"2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" -- a music video retrospective

I felt something was missing when I covered the "Victory" music video experience. The Puff Daddy/Biggie complex is incomplete until the whole "Rap Wars" saga is touched upon. Even if it ended up on the East Coast, it first began (and peaked) on the Westside.

If you thought Biggie's death and Puffy's rise was the rap story of the 90s, try again. Three words: Death Row Records. The rap from that label did just as much for music as grunge did for white-boy rock 'n roll. The major players and their rise to power is almost Shakespearean. Characters like Suge Knight are just stranger than fiction. Let's face it: West Coast rap is just more interesting.

There are a lot of rap videos from the early- and mid-1990s. But when it came to video making, Death Row  was untouchable. "Nuthin But A 'G' Thang" (even the censored version) is probably the most iconic from that era, but there were so many more. Like Dr. Dre, Snoop and 2Pac always understood the importance of quality videos. For that, their legacy will be sustained.

The video for "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted", the second single from the double album masterpiece All Eyez on Me, is a blueprint for all future rap videos: police harassment, champagne, fine food, fast cars and briefcases full of money.

The uncut version starts with a reference to the November 1994 incident, and lampoons the East Coast in a very incendiary way. One thing you can say about Tupac Shakur is that he had some balls. To me, the rest of the video is somewhat soporific after seeing the prologue, which is hilarious.

Concept: some kind of loose story about 2Pac and Snoop on the run from the LAPD. There's a crime scene and the cops collect some evidence or something. They drive through a police blockade in his convertible. And, for some reason a fax machine sends a detective a promo shot of Tupac, which means he is guilty... Maybe I am taking this video too literally.

There are direct references to 2Pac's jail sentence and Snoop's murder case, but they're both kinda laughing it all off, which is good advice for anyone in legal trouble: make a video about not giving a shit. Could you ever see Puffy making a video like this? No way.

Rapping in a courtroom. I can just imagine a young Ludacris seeing this and getting ideas.

Tupac and his cohorts were so hot in '96. But almost right after the murder, there was a schism in the fellowship. Dr. Dre and Snoop parted and recorded separately, and the rest of the crew just were shattered. Death Row Records without 2Pac, Dre or Snoop was neutered. To this day, Death Row is still milking their 90s revolution with compilations and half-assed DVDs.

Video facts
Length: 5:34
Director: Gobi Rahimi
Date: early to mid-1996
Est. Cost: Unknown

Links
* http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=134
* http://www.mvdbase.com/tech.php?last=gobi


By the way, Tupac: Resurrection is a really epic documentary. I haven't seen the other documentaries about the whole ordeal (Netflix has at least 20 movies about this same thing), but I can guarantee that Resurrection is one of the best.

Prepare to see more Retrospectives on 2Pac, Death Row, NWA, Hype Williams, etc... Maybe I'll set a goal of publishing it before Detox comes out!



To submit ideas for Retrospective articles, or to just chat about the obscure and esoteric, contact me here.

[All images are © their respective owners.]
 

Green Day -- a music video retrospective (Pt. 1)

Young persons may not remember the Green Day days before American Idiot. 1994's Dookie was an absolute pop-punk masterpiece (the word "punk" is used in a liberal sense here). It sold over 15 million, and spawned some pretty rad trends. The followup album (Insomniac) was just as good. And so was the next (Nimrod). This year's 21st Century Breakdown is poised to be another notch in the band's belt (they've kept the goth/emo/whatever-this-decade-calls-it look). Sometimes a history lesson can show you just how good a band was, is, and will be--and here we go.

1994
"Basket Case"
Dir: Mark Kohr

This is the song and the video that launched the San Fran trio into the rock heavens. Anyone else remember when MTV used to countdown the 100 best videos of the year on New Year's Eve? I doubt they still do it anymore (or they only play clips or something lame), but this was the video of the year in '94. I almost lost my mind when I first saw Tre Cool on those duct taped drums just killing it. Mark Kohr kinda became the de facto GD director after this, probably from this one's massive success.

1996
"Walking Contradiction"
Dir: Roman Coppola

Oh, these lovable scamps. Walking around like the Mr. Magoo with no cares in the universe. Maybe the best part (apart from the cop car flying through the air and hitting a traffic light) is Tre Cool's smirk when he finds some money right under the precariously lifting piano. A nice little two minute anthem from Insomniac.

1999
"Nice Guys Finish Last"
Dir: Evan Bernard

Straight out of an NFL Films daydream! The basic plot is the band wants to perform a concert, much like executing a drive to the end zone. Two great moments are when Tre Cool mouths "Hi, Mom!" into the camera like a primetime rookie, and when Billie Joe checks his setlist like he's a QB. Just brilliant ideas here.

Links:
* http://www.mvdbase.com/artist.php?last=Green%20Day

[TO BE CONTINUED...]