Chris Schonberger has written for Entertainment Weekly, Let’s Go, and Forbes. His blog on Highsnobiety.com covers music videos, nachos, and other things.
Riddle me this: in an age where “music television” no longer exists beyond secondary and tertiary cable properties (keep doing your think, MTV Jams!), why am I still watching as many music videos as ever before? That’s the question I’ve been pondering lately, and knowing that Nate and Kai are no strangers to the hip-hop genre, I thought I’d share some thoughts here at Portal A.
Like any other visual form that’s struggling to find its pulse between the Web and traditional media, hip-hop videos are currently being pulled in a bunch of contradictory directions, unsure which “audience” to swing for. If you’re a rapper, do you still want to get on MTV, even though there’s no ‘TRL’ and the best you’re going to get is 20 seconds of your video played during a Hills commercial break? Or do you want a video that’s going to snag a quick million views on YouTube.
The obvious answer is “both, please.” But executing that goal isn’t easy. On the one hand, video budgets are a fraction of what they used to be. Rap videos peaked with Kanye’s $1.2 million “Stronger” in 2007—unless guys like Jay-Z and 50 Cent fund their own blockbuster videos, no label is ever going to shell out that money again (at least in the foreseeable future). Most artists are lucky to get a few Gs for their shoot now.
On the flip side, a low budget video actually has a chance to make an impact if it catches the attention of the blogs and gets some YouTube burn. The old standard of bling, booze, and booty might get you that attention-grabbing visual for TV, but in the hands of ‘net tastemakers it’s gonna be cast aside as old hat. After all, if someone’s online, they can go look at real pornography instead.
Budgets aside, the over-the-top visuals of old Diddy videos just don’t have the same effect in a Web browser. Instead, rappers should be looking to the trail blazed by bands like Weezer, whose last two big videos have been Master Classes in creating content specifically designed to do well online. “Pork and Beans” guaranteed viral success by referencing tons of other viral videos, while “Troublemaker” included fans in a Guinness World Record that gave the video a far broader pitch than the usual “this is a cool video.”
A useful way to gauge the shift in hip-hop videos is to look at the change of guard in terms of directors. It’s safe to say that Hype Williams defined the rap aesthetic of the ’90s, and Rik Cordero has dominated the genre for at least the past few years. When you think of Hype, you think of fish-eye lenses, cinematic shots, and pyrotechnics. You think Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Kanye, Diddy. Only the biggest names in the game, all with the glitziest, slickest videos.
Cordero has cinematic proclivities too, but they are more akin to a “Spike Lee joint” than a summer blockbuster. His aesthetic is dark, gritty, black and white. He likes to shoot artists on the streets, not the club. The difference? Much cheaper, much quicker, and much more accessible to artists who want to work with him. Cordero does Nas and Busta videos, but he also does Joell Ortiz and Ace Hood videos. Not only that, but he doesn’t just do their radio singles; he makes videos for album cuts that never would have gotten done in the past.
Another microcosm of current trends becomes clear if you look at the “50 vs. Kanye” showdown just in terms of videos. The two could not be more different. Fifty is a mastermind of online media, and he’s built the ThisIs50.com social network (using Ning’s open platform) into the arguably most effective self-promotional tool of any artist. He floods the blogs with low budget videos, produced seemingly overnight from a mixtape cut or to fuel his latest beef. He’s got a team of programmers, cartoonists, and video game designers at his disposal to throw together videos, or else he just shoots them at his mansion. He only put out one “TV-quality” video to promote Curtis, and that was for the single “I Get Money.”
Kanye, on the other hand, makes high-concept, high-budgetvideos. He uses famous directors, film references, and intricate animation. As such, he puts out far fewer videos, and he’s not on the blogs anymore. But when he does drop something, the Internet usually goes at least semi-nuts. We all know who won on sales, but it’s hard to say whose video approach yields the highest return on investment.
OK, enough rambling. The point is, lower budgets aren’t killing the music video, because the Web makes cheap music videos viable (see: the return of Camron). And on top of that, the opportunity for creativity is greater than ever with no TV censors and no limit to what type of songs can get the video treatment. The question is whether hip-hop will rise to the challenge and push the genre forward in this new space. Beyond being “home video” quality, few artists are really playing with the small screen in an interesting way. Too many trying to make the same old videos with less money (embarrassing) and going for Smack DVD style street videos (boring).
I’m no Nostradamus, but I’m excited to see what happens next.
I believe that taking away the high budgets for videos will spur even more creativity. All hip hop videos aren’t going to be grimy and street. The genre is too diverse now. What we are going to see is a shift back to the pre- Hype Williams, low budget, hyper-originality of hip hop videos circa 1990-95. Think of the “Nuthin But A G Thang” and how that video was CLASSIC but not overly flashy. Money can help fund creative ideas, but creativity is not bound by money.