Busta Rhymes ft. Will I Am ‘I love

my Chick’ Music Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=DmEIDXDweqs&feature=player_embedded#at=11

Background to the Song

The song is by Busta Rhymes, but Will I Am helped

produce it with additional performances from Kelis.

The genre of the song is hip-hop and rap. It was re-

leased in 2006 and features on Busta Rhyme’s sev-

enth studio album ‘The Big Bang’. It is a rap song.

Music Video Type

It is a narrative music video, opening up with Will I

Am and Kelis in a counseling session where a ques-

tion leads to slight performance elements and further

narrative. This question also leads to the song starting

in the music video. Kelis is waiting for Busta

Rhymes to arrive , where they end up in a firefight,

with Busta Rhymes soon leaving the scene. It jumps

to Kelis trying to run him over, but he escapes. They

then fight inside a near by house, and they then pre-

tend to be cool to a neighbor and they genuinely

make up, when they are targeted by black-dressed

soldiers but escape. It ends with a future counseling

meeting with them describing their relationship as

cool.

Genre Characteristics

In a lot of rap music videos, the costume for the

male is a suit and in this video it is no different. The

green army suit costume though isn’t conforming to

the stereotypical video of the genre, but Busta

Rhyme’s leather jacket costume does conform to the

genre. Her tight dress and white crop top costume

does conform to the genre. The most common col-

ours are black, brown and red which are common to

the genre. The lighting is also bright which makes

everything look clear and easy to see, the bright

lighting is common of rap videos. Mostly shallow

depth of field is used, again conforming to the gen-

re. The locations of counseling, desert and ordinary

house do not conform to the genre of rap music vid-

eos.

July 2012 Third Music Video Analysis

Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere. Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere.

Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere. Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere.

Delete text and

insert image here.

Relationship between visuals and the Lyrics

The lyrics describe Busta Rhyme’s love for his chick

(portrayed by Kelis) and Kelis responding with her

love for him.

The visuals build up to the love scene, seeming to not

conform at the start (because of the fact they decideo to

keep on fighting each other, like in the kitchen scene

where she has the sword is swinging it at him), but

eventually they make up and do show love to each oth-

er, even ending with each artist saying to each other

their relationship is good meaning they do end up lov-

ing each other. It is a build up to conformity.

Relationship between visuals and the Music

The relationship between the music and the visuals is

quit e a strong one. Every time the music changes or

starts it jumps cut to a different direction allowing the

narrative of the video to progress. It is also cut fast

paced (building up to fast paced) because the music

becomes progressively more fast paced, meaning that it

is cut to the beat of the music.

Shot Types

Like the previous music videos I have researched into,

the two most common shot types used are medium shot

and close up. Some long shots are used though (such as

when Busta Rhymes is driving to Kelis with the bazoo-

ka to show what he is driving in and establish the shot)

as well as some mid-long shots of the same object for

the same reason. Medium shots are commonly used to

show the fight scene or to emphasize the fight scene

(this is very apparent during the sword-swinging fight)

and it shows how violent and how determined each

character is to win or survive. Close ups are mostly

used to show the emotion of the character (like when

Kelis moves forward a close up is used to help better

show her character is angry). The counselor scene is a

two shot to show both character’s reactions and feel-

ings and to allow contrast to develop between both

characters.

The fight scene.

Medium shot fight scene

July 2012 Third Music Video Analysis

Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere. Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere.

Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere. Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere.

July 2012 Third Music Video Analysis

Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere. Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere.

Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere. Delete box or place a tag line or quote h ere.

Voyeurism

There is some slight voyeurism in the video, from the

female singer in the music video Kelis. It isn’t much

voyeurism.

It shows her wearing a white crop top, but it never

closes up on this and the camera work doesn’t reveal

much of the flesh, it is an unimportant voyeurism that

is void of voyeuristic qualities as it isn’t being used to

sell the artists image or to help sell the song.

Intertextuality

The plot is very similar to the film ‘Mr and Mrs Smith’

with them both opening up with a difficult counseling

session, then all the fights and actions with the charac-

ters trying to kill each other and ending with the happy

counselor session. The music video also describes

Busta Rhymes as Mr Smith and Kelis as Mrs Smith

making it obvious that the music video is based on that

film. It was done because it was a successful film of

2005 (the year before this song was released) and this

is cashing in on the success in a pastiche way, to try

and make more money for the record companies. This

means the music video follows the 1985 film ‘Prezzi’s

Horror’ as ‘Mr and Mrs Smith’ is based on that film.

Kelis’s minor Voyeurism

The film poster of ‘Mr and Mrs Smith’

Delete text and

insert image here.