From a young age, I was fascinated by not only money but also the people who had a lot of it. Money is something everyone wants, no matter race, gender, or age. After all, why does nearly everyone in the world get up every day and go to work? However, as the saying goes, money can't buy happiness, or more specifically as to what is touched on in Kanye's verses in Devil in a New Dress, money can't buy love. But what's interesting is that after Kanye's verses are over, Rick Ross delivers one of the greatest features of all time talking about how he is happy with his money, creating a riveting duality to the question of if money can truly buy happiness.

Throughout Kanye's verse, he describes his relationship with an attractive woman who only wants him for his money and fame, something that has notably been covered before in songs like "Gold Digger". Kanye starts by describing how "The way you look should be a sin", conveying not only how beautiful this girl is, but also how her beauty tempts him to commit sinful acts. Kanye goes on to later explain how they are Christians, and how "In that magic hour…" he's seen Christians make sinful decisions. The magic hour is three to four AM, typically when bars are closing and people lower their standards to find someone to go home with, just so they don't go home alone. This is where we can assume Kanye meets this girl, showing just how attractive this woman is if Kanye West is lowering her standards. Through the next few lines, Kanye describes alludes to how their relationship ends when he says, "Text message breakups, the casualty of the tour". This is a clever play on the common saying casualty of war, showing us she was just another one of his breakups like the many casualties of war. He further goes on to compare himself to his close friend Lebron, someone who is also world-famous and at the top of the industry. Kanye chronicles an experience with his girl where they were on a jumbotron at a game and she becomes upset, he is frustrated and can't understand why she's upset if she got with him for the fame. Towards the end of his verse, Kanye compares his girl to Mase, a rapper who left the industry at the top of his game, and he's confused as to why she wants to leave right when their relationship is starting to work. However, based on the continuation of the verse we can see she reluctantly decides to stay with Kanye. When the couple sits down for dinner, Kanye orders jerk chicken and his girl makes an ill-timed joke saying, "You are what you eat". The joke is laughed at by no one in the restaurant, presumably because they know it is true. This is the main theme of Kanye's album, him confronting his faults and accepting them, with it all coming to a head in his song Runaway. The last two lines of Kanye's verse are perhaps their last argument as Kanye expresses "Hasn't said a word to me this evening". His girl has finally gone quiet, giving Kanye no more ammunition for their argument. As you can see, despite his wealth and fame Kanye struggles to find love, something painfully relatable even to the poorest of people.

After a beautiful Mike Dean guitar solo, Rick Ross begins his verse the same way Kanye does, by describing how attractive his woman is. However, immediately after that, he states, "Stretched limousine, sippin' Rose all alone." This shows how, unlike Kanye, Ross doesn't mind being alone and enjoys his wealth. Ross goes on to explain how he doesn't care what others think because he and Kanye had been friends and shared similar ideas even before the fame. After that Ross goes on for many lines describing his wealth and how much he enjoys it. Ross then describes how his friends loved the money so much they ended up in jail. Ross finishes his verse where he started, talking about his love life. Once again though, Ross has a different feeling than Kanye as he says, "Catchin' feelings never stumbles retracing my steps." Ross shows that whenever a relationship is over, he "never stumbles" and moves right on without any issues. And that is where the song ends, with Ross delivering a line contradicting everything Kanye said. Even though both men are extremely wealthy and famous, they have different goals and different struggles.

It is not often that we get two great musicians to deliver such eloquent verses on a topic that has been debated since the concept of money began, but it just so happens to take place in this song. Kanye intricately details a relationship he had with a beautiful girl and how even though he has money and fame, he just can't seem to find love. Then after Kanye is done we see one of Kanye's closest friends, someone who is on the same level of fame and wealth, rap about how much he loves being wealthy and how he doesn't worry about women or relationships. To me, it is just so intriguing how two men who are so similar in so many aspects have such different views on whether money can truly provide happiness. And with all of that being said, the answer is never truly given in the song. Or is it? Perhaps the answer is rather ambiguous and a simple yes or no is not sufficient in showing that. We see how strongly both men feel that their inability to find love destroys them even though he has so much money, while Rick Ross loves extravagance and his money brings him more than enough pleasure. While we see the title of the song is Devil in a New Dress, perpetuating that evil covers itself up with money, we also see Kanye allow Ross to deliver a verse showing a different perspective on this issue. Furthermore, this shows Kanye himself believes the answer is ambiguous, by allowing someone with a completely different opinion to share their take, he is showing that he believes the answer is different for everyone.

By not answering the question of if money can buy happiness in the song Devil in a New Dress, Kanye, and Rick Ross did answer the question. By not definitively answering, they gave their answer which is that it is not possible to truly answer the question. Every person has their definition of happiness, therefore there is not an end-all-be-all answer. Kanye and Rick Ross are two of the greatest artistic minds of all time, and their song Devil in a New Dress is the perfect answer to the unanswerable question, can money buy happiness?