JayZ - "99 Problems"

Textual Analysis; ‘JayZ – 99 Problems’

Relationship between lyrics and visual;

Through out this video you have a lot of references from the images that match the word or phase in which is being sung or rapped about. In this particular video you see a rage of synchronous relationships between the word and image for example, whenever he says ‘bitch’ a picture of a female, comes up varying from a cartoon picture at the start to an actual female.
Another image you see that illustrates what he is saying is when he says ‘fight the some’ and he does boxing moves. Through out the video you see it has little stories with in each other, for example he shows the everyday gangster life from different scenes, like he has a little story about family life- when he shows an image of a wedding photo, another story he has with in this song is the prison life, showing the process and what happens.

Throughout the entire video he basically shows us the 99 problems in which is faced with in the gangster life, things such as being stopped by the police, being jobless and so on. A strong image you see at the end is when he says, “Hit me” and he gets shot several times in the chest. Putting a strong empathies’ on how the gangster life’s, putting a predictable, stereotypical ending to the video.

"I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one" – Images of cartoon women, women in the mirror, ladies dancing come up.

"Enough that you won't illegally search my shit" – view of the car, x-rays the boot.

"I tried to ignore him and talk to the Lord" – you see an image of the crucifix.

"Paparazzi's with they cameras snapping them" – Camera flash’s but its symbolizes their criminal profile picture, not actually meaning their celebrities.

"I got 99 problems but being a bitch ain't one" – Being stopped by the police.

"Hit me" – He gets shot several times. / ending of the story.

Genre Characteristics;

Jay Z – 99 Problems is a stereotypical, hood gangster video and you can tell this by the in which you see, the costumes, the type of scenarios, the portal of females and the representation of other races.

In this video you have the classic gangster look big baggy clothes, the fitted hat or beanie’s, du-rags, sacking trousers and the big oversized coats really putting empathies on the whole looking, giving the view a clear indication of what the video might have in store for them.

Another one of the genre characteristic is the type of scenarios within the video, the getting into trouble with the police, criminal activity giving off the stereotypical view of young black people at that time, then you had hip-hop/street dancing showing the culture in which they all share a positive spin on the negativity.

You then have the females wearing next to nothing, but instead of them looking glamorous, you have the slight twist of negativity towards them as if to say they are not up to his standard.
Also in this video you see the lack of wealth for the fact that you see nothing exspensive like flashy cars or exspensinve jewlry.
the setting of this video also makes it look strange because, its shot in black a white and in the projects, which gives off that sort of poor image, instead of the happy up beat vibzing, colourful videos.

Relationship between music and visual;

through out the video you have jerky but constant movements which matches the beat, rising and falling when it needs to adding extra affects to the whole imagery. In the begining the cuts are insync with the beat, cutting when it needs to and how it needs to inorder for te video to run smoothly and the way it should. When watching the video over once for the first time it is had to catch all the images and scenes because it is too hard to becuase they are very fast, but once you get used to the cuts and the fact it is like that you understand that it matches and narrates the different stories, that are in the video. 

Demands of the record label;

In this video they are not alot of close up or imagery of Jay Z as you might think thus giving off the effeect that he is neing modest or wants to show/illustrate more about the video and its stories then he does of himself, another thing is that you could say him not being seeen 24/7 could be to add for effect showing hes street status making himself a 'kingpin' who are never seen but are always heard but when you do see him, the angle of the shot make him look like more power and somewhat sinister, because you get shots that look up at him from a lower place, or you have close up of him that look mean.

Notions of looking/ voyeurism;

Through out this video the audience get alot of different ways inwhich they see what is happening with in the story/narration, for example we get a chance to become part of the video by looking into the wing mirror, looking through the bars into the prison, watching a video of Jay Z in a video, having x-ray vision to look into the boot, but majority of the time we are looking through his finger as if we are him. Another thing is that we see some shots of women in which seem very sexual but are not as sexual as other videos, but still holding a level of sexiness. 

Intertextual Reference;

 All in all, '99 Problems' reminds me of old action gangster movies, by the way inwhich is is layed out, the black and white theme also by the story lines typical gangster action sequence especially when he gets shot at the end.

 Another thing is that you see Rick Ruben who is of another media platform in the sense that he isnt a rapper or an artist, he is director.

Blur - ' Coffee and TV'

Genre Characteristics;
The Blurs song ' Song copying' is in the feilds of brit pop, meaning that this is video already has that stamp of being weird and having an unusual theme/setting.
After listening to this you see how, the song is some what mellow and flows lightly in the sense that it isnt has hard hitting with its bass, sounds and flow.
Another thing is that as normal it has a strange imagery to suit the scernio, even though the story line is quite basic the way it is/has been shown is definatly different. 
Another thing is that it moves forward towards a scepic time.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals;
Through out the video you get images or shots that directly illustrate what the lyrics say, for example when it says "Take me away" - the little milk carton gets on the bike a rides away somewhere with the the intention of being somewhere different or to become free.
Another thing it says was "Start again" - and at this point he goes home/ the boy that was missing returns home after being away for so long.
The song also talks about going into the country and when you look around the setting has now become a country and fields.

Relationship between music and visuals;
At points of the video when the surronding get darker, you see a bit with an air guitar and creepy teeth empathsises adding to the dark affect it is trying to gain.
Another point is when the female milk carton gets run over, you hear church like organs, implying the milk went to heaven.

Demands from the record label;
At the end you get a shot panning the band, showing the audience who they are and how they look like.

Reference to notion of looking/vogeuristic;
In this video, in the audience are involved in the things which are viewed in the sense that we see through the window to see the band, we see through the wndow to the girl, we see hes face on the milk carton. Then we also have a bit inwhcih the parents are looking out the window as if they are looking directly at the audience.

Intertextual reference;
In this video you see many, reference to other media platforms, for example you have the milk carton showing hes face on. When i see this video it reminds me of ghost busters; towards the end where you see a green looking monster. Other intertexual references are the fact that it is set tv like as in copying the tv, it is telling a story itself, it is American and American based. 

Music Analysis; J.Cole Work Out

J.Cole - Work Out; Godwin Theory



Genre Characteristics;
From the start of the music video you can tell that it is a a hip-hop video from the setting and in this you see the background the setting of the video is set within/around  a basketball court in which is a norm for hip-hop artists to set their videos with in the 'hood' and the normal hangout in the hood are/is the basketball court because its right in the middle the hood, the middle of  of  and the characters with in the video and the way that they are dressed, for example you have the female in provocative clothing in shorts/tight fitted jeans with bikini tops/cropped tops bringing attention to themselves, seeking attention from guys which was their aim. You have the guys is their normal sports wear long basketball trunks. it is basically a normal everyday.


Relationship between lyrics and visual;
Through out the video you get a little story of how things happen in the 'hood' illustrating the process leading towards that one night stand and how it comes around.
Through out the video you see the synchronous relationship between the artists movements and the lyrics, because the video has no images just standard video.

"know what's on your brain" – here he points to his head where the brain is amplifying the fact he doesn’t know what’s on her mind.

"Or is it just a one night stand" – here he puts up on finger and starts to nod enhancing the fact that that is what he wants and what’s going to happen eventually.

"Ride around town in the big old Range" – moves he’s hand in a big circle to empathize the actual size of  "the big old range"

"Or is it just a hit and run" – here in the video he starts to nod he’s head and does walking gesture with he’s hands illustrating someone walking away or running away.

"Come here girl lets get it on" – does the come here gesture with he’s hand, do exactly what he says.

"Don't know if I'mma see you again" - here he waves he’s hand in the no gesture illustrating that it is nothing more then what it is.

"You're probably hope it never would end" – he does the praying sign which also represents hope.
At the end of the video it has a reverse clip of what has just happened empathizing the fact that its just a one night stand and that it could happen again just as easily as it has already.

Relationship between music and visuals;
Through out the camera movements stay constant and smooth, it also has times that when the bass drops it cuts to a different part of the scenery or onto the other background characters; at 0:51 it starts to sway as well as if it was someone dancing with the artist watching him. It has a lot of close ups that zoom into or around panning the artist from angle to another, in a narrative way because it doesn't show any images to help like story line instead it stays constant and follows the story at it goes along. 


Demands of the record company;
In this video you get a lot of close ups and panning of J.Cole; theres some from when its looking up at him showing he's superiority within that video. The camera never actually leaves J.Cole that much showing the viewers that this is him and this video is about him, you get shots of him from above and below.
This is most likely because its one of he's first actual videos that he hasn't had a well known feature.


Notions of Looking/voyeurism;
at the start of this video you get the impression that you are watching a video, but when it starts to sway with him when the beat becomes faster making it feel like we are looking through someone else's eyes who is with him at that current time.
Also when you see the women you see are sexual to the point that it still leaves a bit to the imagination, as in their body parts are not fully out there and they are not showing too much or too little. 
You see the girls walking by through the railing, you see them walking towards you, you see  a close up of one of the girls in particular, through the eyes the video has given you. You see different parts of the setting through the eyes of someone else involving us much into the video. Making the audience become more active as in more attentive whilst watching because it feels like they are apart of the video in a sense.


Intertexual References;
 The plot of this video kind of links to the movie 'Love and Basketball' in the way that you see a basketball, the guys are playing basketball, its has that movie aura towards it.