This music video is by the artist Lil Wayne who is an American Rapper and the video was released on the 23rd August 2011. The video was directed by Chris Robinson who is a film director but mainly works with music videos which usually are of a Hip-Hop/Rap music genre. I am writing this based on Andrew Goodwin writing in "Dancing in the Distraction Factory (Routledge 1992). The music video contains some performance from the artist but is mainly filled with narrative and this we see from the very start, in which there is a short film clip where there is no music. This is very effective as it gives the audience a better understanding of what the music video and the song is about as we concentrate on what we see more than what we are listening to. In the beginning of the video we see that the woman becomes very upset and stressed due to her facial expressions and the use of slow motion footage is effective as the audience are able to concentrate on this scene and feel the mood it tries to portray.
Then we see Lil Wayne perform in a corridor where there is very low lighting, the reason for not using much lighting is to match the song and video which has quite a dramatic yet dismal mood. This affect is progressed throughout most of the music video in many different ways.
The small girl we see in the video is then shown in different stages of her life, as the girl grows older. Through the use of mis-en-scene we see that she may not have much money as she is sitting outside a school and has holes in her tights also she is chewing gum which along with her clothing gives her a slight "poor" look. In another scene by the girls clothing and the location we see that she is in a strip club as we see her dance on a stage and her clothing also helps tell us where she is and what she is doing. From her facial expressions we see that she is not happy with what she is doing which tells us the girl is doing anything to try and get money which gives us the idea that she is quite poor. These scenes in the story match the chorus "See you had a lot of crooks tryna steal your heart, never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out, How to love, How to love" this chorus suits the images in the video as we see that the girl may not have had much luck and now is trying to get money through exotic dancing and prostitution which we see in the next scene.
In this music video the typical genre characteristics are not really used much as most Rap/Hip-Hop videos contain cars, money, girls and jewelry. The only aspect of a Hip-Hop/Rap shown in the video is the use of girls being shown as a sex object dancing and has a sex appeal towards them.
The record labels for this song are Young Money, Cash Money and Universal Republic they may have demanded that Lil Wayne the artist of the song has to be shown in the video around 50% of the video. This is because watching the music video half of it is Performance by Lil Wayne and the other is Narrative. If Lil Wayne was not shown as much as he is people may concentrate on the Narrative too much and forget a bit about the artist. Therefore in the video Lil Wayne has to be advertised so people see him and know he performs the song.
In the video there is some use of intertextual reference such as the scene where a women and child visits a man in prison and becomes annoyed and leaves, this has similarities to the scene in Hanckock in which a woman and her child visits a main character and becomes angry at the male character and decides to leave. Also the short clips without music refer to films in general as the main focus is on the characters and their actions due to not having music over the video.
Towards the end of the video the music is again cut out and we are back in the same place as in the first scene with a different girl and the effect again of having no music is to emphasise the dramatic scene which also helps the audience connect with the emotion in the scene. The video then re-winds back when the girl in the video is a baby and plays again but with different locations and scenes also with a different mood. We then see the girl begins to have a better life and the lyrics around this point are "See I just want you to know, that you deserve the best, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful" which matches the video as the girl grows and gets the best from life as we see she is better dressed clothes which and she has a hairdressing job in which she appears to be enjoying due to the smile on her face. Finally at the very end of the music video the music stops again but this time everyones facial expressions are a lot lighter as people are smiling which tells the audience the characters are cheerful which is also transferred to the audiences emotions through watching the video.
Overall the music video is a performance by the artist but is narrative as there is a story and a sequence to the video which helps gives the audience a better feel and understanding of the lyrics and the emotions lifted from the song. Also the woman in the video is portrayed as being a sex object and we see this from the clothes she is wearing are quite revealing. The way she is treated as well helps show that she could be considered as a sex object as we see domestic violence and this could be due to her not doing what he wants and to him she may have no other benefits. Therefore the male characters could be seen as being very masculine and has a lot of power through them overpowering women and forcing them to do things.
Samuel Baksh
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