An Article on Hip-Hop Music Videos.

Hip-Hop as a genre but specifically its videos have come a long way in an amount short time,
becoming the benchmark for creativity and artistic prowess in video production. Hip-Hop is currently
the most consumed genre in the United States overall, but more specifically with the younger
generations meaning most popular artists can bring in hundreds of millions of views on each video,
allowing for ground-breaking and high budget productions to be created which create a huge impact
not only on the genre but modern culture itself.

In the late 70s and into the 80s we saw the introduction of Hip-Hop to the world and with it came
the first Hip-Hop music videos, the very first videos were nothing ground-breaking in terms of
filmmaking or technology as they typically only featured the artists on stage accompanied with
dancers, filmed in front of a studio audience as seen in The Sugar Hill Gang’s video for ‘Rappers
Delight’ (1979). These first videos were simple for a reason as Hip-Hop was not an established genre
meaning large budgets were not available to the artists as the time. As we move on through the 80s,
we see Hip-Hop become increasingly popular and with this we see the rise of the gangster rap group
N.W.A and their simple yet effective style of music video. Some popular N.W.A videos include
‘Express Yourself’, ‘Straight Outta’ Compton and ‘F*** The Police’ these videos all include powerful
low back-tracking shots accompanied by simple set-pieces to create a blend between a performative
and narrative music video, Express Yourself particularly showed a great use of editing and
juxtaposition as the song itself is much more upbeat compared to the imagery of slavery and police
brutality, N.W.A famously said “Our raps are documentary. We don’t take sides” and this is not only
expressed in their music but also their videos as the show the real streets of Compton and act out
the discrimination they face. Continuing on throughout the 80s we continued to see these small yet
effective videos for Hip-Hop songs but as the genre started to become increasingly popular, we
started to see these videos become much more ambitious.

The 90s saw the rise of Hip-Hop acts such as 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls), Nas and Jay-Z
and with this increase of Hip-Hop acts there was an increase in the amount of music videos
produced too and the budgets given to them, but not only did the music videos become
progressively popular but the technology improved massively too, as camera and editing equipment
became more advanced, and the set-pieces used became more grandiose and intricate. The 90s is
well known to be the Golden Age of Hip-Hop and laid the groundwork for what the music videos
would look like today not only in Hip-Hop but other genres too, before the 90s these music videos
weren’t seen as creative visions but rather as marketing tools, but this soon changed with the
introduction to the MTV Video Music Awards which encouraged artists of all genres to put more
effort into their music videos. In terms of technology Editing had the most improvements in the 90s
as the first NLE (Non-Linear Editing) system was created by AVID with Adobe released Premiere Pro
shortly after in the early 90s to rival the AVID 1 making these NLE systems far more accessible and
used in the industry and in music videos alike. Also, In the early 90s we saw Ice Cube of N.W.A fame
start to take an interest in films starring in ‘Boyz n the Hood’ and writing ‘Friday’ he is quoted saying
“The creative process of making a movie really turned me on. I'd started getting behind the scenes
with a camcorder and VHS tape when making music videos.” Showing that these first Hip-Hop music
videos were not only giving more creative freedom to the artists behind them but also solidifying it
as a genre that should be taken seriously by all. Two of the biggest artists from the 90s 2Pac and
Biggie Smalls with one of the most well-known rivalries in Hip-Hop history also were the
masterminds behind some of the most ground-breaking and iconic videos in the genre at the time
which included concepts and ideas that would be seen in many videos even after the tragic passing
of the both of them. Biggie Smalls utilised well written scripts, giant set-pieces and beautiful
locations to create music videos that truly capture the 90s aesthetic but also tell powerful and
impactful stories seen in videos such as ‘Juicy’, ‘Hypnotize’ and ‘Big Poppa’. On the other hand we
see 2pac who arguably had one of the most iconic videos of the 90s with his comeback single in 1996
‘California Love’ Featuring Dr Dre, the video directed by famed music video director Hype Williams
won the best rap video award at the MTV VMA awards featured an incredible Mad Max themed set
with matching props and outfits making it a ground-breaking use of mice-on-scene. The grandiose
concept of the California Love video turned out to be a huge success and has become one of the
most iconic music videos of all time ranking in 9th place on MTV’S list of the greatest music videos.
But one specific artist inspired by the video was Compton’s own Kendrick Lamar who would go on to
produce great videos of his own with partner Dave Free but in 1996 when the video came out for
second part of the California Love video Kendrick stated that he was “A young boy in the crowd”
during the filming of the video and 20 years later he returned there to film a music video for his song
titled ‘King Kunta’.

The 2000s and onwards is when creating music videos became much more accessible due to new
digital cameras and editing software being able to be ran off home computers meaning most young
hip-hop artists with a small budget could create music videos which meant there was more music
videos than ever, along with this in the 2000s we were introduced to Eminem who became one of
the most popular Hip-Hop artists and Mainstream musicians in the 2000s with his music videos being
as extravagant as the songs themselves. One of the Hip-Hop videos that would change the game
forever was ‘Stan’ by Eminem which tells the story of a crazed Eminem fan who becomes more and
more unhinged and detached from reality as the music video progresses, the video itself has great
cinematography but the narrative of it is what makes it most shocking and creates the biggest
emotional response from the viewers, narrative videos had been done before but this of definitely
one that was different to all the others with its 8 minute run time and unique storytelling, most of
Eminem’s other work was much more light-hearted and his music videos reflected this especially
through his costume and set design which was always full of colour. Kanye West who was at first just
a producer for Jay-Z dropped his first album ‘The College Dropout’ to roaring reviews and soon
became not only known for his music but also his extravagant music videos that accompanied them
and in a behind the scenes video Kanye said “I can see where a person would play it (the song) in
real life, I see the movie of life and I’m like making the soundtrack for peoples movies so I see that
scene” but in the same video also showed his frustration with how music videos were moving over
to the internet rather than being on TV as he stated “I always thought videos were great pieces of
art and it’s a shame to not see them on TV” but as time went on he became much more accustomed
to releasing his music and accompanying videos straight to the internet. In 2010 Kanye released
what is known his magnum opus ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ but along with this released a
35-minute short film titled ‘Runaway’ named after one of the songs off the album, this arthouse
production features iconic imagery, beautiful cinematography and impressive VFX and all together
was an innovative piece of work doing something that had never been done before on this scale
before, bringing the whole album to life. In 2004 we saw Outkast release their hit song ‘Hey Ya!’
partnered with a music video which won video of the year at the MTV and BET awards and also best
visual effects and art direction, showing that this video was momentous and displayed an amazing
use of visual effects especially for 2004 and with the song having a strong message behind it the
music video matched this too. The 2000s is when Hip-Hop was truly adopted by mainstream media
and the acts here were bigger than any that had come before but things were still to get even bigger
and better.
 Finally, in the 2010s we saw Hip-Hop become the most popular genre in the USA and the music
videos get even bigger and better than before, but I would like to spend this decade looking at three
of my favourite directors who worked during this time these being Tyler, The Creator, Dave Free and
Dan Streit who all have 3 completely different styles. In the early 2010s Tyler, The Creator and his
group Odd Future rose to fame with their outlandish lyrics and all-around rebellious nature
becoming incredibly popular with the teenagers at the time. Tyler showed his video production skills
as he won his first VMA award for ‘Yonkers’ in 2011 where he was famously shown eating a
cockroach on video but as Tyler matured as an artist so did his video and he stated that “I love Wes
Anderson so much. He’s so awesome” and his love for Wes Anderson truly shows in his videos as
they have a unique style similar to Wes but with a twist to them but still have them same elements
of colour and composition that Wes is so well known for. Tyler’s crafted a cinematic universe
through his most recent videos for his 2021 album “Call Me If You Get Lost” which all have the same
gorgeous summer aesthetic and come together to create their own world with Tyler once saying
“Usually, when I'm rappin', I'm creating a big story or a concept song that sounds like a movie to me”
and this astonishingly apparent in his video. Tyler’s filmmaking talents have been started to be
appreciated much more with Kanye West himself stating that “Tyler’s got the best videos” and Tyler
being given full creative freedom to create advertisements for Converse and his own brand Golf Le
Fleur, he also utilises a vintage look through filming all of his videos on 16mm film, but the blend of
modern and vintage styles works perfectly for the music he creates. The 2010s showed the rise of
independent music video producers and this is no more apparent than in Dan Streit who has
produced all the most recent videos for rap collective BROCKHAMPTON these videos are unlike
anything done before and have an extremely distinctive style to them with his amalgamation of A.I
technology, visual effects and creative camera work creating an eerie aesthetic that leaves you
wondering what you just watched and I am excited to see what comes from him next. Dave Free,
long time partner of Kendrick Lamar and current head of PgLang has directed and worked on some
of my personal favourite music videos mainly for Kendrick Lamar but also rapper Baby Keem, he has
a much more modern and clean style compared to the others but his work is just as unique and is
pushing the boundaries forward of how storytelling can be done in a music video and this is
especially seen in his music video Family Ties and also Orange Soda both videos for Baby Keem. Dave
is a big advocate for breaking the boundaries saying "don't allow society standards box you in. That
steals the kid outta all of us.". One other production company which was born in the 2010s was Cole
Bennetts lyrical lemonade who has recently started shooting music videos on his iPhone to prove
that the equipment is not necessary to create an enticing music video and to get young people
inspired to go out there and create something of their own and that’s what Hip-Hop is all about
pushing boundaries and being a creative whether that’s through the music or through the videos.