Jay - Z - 99 Problems. Music Video Analysis.

Jay-Z - 99 Problems

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etl9kkIGaHo

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
- Urban setting - Brooklyn, NY. Jay-Z's hood. He makes a point of of drawing our attention to this by revealing the name on his hoodie.
- Representations of a 'gangsta' lifestyle - cruising in cars, dog fights, loitering on the streets, getting pulled over by the police, basketball, guns, criminality/money.
- Street dancing/freestyle
- Scantily-clad 'sexy' women - cheap looking, gold bikinis.
- Jail scenes - all inmates are black - white guy in a suit, policeman is white, black people are jailbirds/on thr streets.
- Goes against conventions of representations of wealth - lacks fancy cars, clothes, bling, women etc.
- Women are only a minor element in the video - usually hip-hop videos would have more shots of sexy women.
- Shooting at the end - reflects images of gangsta cool.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
- 'From the hood' - Jay-Z pulls hood down.
- 'Radio' - image of video.
- 'Bitch' - image of women.
- 'Jay-Z' - points to himself.
- 'Fast forward' - moves his hands along to demonstrate.
- 'Paparazzi' - camera flash images of criminals identity shots.
- Overall, images illustrate the lyrics, sometimes very literally, sometimes in a more subtle way. Theme of song = all the problems Jay-Z has; video shows problems.

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals.
- Video is cut in time with the beat of the song.
- Music is hard-hitting, aggressive - sounding with and emphasis on the beat rather than melody - visuals are also harsh = looking and edits are fast-paced to emphasise this aggression.

4. Close ups, shots and developing a recurring motif.
- Lots of shots of Jay-Z - not all close-ups but there are some.
- Close-ups of other men as well - aggressive-looking.
- Shots of women are long shots/mid-shots - because they're not important.
- Less emphasis on Jay-Z on his own - he is an established artist and doesn't need as much exposure.
- Jay-Z has his own record label as well as being part of island/DefJam - quite independent, evidence of less control by the label in this video tham you might expect from a more mainstream/major label.

5. Notion of looking, voyeuristic of female body.
- Jay-Z hand over camera so it seems the audience is looking through his fingers.
- X-ray vision shot of money in boot - we can see through the boot.
- Scopophilic treatment of women is quite uncomfortable to watch - seems totally unnecessary.
- Early establishing shots are almost point-of-view, creating the impression that the audience is looking around the hood.
- Video of Jay-Z outside subway station.

6. Intertextual references.
- Possibly a video of him - referencing himself?
- Niche references.