Ideas I Like
I like the fact Nelly has put a kid in this video and dressed him in the same styled clothes as him. The boy looks good in the clothes but at the same time they look quite out of place. I think something like this could work well in our video. We could possibly include something like this in our video.
I love the use of baseball caps or 'flat peaks' in this video I would definitely like to have our actors wearing them in our video I think for our video to look Hip-Hop people have to dress Hip-Hop and this is a cgood way to do it.
I really love this part of the video when Nelly is almost leading all of these people through a dance class. I think it looks really good how so many people are in time with the dancing, however I don't think we will use this in our video because it would require a lot of organizing and I don't think we could get this many people to act.
Analysis of Video
Again like the first video I analysed (Kanye West - Good Life) there is no real story to the song so again this is represented in the video. However I still wanted to analyse this video because it had a very strong Hip-Hop vibe about it and although it is hard to get a storyline from there are lot of ideas and things I think we can take from this video. The song is quite simple in meaning it is all about Nelly looking for a girl to have a one night stand with and leave. Nelly has decided to be quite 'cocky' in this video as before releasing the song (and album) his brother was released from prison so he was obviously quite happy about that. He has definitely shown this throughout the video as through the whole thing it is clear he is the main person and the one we should all be looking at. He is standing at the front for all of the shots he is in and everyone else is behind him almost as if he were the king and behind were his loyal soldiers. Later on we also see him leading everyone through a dance which again he is the leader and everyone else is copying him because they want to be like him. He has also made himself a role model in this video because we see little children at the start dressed like him so he is clearly trying to represent himself as someone who you can look up to. Also like lots of leaders we see Nelly has to 'deputy's' (Jazze Pha and Jasper Cameron) who are there behind him for most of the video. This is more than likely taken from how kings or army generals usually had there two second in commands by their sides. Half way through the video we even hear Nelly talking about being over confident when he says 'I got so god damn cocky I took my band aid off' this is another reference to his brother as he said he would keep his band aid on his face until his brother got out of prison. Also Nelly is very proud of his birth place and home St. Louis (Missouri, USA) this is shown in the lyrics when he refers to things such as the 'tics which is an abbreviation of St. Lunatics a band Nelly was in with all members born and bred in St. Louis. Also he shows he love for his home in the video because the hats he wears throughout are St. Louis Cardinals hats the baseball team, Nelly is a big fan of baseball as he played a lot as a child so this is also another reason for him to be wearing the hats and for him to have everyone else wearing them.
Generic Conventions
The editing in the video is synchronized in terms of the dancing matches the beat of the song and most of the cuts match the actual rapping in the song however is doesn't run like this all the way through sometimes the dancing or cuts don't quite fit. The shots in this video are very quick presumably to match the pace/tempo of the rapping Nelly is doing. Most shots only last about half to two seconds the video is quite fast pace so the audience doesn't get bored and so it looks smooth and fits with the song. This video is the most Hip-Hop video I have seen yet in terms of matching the genre, because not only does it include girls, cars, and expensive clothes it really over uses them. There are lots of cars, lost of girls and lots of fancy clothes for the audience to look at. There is no way you could watch this video and mistake it for another genre.
Application of Theory
Andrew Goodwin
From the start it is clear this video meets the Hip-Hop characteristics it is also clear that the relationship between lyrics and visuals is very illustrative. From the start we are hearing things in the song and then seeing them Jazze says 'Ladies and Gentlemen' we see a man and a woman, he says 'Nelly, Nell' we see Nelly (the same happens when he says his own name), later on when Nelly sings about a 'pretty young girl' we see lots of woman. The theme goes throughout almost all of the video and only really stops when Nelly is rapping quickly and it would be to hard to through up a stream of images. The visual style of this video is simple; lots of quick cuts and dancing to keep the audience happy and have something to look at.
Laura Mulvey
Again this Hip-Hop video uses the male gaze there are lots of women in this video all very pretty and dancing so it is quite clear us as the audience are meant to be watching them for aesthetic reasons and are fairly objectified.
Evaluation of Video
Although there is no real storyline to this video and no special effects I still really enjoy it. I really like the fact it has clung to its genre and not tried anything out of the ordinary I think sometimes it is good to stick to what you know rather than try to be original. I think some of the dancing in the video is quite good and I enjoy the nice fast tempo of both the song and the video. I also really like the meaning of the song and the way Nelly has tried to get this across he has also made it rewarding for his big fans and people who just like some of his songs, because his big fans or followers will know the precise meaning of the lyrics and Nelly's history and will be able to link this to things in the video which will reward them, also people who don't know Nelly that well will be able to match up things they hear with things they see which will also give them a sense of satisfaction as it makes them feel clever. I would give this video a 7/10.
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