Jay Z is an American rapper and 99 Problems was the third
single to be released by him, this was released in 2004. This video is mainly shot in Brooklyn, New York which is situated
where Jay Z grew up and in it Jay Z is talking about dealing with racial
summarising from a police officer who wants to search his car, dealing with an
attacker and dealing with rap knockers.
Jay Z says himself that he usually has girls in his videos
but this is more cinematic which is very different from the stuff he usually
produces. This breaks the traditional rap music video concept and this was
loved but also hated.
In most rap videos there is a lot of wealth involved which is
shown through expensive cars, jewellery, items of clothing, shoes, etc. But this
is the opposite in the 99 Problems video and there is quite a bit of poverty
shown. There is a little boy within the video who looks very innocent and looks
like he is suffering from poverty. He then pulls down his hat which is actually
a balaclava, this indicates that he is going to go and commit a crime. Which
also emphasises the fact that a lot of people may be led to life of crime due
to the circumstances they are brought up in.
A prime example of a traditional rap video is Snoop Dogg ft.
Pharrell Williams, Drop It Like It’s Hot. This video fits all of the
stereotypical requirements in a rap video of the fancy trainers, expensive
jewellery with a lot of bling and girls dancing in revealing clothes. This is a
perfect example to show just how different Jay Z’s video to 99 Problems
actually is.Mark Romanek who directed this video wanted to put energy within the video which is usually used in Rock videos. This is what Rap videos usually don’t consist of and this was one of the main differences compared to the stereotypical rap videos. Another main difference is the fact that Jay Z’s video is in black and white, not many rap videos are in black and white as the vast majority of them are in colour.
This was a hugely debated video and the main reason for this was that in this video Jay Z gets shot and this caused a lot of controversy. Many companies couldn’t show this video because of the gun crime within the video as they do not agree with showing violent content. Jay Z said if they didn’t show him getting shot in the video then they wasn’t allowed to show the video at all and he stuck by this decision.
Due to this, on MTV every singly airing of this video would have an introduction of John Norris explaining why they would be showing the video unedited. As well as this Jay Z made an introduction for BET explaining the shooting within the video is representing the death of Jay Z and the rebirth of Shawn Carter. It also faced controversy over the fact that in the video there has dog fighting; this was criticized by the Humane Society of the United States.
This video was directed by Mark
Romanek and was nominated for various awards, such as MVPA awards in 2005 and
of which won three of them. It also won MTV Video Music Awards for Best
Director, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography. It also got nominations for
Best Male Video and Video of the Year.
There are many differences from
the usual hip-hop genre in this video and various things from within the video
are broken. But there is also still the same sort of aspects of a rap video
included in this video. There are various expensive chains and shown in the
video and also the dancing involved in this video fits the criteria. The
dancing in this video is break dancing which is probably the stereotypical dancing
you think you’d see in a rap video.
In conclusion, this video is
extremely different from previous hip-hop and rap videos. There are various
ways in which it has been re-made and this is what has made it a very
controversial video amongst people. I personally like the video and how it is
very different from the other rap videos and I think it was directed in a
really good way by Mark Romanek. The ideas that were used in this video were
really good and made an exciting music video.
