movie, some cinemagoers in the UK are demanding their money back because they didn’t realize that The Artist was a silent film. [via Telegraph]

3. The producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark are now suing the show’s former director, Julie Taymor, claiming that she developed “a dark, disjointed, and hallucinogenic musical involving suicide, sex, and death,” and refused to make the necessary changes when there were problems. [via BBC]

4. Pusha-T, Jay Electronica, and Frank Ocean are among the G.O.O.D. Music artists who are set to appear on Kanye West’s forthcoming compilation album, which is set for release this spring. [via NME]

5. LL Cool J is hosting this year’s Grammys which air February 12th on CBS at 8 pm. Didn’t realize that this particular awards show even had one? The last time it did was back in 2005, when Queen Latifah was at the helm. [via Vulture]

Bonus Buzz: The Internet’s Blackout Pages And SOPA Protests

1. Ladies and gentlemen, this just might be the funniest My Little Pony-related correction that The New York Times has ever issued. [via The Daily What]

2. Hot British actor of the moment Benedict Cumberbatch (who you might recognize from recent roles in War Horse or the BBC’s Sherlock) has come aboard JJ Abrams’ highly-anticipated Star Trek sequel as the film’s villain. [via Variety]

3. Due to issues with the script, Vulture is exclusively reporting that Matt Damon will no longer be making his directorial debut with a film about a smalltown salesman written by Dave Eggers; he is still up for starring in the movie though.

4. Following their recent separation, Zooey Deschanel has officially filed for divorce from Ben Gibbard citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their break up. [via NME]

5. Now that issues regarding rights have finally been hammered out, there’s a Jerry Garcia doc in the works from filmmaker Malcolm Leo that will prominently feature material from a conversation that the director had with The Grateful Dead frontman back in 1987, as well as never-before-seen performances and rare home movies. [via Deadline]

Bonus Buzz: Kanye West’s Bizarre Twitter Rant Is About His Insane New “Design Company”

1. The Library of Congress has selected 25 movies to be added to the National Registry in 2011. Among the diverse choices are Bambi, John Cassavetes‘ Faces, Robert Rodriguez‘s El Mariachi, Billy Wilder‘s The Lost Weekend, The Silence of the Lambs, Stand and Deliver… and, um, Forrest Gump. [via LA Times]

2. In a new interview, Sinead O’Connor says that her 16-day marriage to fourth husband Barry Herridge was like “living in a coffin. It was going to be a coffin for both of us, and I saw him crushed… The whole reason I ended it was out of respect and love for the man.” Also, crack was involved. [via People]

3. Kanye West is tweeting again, which means it’s just about time for him to attempt yet another name change. ”If you book me you have to put YEEZY WORLD PEACE on the E-vite. Or I ain’t spinning,” he announced yesterday. How much do you think a DJ set by Mr. WORLD PEACE goes for these days? [via Vulture]

4. The top five most-watched cable networks of 2011 were: 1. USA, 2. Disney Channel, 3. ESPN, 4. TNT, and 5. History (which grew by a whopping 21 percent this year). Meanwhile, critical-darling channels didn’t fare nearly as well — AMC was #17, Comedy Central was #19, and Bravo came in 20th. [via Deadline]

5. Peter Jackson discussed the ways in which his new film will diverge from his previous J.R.R. Tolkien adaptations in an interview with Total Film: “The Hobbit is very much a children’s book and The Lord of the Rings is something else; it’s not really aimed at children at all. I realized the characters of the dwarves are the difference. Their energy and disdain of anything politically correct brings a new kind of spirit to it. And that’s why I thought, OK, this could be fun!” [via io9]

Bonus link: The top scientific discoveries of 2011

Last week we stereotyped you by your favorite books, and this week it’s time to apply a bumper edition of our gratuitous generalizations to the world of music. Our stereotyping posts have become something of a tradition at Flavorpill, but still, here’s our obligatory disclaimer: this is an entirely tongue-in-cheek exercise, so don’t get all offended — and also, as ever, several of our favorite records are on here, and we’ll totally own up to all the stereotypes that apply to us. Anyway, with that said, here are 50 albums that keep cropping up on end-of-year lists and the sort of people that like them. Read More »

Today at Flavorpill, we fell in madly love with the SNL Christmas card thanks to its delightful Stefon-meets-Rockwell-painting premise. We got a better idea of what 7 billion people looks like. We watched a very hairy Jeff Tweedy do his best impression of a weather dude. We wondered if BuzzFeed had a hard time narrowing down its list of the 20 most important cats of 2011. We were afraid that our Kindles might secretly be spying on us. We hoped that Stephen Daldry’s plans to turn The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay into an HBO miniseries actually pan out. We couldn’t decide which Golden Globes-related tweet we found funnier: the heartbreaking original by Jason Segel or Neil Patrick Harris’ hilarious followup. We read The New York Times’ 1949 review of George Orwell’s 1984 in which the book is referred to as “a work of pure horror, and its horror is crushingly immediate.” We made note of The Hairpin’s helpful advice for festival holiday boundary setting. We were excited to see that Kanye has returned to Twitter. We checked out the latest from Banksy, a pixelated new sculpture called Cardinal Sin. And finally, we decided to end our day with this excellent “at the end of the day” supercut from VH1. We have but one complaint: needs more Mob Wives.

Remember that festival line-up formula jpg that did the rounds a couple of years back? It sets out a hilarious generic line-up by categorizing the type of bands you find on every festival bill (“increasingly mainstream headliner,” “good headliner playing shitty latest album,” “fat bearded jam band,” “African tribal music everyone will clap politely for,” etc). Anyway, we got to thinking that a similar formula applies to end-of-year best album lists — and, specifically, that there’s always precisely one token hip-hop release lurking in or around pretty much every rock-centric top ten. Join us as we embark on a retrospective of the last ten years’ worth of such albums, and ponder what it all means. Read More »