Conventions of a hip hop music video.

Sarah Byard.

Fits characteristics of genre.

There are many low-angled, close up shots in hip hop videos, to imply the artists’ power over their audience. The low angle gives them the power, because they look down on the audience and the close up gives status because it implies they’re important enough to have a frame to themselves.

Ms.

Jack

son.

My Name Is… Ignition.

Because I Got H

igh

In In Da Club, there are many two shots of 50 Cent performing, whilst a woman stands irrelevantly next to him. There are four of these in the space of one minute, which are used to indicate how appealing and desired 50 Cent is, something which is meant to suggest status.This also represents women as irrelevant and meaningless., as he dismisses each one within seconds.

People in In Da Club dancing in time to the music.

Jay and Silent Bob dancing in time to the music in Because I Got High.

In hip hop music videos, a crowd is usually shown dancing or bouncing their arms in time to the beat of the song. This makes them look as if they are actually dancing to the song, which implies that they like the song. This gives credibility to the song/artist, because it shows that people do like the song, which makes it easier for the audience to like the song.

The clothing is generally basketball shirts or other sporting attire, to signify strength and sporting prowess, something supported by physical workouts in music videos.

Basketball shirt in Ignition.

Display of physical strength in In Da Club

Sport jerseys worn in In Da Club and Ms. Jackson.

Expensive jewellery in R Kelly’s Ignition and 50 Cent’s In Da Club.

Expensive car and a stack of money in Nicki Minaj’s Superbass

There are lots of references to the wealth of the artist through the use of mise-en-scene (money, cars, jewellery etc.). Expensive things signify wealth, which supposedly signifies status.

There tend to be lots of males in hip hop videos. The men are often featured with their ‘posse’ to signify power, as there is strength in numbers. It also shows he is ‘part of the group’ ie. not a loner or social outcast, something again which signifies status.

It Wasn’t Me. In Da Club

Ms. Jackson. Stan. The Real Slim Shady

Nicki Minaj showing how fierce and empowering she is by turning herself into a sex object in Superbass. The men may be sitting down as opposed to the women standing, but they clearly are the dominants as they do not have to do anything, or move, something associated with status and power.

Shaggy is shown as the dominant in this shot, as he is in the centre of the frame. The women are wearing revealing clothing, which also shows them as just sex objects to Shaggy.

Men have all the power in every media text ever made ever hip hop videos. Women are shown as disposable, interchangeable and as objects of lust and nothing more.

In Speakers Going Hammer by Soulja Boy, white suburban America is depicted as ‘black and white’, which signifies it being old-fasioned and outdated. When Soulja Boy arrives with his other black friends, the whole scene turns into colour, inferring that they are new and up-to-date, and are what society need to be fresh. He uses binary oppositions to mock white suburban America.

Eminem mocks societal practise in his videos. In Without Me, he mocks the hypodermic needle by having ‘Rap Man’ “save “a boy listening to his CD, because it says ‘parental advisory’ on it. He overdramatisises it to mock it, because it makes it seem ridiculous.

However, the general message nowadays in hip videos is: let’s go out, go to a party, get drunk/high/whatever and have lots of sex.

In Da Club. Superbass.

Ignition. Special mention to the bald guy getting his head rubbed. Because it’s hilarious.

Because I Got High.

Link between lyrics and visuals.

In hip hop videos, there is usually some link between the music and lyrics. In most, it is as simple as showing an object they are referring to. This is because narrative is not a huge thing in hip hop videos, so the need for these objects to appear links the video to the song. This needs to happen because otherwise the video is seen as irrelevant.

‘He always in the air but he never fly coach’. Lovely grammar. Superbass – Nicki Minaj. ‘They say it’s puppy love’. Ms Jackson –

Outkast.

Link between music and visuals.

There is rain in the track at the beginning and final part of the Stan, and this is matched in the video by showing pouring rain. Here, the music/visuals link, as well as the rain in the track, are used to represent the stormy time the protagonist, Stan, is going through.

In many videos, including In Da Club (above), Ignition and Superbass, the bouncing and dancing is edited to fit in with the time of the beat. In these instances, this makes it appear that the people are actually listening to it in the video.

Close ups and motifs.

There are many, many close ups in hip hop videos. These are useful for establishing the artist, but they also establish the ‘power’ or importance of the artist, because they take up a lot of the frame.

In hip hop, it is status quo for artists to work together and promote each others work (eg. G Unit). Dr. Dre helped launch Eminem’s career, so he features in many of Eminem’s videos.

Some artists have running themes throughout their songs, which are reflected in their videos. Eminem’s songs have a running theme of mental health, so he reflects it in his videos.

My Name Is… The Real Slim Shady.

The Real Slim Shady My Name Is…

References to looking/voyeurism.

Looking through a TV in these cases (It Wasn’t Me/Because I Got High) shows the artist to have ‘made it’, that they are ‘stars’, because they are on the TV (Afroman is in the van). In today’s culture, being on TV makes you supposedly famous.

Looking through the TV in Stan fits the narrative of the song, to show ‘Stan’ hero-worshipping Eminem.

Eminem watching 50 Cent in In Da Club can be seen as (surprisingly) meaningful. It could give the message that somebody is always watching; that there is no privacy any more.

Voyeurism is used extensively in hip hop videos, because the general audience for hip hop is male, so applying the Male Gaze theory to videos ensures they keep viewers and attract new people into their audience.

Intertextuality.

Jay and Silent Bob in Afroman’s Because I Got High.

Jay and Silent Bob in Dogma.

Jay and Silent Bob’s original appearance in Clerks.

For lesser known artists, such as Afroman and (at the time) 50 Cent, intertextuality is used to give the artist some reputation and to attract fans of these things to their music.

Eminem in 50 Cent’s In Da Club. In 2003, when the song came out, 50 Cent was relatively unknown in mainstream music.

Eminem in Just Lose It Michael Jackson in Billie Jean

“The Shady Bunch” The Brady Bunch.From My Name Is.

Intertextuality can also be used by more established artists to create humour. It is often used to parody, something Eminem achieves in both lyrics and video.

Michael Jackson isn’t wearing the same outfit as Eminem here, but Eminem’s outfit instantly signifies Michael Jackson, as he has recreated Michael Jackson’s most famous outfits.