Not too long ago, GM came up with a great idea: create an album, make a video for each track and give one video to different blogs. In his case it was 11 songs, 11 videos, 11 blogs, one of the better ideas that came out of 11/11/11. But it isn't just a posting of a video, that would be too easy and not very original. What GM wanted to do was have a mini review of each song and then break down the video as well. He asked if I would like to take part and of course I said yes (otherwise why would I be writing this.)
I was presented with the track "#ForTheLove" which just happens to be produced by E dot Spencer (you may remember him from "Born to Fly"." So let's first me talk about the song itself. It begins with a great sample by E Dot that sets the tone for the soulful beat layered with hi hats, vocals (chopped down to just a note or two.) "You don't even have to like it, this is no sucker shit" those are the first words of the track (besides him shouting out E for the beat) and right away it is clear what this track is: that in your face, fuck what you think, straight up rap song over some soulful beats. My favorite line of the track has to be "You can tell me you Fonzarelli, you Mister Cool, I'm just here for the moment, Im just a different dude," because well, I dig the Fonz, but just after that, about halfway through, the beat becomes muddled and faded, before it comes back into full effect with vocals hitting even harder than the first time. The track is certainly one that gets repeat listens and doesn't lose any oomph.
Then I wondered, what would the video for this song look like? A few ideas came to mind, first off there was the very basic, GM rapping around very spots in Naptown, nothing revolutionary and usually an idea I dislike but for this track it would work. Then I envisioned a very triply animated that there is no way I can put into words without rambling for hours, but knew that wasn't going to happen because those are VERY VERY time consuming and expensive. But I just kept coming back to the idea of GM rapping in front of a camera, whether with him sitting down while he moves through the city or standing in various locations. The only other idea I had was a picture based one ala "Through the Wire" but that's been done.
Then, the actual video arrived, and first, I want you to watch it, and then I shall give my thoughts on it to see how they mesh with your own.
First let's breakdown what happened, it starts with GM's female companion trying to decide what movie the two of them to watch, only to find GM sleeping on the couch. And he begins to dream of what is shown to the masses as the "rap life" girls, alcohol, and some more girls and more alcohol. Then we find out at the end that it is in fact not GM's dream, but his girl's, almost to say that she wants that life or maybe it was really a nightmare, that we are never told.
That is the basic breakdown of it but there are some other things I would like to discuss. First is the framing of the video. Very often the top of GM's head is out of the frame, cut off so to speak. There are two reasons I can think of that this happened, one being it was unintentional, the other being that it was used to show this view of the rap life is what people without a brain imagine it to be and those that actually know, see the life of the MC is VERY different. The other thing to notice, unless of course I am missing something, is that in reality, this isn't the typical story of women in rap videos, because for one reason, it is one and only one female in the video, so it is not a "Girls, Girls, Girls" situation. And MAYBE the female is just dreaming of a night at home with her significant other with a little drinking and some extra circular, nothing that unusual, but because it is video for a hip hop song, we assume it is some woman hating message, therefore challenging us to think differently about what we see and actually base our thoughts and opinions on what is actually in front of us and not some preconceived notion. So please let me know what you think. Also check out the whole project by GM, it really it a great idea and rather diverse too. Enjoy.
You can stream and download the whole album here.
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