No Church in Gatsby’s Parties


    Champagne spills, roaring music, inconceivable sins, cheating spouses: these are just a few of the sights you’ll see at one of Gatsby’s parties. In the Great Gatsby, we see the party scene as a something straight out of a fever dream, one that I can’t put into words. However, I find a rather uncanny connection between this exotic party scene and the song “No Church in the Wild” by Kanye West and Jay-Z. 


    In the Great Gatsby, we are often reminded about the corruption that comes with wealth. This is very accurately represented by Gatsby’s parties as they represent the loss of morality for the sake of money flaunting and status. In fact, the parties themselves hold no value other than for Gatsby to impress Daisy. In “No Church in the Wild” we see the same concept: there is a severe loss of morality that comes with wealth, even to this day. In the hook of the song we hear “ What’s a king to a God?”/“Whats a God to a non-believer?”, showing how by becoming a “king”/“non-believer” (though wealth) you can supposedly surpass the moral status of God. Furthermore, this song mirrored Gatsby’s parties so well that it was used in The Great Gatsby Movie, highlighting lyrics like “Tears on the mausoleum floor” and “Human beings in a mob” to enhance the chaos and loss of morality within the scene.


    Another way in which this song relates to Gatsby’s parties is through the idea of rebellion. Gatsby’s parties, as well as most parties in the Jazz Age, were filled with men and women drinking and breaking social norms. This heavily contrasts with the norms of the previous era, where people maintained a sense of class and decency. In a way, you could say that Kanye acts the same way: he breaks the social norm of a typical rich man by parting and acting explicitly. Take Elon Musk, for example; would you expect to find him at a rave or rapping about money and drugs? Definitely not.


    This was a time where people would flaunt wealth and reject moral standards for the sake of status. At the end of the day, however, is it really worth sacrificing your dignity for the sake of a good time? 


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