WRITE ABOUT A MUSIC VIDEO THAT YOU THINK IS EFFECTIVE| Egg Hunting

HUMBLE by Kendrick Lamar is one of the all-time greatest music videos to ever be released in the 21^st century. Directed by 11x MTV video Award winner Dave Meyers and the Little Homies (a collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free). This iconic, stunning  and cinematic music video was initially released in March 2017. It quickly gained to a total viewing count of 677 million (2019) views on YouTube. The video is sets up a number of different scenes such as the opening scene of Kendrick being a Pope to imagery of Kendrick being a matchstick. All these scenes portray a number of different references throughout time or relate back to lyrics and foreshadowing words within the song. It has been quoted by Esquire that “Kendrick Lamar has revived the music video as a powerful form of social commentary”.

 

One of the most effective scenes I found within the music video was when Kendrick was dressed as Steve Jobs under a bridge. Kendrick directly looks at the camera as the camera moves he remains focused looking into the camera “it is like he is inspecting the camera and the camera is inspecting him, as if he is directing it with his eyes” (Miller, 2017). This one bridge scene creates a point of interest and becomes visually interesting for audiences when watching the video. Throughout the rest of video Meyers maintains the “classic Hip-Hop formula” (Miller, 2017) using beds of cash, expensive cars and beautiful woman with their own beauty blemishes which would not normally be seen within a music video. Lamar and Meyers created scenes that are controversial and strike upon conversation, this creates an atmosphere which is effective to bring upon social change and issues within society that are sometime taboo topics of conversation.  Kendrick breaks the barriers of what is acceptable within a music video by creating a beautifully shot cinematic heavy visual images that are inspirational and creative for younger members of the community as well as setting the beliefs of this period of time.