Kanye West's new video is an astounding 34 minute-film, which is a tribute to what has happened within the past year since the infamous "Taylor Swift" incident at the 2009 Video Music Awards. His latest album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is set for release the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The promotion machine is rolling with his appearance in the "Today" show, which caused him to cancel his performance on November 26. However, that is another story for another day. Anyways back to the video. It was shot in Prague over 4 days in the summer of 2010 and premiered in October 23rd, 2010. The overall story shows a relationship between a man and a half-woman/half-phoenix. The soundtrack is West's album and it stars Kanye West and model Selita Ebanks. In a recent interview, Ebanks explains that the moral of the film is "the world doesn't accept, or they try to change, what is different, instead of trying to understand it." Do you think that? Well, do you have 35 minutes available? Give Kanye another chance and watch his 34-minute film
Sorry for the clean edit of the video, i was too lazy to find the dirty version. However, I did watch the dirty edit where they curse. That is pretty much it. Anyways, I personally love Kanye West's music. I try to look on the bright side with that. Also, I give him a lot of credit to really say what he is saying on his mind and this video really shows that. It reminds me of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" with a hint of "Full-Metal Jacket", which is listed as direct inspiration for the film. It has that dark feel where you are fully immersed into the world that Kanye has created. There are artists where they sing a song and you are supposedly get a peek into their secured world. This video and the whole album really shows what is going on in West's world. I'm sure after the VMA incident, he wrote this film to show what's going on with his world.
The film's title track entitled "Runaway", which starts at around the 13:23 mark, was played in full being that it is the main reason why the film was created. The video for the song begins with a dinner for about 40 of West's closest friends for him and his girlfriend. At one point, a gentlemen leans over to West and tells him that she is beautiful. Then the gentlemen asks West, do you know that she is a bird?. West's answer was "No, I never notice that", which I think was a good answer for that questions. Then the music begins and about 30 ballet dancers come running in to perform a group dance. I really like the colors and the way that the video was shot. It shows a painting coming to life, not really the extent of "Power", but it is visually stunning. It has a slight tint to it, which adds to the effect of a real-life painting. The 4 minute shorten clip is used as the official video for heavy rotation on MTV, VH1, The Music Factory, and BET, which comes to a sudden ending. However on YouTube, you can find the extended edit of the video. It has the ballet dancers performing a dance of their own with some annoying auto-tuning at the end of it. However, the visual painting is really expressed for about 1 minute where the ballet dancers are still and the camera pans the entire group, which really hits home the concept of the video.
After the video, dinner is served and the main course is...turkey. There is one reason and one reason only why this happened....spite. You hear the phoenix screaming to where the all the guests are leaving the table. I feel like that part of the video is a representation of what the media perceives West as, a spiteful bastard. The ending of the video is what the whole film is trying to convey to where West tries to convince the phoenix to stay in his world, instead of leaving. If you want to know if she leaves or stays, you have to watch it cause i'm not spoiling this masterpiece.
Finally, my opinion on the film. I think it is amazing and Kanye West should be receiving a bunch of awards for this video. If he doesn't, then the music industry is truly corrupt and doesn't really recognize true talent. There are a lot of artists out there that created catchy pop songs and created videos to where they are seducing the audience. This film shows the ability for an artist to go out of the box. I can't really think of an artist with that ability and is able to do it well. Kanye West is back with a vengeance and his supporters are letting people that he is back. This solidifies West's place in music as probably the most creative artist in the music industry right now. Can't you tell that I think Kanye West is amazing? Well, he is. I know that he has all that personal shit that people stamp him with, which ties him into the music. In the end, the music is all that matters.
Rating - 10 out of 10. Hit it out of the ball park and I'm taken back by the visual detailing.
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