Nicks A2 music video coursework: December 2010

The first thing that is on the music video is a subjective point of view shot showing us many various areas of a rough neighborhood it is quite a fast paced montage so we see a city almost like Detroit in theses shots there is graffiti which connotates gangs or a rough area, another thing you notice is the black and white colour which gives the video a gritty feel to it which adds to the rough asthetic of the city, the music starts to begin as we are going up the stairs through this camera shot. We first see Jay Z as he starts rapping in a run down area this music video does not follow a story it is more a kind of showing Jay Z as a gritty in your face rapper, the next thing we see is a hand shoving the camera down as if there is something we are not meant to or should not see or maybe the person does not want to be shot giving us the connotation of a criminal. We again get the connotation of a criminal when one of the men puts on a balaclava which again connotates the idea that the man is a criminal and the area they are in is rough and run down. We keep returning constantly through the music video to two things Jay Z this is because he is the star and the run down bloc of flats. we see some men free running which is interesting because it makes the video feel less gritty and more energetic as you can constantly see men doing backflips. We see Jay Z on a TV in New york and have established that the city we are in is New york as it says brooklyn also like i said Jay Z is on the TV showing us almost like where he has come from to where he is now. the way Jay Z says "99 problems but a bitch aint one" matches a shot of a man smashing a pay phone almost as if he is having problems with women.

The music video almost switches now to a story Jay Z is telling us about a time he got pulled over by the police, he makes it sound as if the police were racist a pulled him over because he was black as the police officer say's things like "you were doing 55 in a 54" and "are you carrying something on you i know most of you are" however the thing is why he is making out the police are racist the camera appears through the boot and we see a car loaded with cocaine its almost like he is strerotyping himself and making out they were racist to get out of it almost being cocky. while this story is being told we see more people doing amazing stunts like pulling of a wheelie on a motorbike or flipping it livens up the video and contrasts the gritty things Jay Z are saying about institutional racism and other things he is commenting on in the video.

Again though shots are matching what he says's as at the end of the story Jay Z says the line "99 problems but a bitch aint one" and we see some women dancing in bikini however during this chorus at 2:00 to 2:20 of the video we see a very fluid montage of very weird things such as a man in a subway dancing in an african outfit it is very odd and adds humour to the video, there is also a hacidic jew that plays no part in the video he just stands there it all adds humour to the music video there are also a bunch of men standing there almost as if they are back up dancers and should be dancing its very weird so basically the chorus has a montage of very paculier shots.

The next verse is weird it is as if he is telling a story through photos as there are many shots that go with what he is saying but are not a continuous shot such as "Try and pray to the lord" you see a church with a cross in it and the camera zooms into this cross so it is as if he is telling a story while acting a rapping for us its a interesting techniqe. It does it again when Jay Z say's " the only thing thats happening is im gonna have get to clapping him" as he says this we see like a mini montage of men fighting eachother which suits the song and matches it up.

Towards the end of the song it is a very gritty setting it is as if he is in an illegal underground performance rapping for people it is not very well lit cramped and you can see illegal stuff such as illegal dog fighting right below Jay Z and the camera shots are tight so it looks really cramped like loads of people are there. then the next shot is of Jay Z being shot a lot almost as if a firing squad are killing him there are that many bullets and we see Jay Z falling to the ground but he is still being shot also as he is being shot we hear " i got 99 problems but a bitch aint one" its as if he is saying sure he may be dead but at least he never had problems with women like some men do.