Case Study 1

History – Mos Def featuring Talib Kweli

Released 14^th January 2010

Directed by Coodie and Chike

The music video for History presents the two artists reminiscing about their past growing up in New York in various locations across New York. This is a performance-based video with no narrative but there are many metaphors in the lyrics that the video helps the listeners to notice and understand.

The video begins with Mos Def walking in two different locations and then cuts to him in an old mansion holding the vinyl from which the sample for the song is taken from. This is the first of many references in the video, which link to the lyrics. I feel that the use of making these links connotes Knowledge because a lot of the things that both rappers make references to by using metaphors many listeners won’t realise, I found that when watching this video these visual links left me with many “Oh, now I get it” moments. There are then a few more shots i.e. a close up of the badge he is wearing. At this stage, the viewer is also introduced to the main prop, the old camera. The old camera also shows some of the visual references and is featured throughout the rest of the video in different scenes.

When he begins rapping the old camera is showing a photo of musicians from when he was growing up. This connotes what influenced him when he started rapping, which is why the photo is shown when he begins rapping in this song. After this, shot there a more shots similar to that of the shots used at the beginning of the video. There is then a close up of another vinyl which Mos Def just quoted in his lyrics, “Teenage love, the first cut run deep” by Teenage Love by Slick Rick. This also connotes to the location Mos Def is currently in, a record store, I think that his connotes to Mos Def spending many of his teenage years in a record store in New York and the first time he fell in love as a boy. More visual links are made during the verse i.e. the Cassius Clay poster and the Just-Ice Vinyl.

Once Mos Def has finished his verse and the chorus of the song, the video shows him walking into the sitting room of the old mansion where the other rapper, Talib Kweli is introduced. During Talib Kweli’s verse, he is shown in different location to Mos Def. I feel that this connotes that he grew up in different parts of New York to Mos Def.

Talib Kweli refers to Biggie during the beginning of his verse, “Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way” Juicy by Biggie during which there is a tilt shot of the Empire State Building. This lyric reinforces the previous connotation of Talib Kweli growing up in a different part to Mos Def because the lyric connotes that Talib Kweli grew up in Brooklyn.

A few lines on in his verse Talib Kweli says, “I rock with The Roots like the Giving Tree”, at this time it shows a point of view shot of someone flicking few records and it show the album that Talib Kweli featured on with The Roots (a hip hop band), Phrenology. As well as this, it also shows Mos Def’s first album, Black on Both sides in the CD rack.

As Talib Kweli’s verse comes to an end the video returns to the sitting room of the old mansion and Mos Def begins the outro.  As this final verse goes on the cutting rate quickens showing all of the scenes Mos Def was in throughout the song. In one of lines, Mos Def refers to the name of the duet Talib Kweli and he are called, “Black Star”. As this is done the camera angle changes to a low angle shot showing the old camera with the first Black Star album on it and with Mos Def and Talib Kweli in the background standing on the same sides as they were on the album cover. I feel that this connotes that both of them may have become older but they are still essentially a team as they were back in when the album was made. This again is the theme of history i.e. the history between them also where they started their careers.

The video ends with the two of them crossing their legs over at the same time and the cutting to the scene with Mos Def in the boxing ring raising his hands as if he had just won a fight.

The artists in this video are represented as classical or old school because a lot of the time they are wearing a suit or smart clothes. The use of black and white throughout the video also helps to present this classical mood. The lip syncing by both artists was good but Talib Kweli’s was better because while Mos Def was rapping a lot of the time there was use of depth of field or something else was being shown in the video i.e. a poster or vinyl.

The use of mise-en scene like vinyl and the clothes they were wearing also helped to connote the theme of history because when they were growing up they listened to vinyl instead of MP3 and thus by using it in the video helps the viewer to see what they grew up with. The other main prop is the old camera that showed reference from the past of the two artists. This as a prop is excellent at helping viewers understand where the artists are coming form and what they are trying to say within the metaphor. The old camera is also a metaphor in its self because it shows the memories of the two artists just like how an old photo preserves a memory from the past.

The main scenes in this video included the locations of the sitting room in the old mansion, the record store and the streets of New York. These locations worked very well with the theme of history because it felt like the two artists were reminiscing about the past.

The target audience for this video would most likely be fans around the age of 18 because all of their older fans would have grown up in a similar situation to what they had i.e. record stores, vinyl and the streets being more open.

What I have taken away from this video is to try to make visual references to the lyrics in the video either through props or by the actions of the actors.  In addition, the use of depth of field and selective focus to make clear to the viewer what I would like to make clear to them.