Why do we make music videos anyway?
This video totally flips the major music video. Once upon a time, videos broke songs via MTV/BET but this (hilarious!) Soulja Boy vid is an official acknowledgement and certification of a song that’s already a hit. Instead of preceding the takeoff of a hit record, this video arrives near the end of it’s pop hit lifecycle. Especially funny is the self-conscious manner in which record execs are depicted struggling to understand the way culture develops, evolves, and explodes through purely DIY internet-media channels.
The end of the video completes this certification process as Mr. Collipark drives to Soulja Boy’s crib to lay a chain on him. Standing in front of a webcam, Soulja Boy accepts the chain like an award-show receipient. He isn’t a screaming young hopeful having a dream fulfilled, rather, he demonstrates his persistent independence by making the exec wait while he dons his signature plastic shades and turns to the camera to reveal the words “Soulja Boy” written on the lenses in white-out. Dimestore glasses beget diamond chains.
“Crank that (Soulja Boy)” is crazy and the dance rules but this freestyle is like a strange montage of throwaway rhymes from every random southern rapper of the last ten years.
Also, those glasses undeniably reference Flavor Flav. From a dude in his twenties, it’s astonishing (and unfortunate in some respects) that Flav takes up more space than Chuck in the young consciousness due to Flavor of Love. In fact, much of the teenage-dance-craze phenomenon reminds me of Flavor. It’s aspirational and bananas and difficult for outsiders to parse. “Why is he wearing that big clock? Why are their sneakers so bright?” But I wonder who is going to bring that darkly threatening Chuck D earthly balance to the mix?
“I’m tired as hell. I need some chapstick now.”
Yeahhhh boyeeee.
Tags
crankthat, flavorflav, hiphop, music, souljaboy, todomundo, video
September 16th, 2007 at 13:15:58 (PDT -04:00)
hey whts up i love that song crankthat
March 7th, 2008 at 09:09:19 (PST -04:00)
[...] the song’s official video, which came out long after Soulja Boy became an internet phenomenon: as blogger Kevin Driscoll points out, “Once upon a time, videos broke songs via MTV/BET but this… is an official acknowledgement and [...]