Recently, I was hired to work on two hip-hop music videos.  As a start, I watched countless hours of music videos and with some help from Flares, I ran through tons in the genre; admittedly I was a little lacking in the subject. Quite a few were bland and easily forgettable, but there were two videos that did stick out.

I saw “Yonkers” by Tyler, the Creator when it was first released and it has stuck with me since. During my perusal of the web, I was reminded of “Yonkers” by  a fairly new artist named “Hopsin.”  In his song: Ill Mind Of Hopsin, “Hopsin” calls out Tyler the Creator on various elements of his video and overall career.  Nothing new, nothing special.  ”Hopsin” even states that Tyler, the Creator’s new album, Goblin, “sucks so much” he “gets blow jobs from it.”  Pretty crafty, huh?  I’m not here to discuss and analyze any issues the two rappers may have with each other or problems I have with the lyricism.  This is simply a comparison of the two videos and why I think both should be brought to attention.

From the standpoint of a music video director such as myself, I think it’s hard to ignore these videos. What’s interesting about them being matched next to each other is that their dramatic contrast is rivaled only by their similarities.  What could I possibly mean?  Well, their likeness is very apparent.  Both respective rappers are the center of attention the entire way through.  ”Hopsin” may  pretend to be Tyler, and various other characters, but you’re always looking at “Hopsin.”  Tyler is sitting on a chair and is the only focus the audience has.  Second, both subjects never leave the room in which they are in (excluding “Hopsin” impersonating Tyler) and they are facing the camera for the most part.

Lets look at their just as apparent differences from an editors viewpoint:

Ill Mind of Hopsin 4 is fast, choppy and heavily edited.  As a video producer and editor you must have some way of keeping the attention of the audience.  The creators made a decision to keep the camera angles restricted.  If you pay attention the camera is confined to changing elevation, and panning from one side to the other.  The video will even cut when the camera position has barely changed. This, of course, isn’t new.  Since digital video is now the norm, making tons of cuts gets easier and easier.  It’s pointless talking about the innovations in video editing right now as, like I said, this is nothing new.  Quick cuts and chopping the video up has been in many music videos spanning across many genres.

Yonkers takes more of a stylistic approach, specifically the lack of cuts.  It’s a white background with Tyler rapping over the song.  Why is this interesting?  Well, that’s obvious.  The camera is constantly changing focus, it’s black and white and Tyler eats a cockroach.  Tight.  So one has to question, what makes a video more worthwhile?  Yonkers has grabbed your attention with story driven and stylistic elements; while Hopsin creates a confined yet spastic feeling throughout, but its editing depends less on it’s story.  Quick edits are pretty guaranteed  to grab attention.

I think this breaches personal taste.  I love movies and a good story.  Hopsin has a story, but is its story confined to its stylistic choices?  Ill Mind of Hopsin gets credit for not editing fast just for the sake and safety of editing fast.  Maybe…?   I don’t think the story for Yonkers could have been portrayed in a much different manner.  Likewise, Ill Mind of Hopsin clearly wouldn’t have had the same effect if it went for a slower pace and allowed the camera to move around the room.  I think both videos give the audience something different to look at.

Dammit.

In conclusion:

Less things bother me about Yonkers, as I think it’s less open ended and I can enjoy it down the the lyricism.  Ill Mind of Hopsin 4 was able to grab my attention amidst a lot of really bad videos and I watched it many times.  Outside of an editing analysis, more things bug me in Ill Mind of Hopsin 4 and I don’t like a lot of elements to it.  Goblin does suck though.

Post your thoughts below!