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Luke Williams

Ms. Wright

ENG.1201.517 ENGLISH COMPOSITION II

20 February 2022

In the music videos for the song “Flashing Lights” “by Kanye West it depicts a person

struggling in the lights of Hollywood or feeling trapped.

In the first music video for “Flashing Lights” it shows a woman on a hill overlooking a

city with very bright flights which we could only assume is Hollywood. She is wearing a fur

jacket which she takes off and reveals her lingerie clothing. There is a person on the ground who

is tied up who she shoots. She then lit a lighter and in dramatic fashion threw it on the body

while walking away in typical Hollywood fashion.

She walks back to her car and opens the trunk where rapper Kanye West is tied up with

tape over his face and unable to move. This could in my mind mean how people feel in

Hollywood among all the “Flashing Lights”. It isn’t ideal for anybody and I don’t think anybody

is meant for the amount of spotlight a star like Kanye West receives. There is a reason numerous

music artists, actors etc have mental breakdowns every single year. It’s due to the pressure they

are under from their labels, production companies and even the fans. The entire video is riddled

with the hills, an expensive car, luxurious clothing which represents the Hollywood lifestyle. It

has a beat to it that sounds like something a person being nominated for a Grammy would walk

into. Once again, representing that Hollywood feel.

The woman in the video after getting to the trunk caressed Kanye’s face and continued to

give him a kiss before pulling out a shovel and beating him to death. The music video shows her

looking at the Trunk before it cuts off and we can only assume she killed him. I think that what

the video is trying to represent is how many feel hostage like Kanye in a trunk or box. You can
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see recent examples of Kanye having mental breakdowns on twitter, news etc. It’s a common

occurrence for a lot of celebrities.

The second music video opens with a camera doing random angles looking at Kanye

West and some smoke around. In a slow-moish way with choppy transitions to the next scene.

Which is completely opposite to the previous music video. After that is done it transitions to a

quick shot of flashing buildings and goes to an alarm clock where our main character begins her

journey in Hollywood. She wakes up at nine am, lights a cigarette and looks like she makes

herself a mimosa. The standard Hollywood life. We can only think she’s a model because of the

pictures being taken of her. It shows her partying with friends, drinking in her luxurious

apartment. She’s living the standard young Hollywood life. She makes herself breakfast and in

between making breakfast her snapshots appear posing with cookware like pans, spatulas and

other stuff. While eating breakfast she smokes a cigarette. She also looks out her window at the

city while smoking a cigarette. It then cuts to Kanye in a room with a girl wearing revealing

clothing which could sum up a lot of Hollywood. She tries to hide herself but in the snapshots it

looks like Kanye is trying to find an angle to look at her.

The video continues to show more photos of our main character. It's more of the same but

it keeps going back and forth between Kanye and the girl and our main character. It looks like

Kanye is having intercourse and the girl is just partying with her friends and smoking a cigarette.

The girl keeps changing outfits trying to find one she likes. Eventually, it looks like she gives up.

She throws all her clothes on the bed I think in frustration because she doesn’t feel good in any

of them. Which I feel like a lot of people in Hollywood feel that way. It goes to a faster pace

scene where Kanye is having intercourse with this girl and the other girl goes out partying and

eventually ends up stumbling in public alone by herself due to her drinking. She’s picked up by
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two random men and from what you can see in the photos it implies they sexually assaulted the

main character. The girl is on a subway alone by herself and crying, as anyone would be. It

swaps between that and Kanye having intercourse. The video then slowly fades away.

The two music videos have the same premise, just different execution. Neither are

lighthearted considering Kanye is beat to death with a shovel in the first one and in the second

one a girl is sexually assaulted. I believe both are meant to show the dark sides of Hollywood

and fame. How someone feels trapped inside that fame and the “Flashing Lights”. Kanye is

trying to reflect that Hollywood and fame isn’t as glamorous as some might think.
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Works Cited

West, Kanye. “Kanye West - Flashing Lights Ft. Dwele - YouTube.” Youtube,

Roc-A-Fella Records, LLC, 16 June 2009,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ila-hAUXR5U.

West, Kanye. “Kanye West - Flashing Lights (2nd Version) [HD] - Youtube.” Youtube,

Roc-A-Fella Records, LLC, 31 Oct. 2009,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx5jlws8fwM.