L02

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl83mI69nX4

This song is called “Kick Push” and is performed by the artists Lupe Fiasco.

Directed By: Christopher Adams and Hana McDowell aka Chris & Blaq
Edited By: Hana McDowell
Shot By: Christopher Adams
Lighting By: Christopher Adams
Visual Effects and Graphics By: Christopher Adams

 “Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the front man of rock band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. As an entrepreneur, Fiasco is the chief executive officer of 1st and 15th Entertainment.

Raised in Chicago, Fiasco developed an interest in hip hop after initially disliking the genre for its use of vulgarity and misogyny. After adopting the name Lupe Fiasco and recording songs in his father's basement, 19-year-old Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak. The group disbanded shortly after its inception, and Fiasco soon met rapper Jay-Z who helped him sign a record deal with Atlantic Records. In September 2006, Fiasco released his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor on the label, which received three Grammy nominations. He released his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, in December 2007. The lead single "Superstar" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. After a two-year delay, Lasers was released in March 2011 to mixed reviews, with lead single "The Show Goes On" peaking at number 9 on the chart. Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 was released in September 2012”.

 

Christopher Adams and Hana McDowell tend to work as a team and they mainly stick to the genres of rap and Hip Hop. Here is an example of another music video that they directed.

These videos were directed by the same people but their very different, this shows that videos are customised to suit the performers and to portray whatever type of image that they want their audience to see, for example Kick Push has a upbeat, peaceful and meaningful video and all these traits are present in the video, where as “Trap House Boys” glamorise money , cars and guns , so their video is full of all these things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIRkEey0lcg

Christopher Adams and Hana McDowell also directed another music video for Lupe Fiasco , although it wasn’t nearly as successful as his other video is still gathered a reasonable amount of attention online and promoted him.

The directors have used a lot of different camera angles and filming techniques that can be found in skate films, Lupe Fiasco is a known skater and this is reflected in his video. Really low angle shots are used a lot so that we can see the skateboarding action and at one point they connect a camera which makes for really interesting footage.

Here is an example of the type of footage that skaters get; it has a lot of similar camera angles and filming techniques as this music video.

The video also includes a lot of close ups of Lupe pretending to sing the word to his song, this is really common in music videos unless they follow some sort of irrelevant narrative. There’s also a lot of footage of the area that Lupe grew up in, this type of footage gives you an idea of where the artist originated and gives you an insight into the type of environment that shaped them as a artist and a person.

There are several different links between the lyrics and the on screen visuals, the first example of this we see is when Lupe comes into shot the second that the song drops, this is almost an introduction to the artist and shows you who you’re about to listen too, it also makes for an entertaining video because what’s on the screen is constantly changing. The first verse opens with the lyrics “first got it when he was six, didn’t know any tricks” and then the video changes to a shot of a young black male (probably about six) with a small skateboard, this is an illustration of the lyrics and it makes for a much more interesting video when sound and visuals are working together.

This music video contains a massive relationship between the music and visuals, there are several examples throughout the video but one of the most obvious and easiest to break down is the way that whenever there is a major change in the song (every 8^th, 16^th and 32^nd bar) the video changes , usually to a different scene or a key event in the narrative will occur.

During the chorus the video cuts to footage of a skater slowly moving along in time with the music , the chorus is a nice simple repeated sounds and the visuals work well with it as they follow the same simple and repetitive pattern.

This track was released by the Warner Music Group http://www.wmg.com/ their a massive record label and have released work from Ray Charles , Red hot Chilli Peppers and hundreds of other A list celebrities. WMG paid for the music video, the advertisements, the production of the album this song is on and the distribution and marketing.

The artist is portrayed as a peaceful skater with hip hop influences and an urban upbringing, this means that he appeals to two main demographics, Hip Hop fans and Skaters (teenagers). The directors have aimed to present the artist in the most positive light possible whilst still showing us the grittier side of him e.g. standing around in gangs , in trouble with security.

This song follows a really strong narrative about how the artist met his girlfriend, he then goes on to explain that they used to skate around together getting into trouble and having fun. The lyrics and visuals both set the scene really well for the story , as different parts of the story are revealed the visuals will change accordingly , for example when he begins to talk about his girlfriend a young woman comes onto the screen.

There are several different parts of Mise en scene in this video but the most important and notable are the skateboards that are used throughout a large portion of the video, adding these into the video adds a strong visual aspect and adds an additional reason for the audience to stay locked into the music video.

The editing style is very similar to a skate films but follows a few techniques that you’re more likely to find in Hip-hop, Rap or RnB videos such as close ups of the lead singer whilst they mime the words to the song.

Here is an example of a skate video and a rap video, Lupe’s video is almost a crossbreed of the two.

This music video doesn’t really contain any voyeurism , although there is a small part of the song where Lupe starts to talk about how he fell in love with his girlfriend and some might say that this falls into the same category. This video differs from most Hip Hop videos in that it has such a small if any amount of voyeurism , most Hip Hop videos have half naked women running around in clubs or on beaches , but the directors thought outside the box and went for a different approach.