99 Problems -Jay Z Analysis

I am going to analyse the video with accompanying help from Goodwin's Music Video Theory.

• Genre Characteristics

In the music video there were many things which show the characteristics of the genre, Hip-Hop. The fact that the music video is mainly set in the 'ghetto' communities of Brooklyn show its hip-hop relevance. Brooklyn, being a predominantly African-American area, has a theme with what the lyrics are portraying. The music video gives a sympathetical feel to black people and shows how society sees them in a twisted way. This has a link with the prison references as Jay-Z sings about how black people are sent to prison and treated worse by NY police officers. He is alighting an issue with the treatment on black people in the USA. Black people are also stereotypically religious and to show this there are scenes in a church where a choir is singing to portray this. The fact that Jay-Z is wearing chains and mink clothing is very stereotypical with the hip-hop genre itself.

• Lyric and Visual Relationship

Many parts of the MV show a correlation which Jay-Z is singing about and what is on screen. There are shots of a prison and prisoners when he sings about prison and the police. There are shots of sexually provocative women when he sings about women. This is also repeated on other topics. The lyrics base around women and love as many songs do and this is portrayed in the visual aspects of the MV.

• Music and Visual Relationship

The genre of hip-hop shows a relationship to what is happening on screen. Hip-hop is seen as a predominantly black genre where many artists began in rough areas and were very poor like Jay-Z.The editing such as transitions follow the beat of the music to show the correlation. The black and white tone of the visuals relate to the mood of the music.

• Record Label Relationship

The MV portrays Jay-Z as a strong, god-like figure. This is shown by the lyrics and the visuals. He sings about the events as if he is an important person looking over everything whilst many cinematography such as low angle shots make him seem larger showing importance. The fact there are many close-ups of Jay-Z also shows he is important to the MV.

• Voyuerism

This is prevalent in two ways in the MV. There is the scopophiliac way and the voyeuristic way. The sexaully provocative women represent scopophilia. The viewer is meant to get a sexual pleasure from them thus the main audience would be male. This is important for MV. The fact that we are being shown the 'ghetto' community is voyeuristic aswell as the viewer finds pleasure from seeing this visual.

• Intertextuality

Intertextual referencing surves a purpose for promotional issues towards the MV and shows recognisable features for the audience. This isn't shown as much in this MV as it was one of the first of its kind although in many future MV intertextual referencing from this MV can be seen.