"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.]
 

"Victory" -- a music video retrospective

I think what gives Puff Daddy's credibility guise away is his constant need for a new stage name. Endlessly searching for "the cool", he never realizes that the first nickname was what he should have stuck with all along (Sean "Puffy" Combs). What's more, many people don't grasp that most of Diddy's best songs are actually Notorious BIG hits featuring him (and probably also featuring Mase). So, his after-Biggie life has been all about emerging as a separate entity.

Have you seen Bad Boys II? Diddy was trying to sell "Shake Ya Tailfeather" so hard that, as "Executive Music Producer", he played it every possible time he could in the flick. My friends and I based a drinking game on this sobering display of triteness.

OK, to the music video:

With lyrics like "get your math on", "hot for a long time/burning like a candle"; and bragging about going platinum, you know that "Victory" is pop-rap. It's like the Cristal that Puffy is so fond of--bubbly, expensive and not really filling.

It's a basic "Most Dangerous Game"/Running Man take-off. Lots of helicopters, fireballs, rain machines, searchlights, rollerblading cops and supermodels and are employed. It somewhat resembles the directing style of David Fincher. Let's look at a few video stills:

Wait a minute... Year 3002 A.D., and he has a pager? His top speed 320 km PER SECOND??? That's roughly 715 mph... Obviously, the producers were not that worried about the details and the metric system. If they invested more in the little things, and less on Danny DeVito and Dennis Hopper, who knows.

The late Notorious BIG fills in the creative gaps, dominating PD's rhymes posthumously (for the nth time). Even Busta Rhymes makes Puffy sound lazy. When the NWO President (Dennis Hopper) says "delete" (maybe that's how they say it in the year 3002?), I think that just sums up the quality of the video's script.

The lamest part of the video is the apparent suicide of "Contestant #5". The animation of him jumping off the building is just laughable. It reminds me of the Joker's death in Tim Burton's Batman... the same CGI used 10 years later. Why not spend another $30k on some better effects; make it an even 3 million dollar budget?


Video facts
Length: 7:50
Director: Anonymous (Marcus Nispel)
Date: March, 1998
Est. Cost: $2.7 million
http://www.mtvmusic.com/puff_daddy/videos/9718/victory.jhtml

When this video debuted, there was no (living) black artist as high profile as Puff Daddy. With Biggie's death, he catapulted into the mainstream, with the help of MTV. The video for "Victory" is Puff Daddy's parallel of "Estranged" by Guns N' Roses: it marks the pinnacle of overindulgence and the waning of popularity. Maybe Diddy's next album will be analogous to Chinese Democracy. "Estranged" is a classic... is "Victory"?


Links
* http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=22637

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

[All images are © their respective owners.]

"She Drives Me Crazy" -- a music video retrospective

[Update: the animated GIF files are not working, so they are accessible within the text links now.]

Researching music videos is rough. I have to glean what information from memory I can, and usually rely on un-cited, obsolete websites to help reinforce those nuggets. If there was a textbook about terrible music videos, I would buy it without a second thought. So, allow me to elucidate on a bit of history...

With an album title like the Raw and the Cooked, you've got to just know that some record executive controlled everything from the get-go. It must have taken 5 guys in a room about 10 minutes to pick out that album title. And, I bet there was at least one convertible blasting this music in the IRS Records parking lot. Just look at the guitarists... would they have anything to do with Roland Gift if not for money?


From what I can gather, "She Drives Me Crazy" had two videos for the two target markets (America and everyone else). They have the same director, just edited differently and missing some respective shots. It's really a mish-mash, non-concept video with dance-offs. Two dancers (one black, one white... yellow) are competing against each other, in a race war of sorts. Another dancer looks like a gypsy with pillows strapped to her. I need to also mention the guitarists dance, too. Watching them makes me look like Chris Brown's protege!


The American one is missing a great image that really make the video a tad more enjoyable. I don't know what's un-American about the scene, but anyway. A glass bottle is smashed on the lead singer's head in fast-motion, between verses. The speed-up, slow-down thing is pretty much the best of the special effects. The international version of the video cuts a clip as well: a waiter with platter full of glassware, keeping balance while falling over.


Maybe the most famous scene is the TV Man. The igniting guitar is also eye-catching.

Surprisingly, neither of the videos are available via MTV, AOL or Yahoo. Look them up on YouTube, because as far as I can tell, there is no DVD flaunting the mystique of FYC.

Video facts
Director (both videos): Pedro Romhanyi
Length (both videos): 3:36
Date: 1989
Est. Cost: Unknown

In closing... Fine Young Cannibals. Wow. Two hit wonders ("Good Thing")? Eurotrash? #1 Billboard genius? Inspirations for UB40? We will never know.

Links
* http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=10631

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

Faith No More -- a music video retrospective

Because this San Fransisco band just recently announced reformation (and performed live), I decided to quickly cover Faith No More's best three videos in one quick shot. We have, of course "Epic"; and then the lesser known "Everything's Ruined" and "Last Cup of Sorrow" from their career's prime and twilight, respectively.

In 1990, Faith No More's "Epic" put them on the rock 'n roll map. The band seemed poised to overcome the "hair metal hangover" with an innovative rap-rock design--they might have been the Nirvana of the 1990s, if grunge hadn't come around (I'm not placing blame at all).



1989
Dir: Ralph Ziman
The video is simply a sound stage performance with a rain machine, intermixed with kooky visuals and special effects. Mike Patton's head explodes, Jim Martin's guitar is struck by lightning, a piano is blown to bits... pretty cool. I am obligated to write about the fish (or Bjork's fish, whatever), that provoked outrage for its flopping footage. Silly.



1992
Dir: Kevin Kerslake
More interesting is the video for "Everything's Ruined". It's one of those stock footage montage clips that are so common. But this one is so odd that it's worth noting. This one pits the band against the green screen, fighting and swimming with the clips. It's fun to watch them in their element.





1997
Dir: Joseph Kahn
Even more interesting is "Last Cup of Sorrow". I saw this vid before I knew of Hitchcock's Vertigo, and I became obsessed with both. Some of the shots are almost perfect replicas of the 1958 thriller. Despite the original film's seriousness, FNM throw in some humor by adding prostitution and cross-dressing (you'll see). I had no idea Album of the Year existed when I first saw this... such an underrated record.

"Falling to Pieces" is also a decent (4th place) music video by the band. A close cousin to "Epic".

Links
* http://www.fnm.com/discography.shtml
* http://www.mvdbase.com/artist.php?last=Faith+No+More
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29

These videos should be available (retail) via the Who Cares a Lot?: The Greatest Videos DVD.

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

"Whatzupwitu" -- a music video retrospective

[I wrote this about a month ago, but delayed it because of Michael Jackson's death and the media response. It appears here unaltered.]

Eddie Murphy. Once the crown prince of standup, once a box office boon, once a successful recording artist. In a nutshell, another casualty of the 80's-90's transition. The same transition that swallowed whole the careers of stage and screen. Hair metal, Members Only jackets, Atari, California Raisins, Pee-Wee Herman, side ponytails and Eddie Murphy all became (tragic) statistics.

Teaming up with Michael Jackson in the early nineties shouldn't be a bad idea; just like teaming up with Rick James in '85. But for Eddie Murphy, the career tailspin had already begun. Yes, he's still making movies, but seriously: Boomerang, Vampire in Brooklyn, Holy Man, Pluto Nash, The Haunted Mansion, Norbit, Meet Dave. Have any of you actually seen one of those in the theaters?




The first grim error of the video is the fact that those New Jack Groove sunglasses are just annoying. I don't know if you were self-aware back in that time, but honesty muscle shirts were not that cool then. But, black denim was. He totally reminds me of my junior high geometry teacher, wife-beater or not. The green screen/blue screen was still pretty damn high tech for those days. I mean, this came out just before Jurassic Park. Michael Jackson is probably the best thing to happen to this video. He brings a comic effect, startingly. He's remarkably loose. And, no choirboy jokes!




I guess the concept is that happiness is a state of mind. I get this because Eddie starts out in grayscale, and then MJ comes in and just brightens everything up. Then the kids come in and start la-la-la-ing.

Video facts
Length: 3:26
Director: Wayne Isham
Date: April 1993
Est. Cost: Unknown

I think it's the hearts and peace signs that put this puppy over the edge... In the words of John Stewart (while on the show that permanently retired this video from the MTV airwaves, 25 Lame): "what's up with THAT?"



Links
* http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=19702
* http://stereogum.com/archives/video-hangover/video-hangover-whatzupwitu_004333.html

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