Kanye continues to tap the cultural zeitgeist by throwing some shekels at the corn syrup and food coloring industries for his "Monster" video. As we saw in the preview from early December 2010, all the song's star guests -- Rick Ross, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj -- appear alongside Mr. West and his coterie of dead, mutilated and/or zombie female models (and one male model-type who's being eaten). The video is meant to shock (why else start off the joint with a hanging?), but hardly does due to the familiarity of each sequence. Cannibalism, the undead and detached limbs are broadcast weekly on Walking Dead -- which itself rehashes a zombie thriller from a few years ago... which similarly updated the decades-old genre. Will people look back on 2010 and wonder, "Why were they so obsessed with vampires and zombies?" What is shocking is the Getty Images watermark at 2:26. Huh?
To the video's credit the Nicki Minaj sequence (starts at 3:36) is plain strange. Barbie Nicki is torture-style hooded and seated while a dominatrix-dressed Nicki stalks her. WTF? Maybe this was the psycho-sexual brew Black Swan aspired towards?
AMillzGeekTV posted the video with a note saying this is a rough version -- which is certainly noticeable considering the spotty video quality.
Agree that this video is disappointing. I would expect Kanye to complicate/elevate our idea of a "monster." Instead he follows the cultural cliche to the letter.
Could've been way, WAY creepier. If that's what he was going for.
Whitney