Video Review: Kanye West f/ T-Pain - "Good Life" (Alternate Title: Kanye Is An Unoriginal Jackass)
In short...I love the song, I hate this video.
The black and white live action motif, the colorful animated graphics, the artistic style...all lifted from the video for Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." But that was the intent, as Kanye went out and got himself the same director as Justice did (So Me) and had him make a carbon copy video. Some of the scenes are borderline identical. The only difference between the two videos is that Kanye has his big ass head in every other shot. Sure, it would have been cool if Kanye thought of this on his own, but I'm pretty sure he's incapable of original thoughts.
Allow me to refresh your memory so you can understand where I'm coming from. A year ago, Kanye threw a temper tantrum that would put a five-year-old to shame because his video for "Touch The Sky" lost to Justice vs Simian's "We Are Your Friends" at the MTV Europe awards. It was ridiculous and unnecessary.
This past spring, Justice came out with a new video for their single "D.A.N.C.E." It was inventive and awesome, making use of director So Me's unique art style. MTV conveniently put the two artists in the same category for this year's VMAs (surely hoping for more "drama"). In August, Kanye claimed he wouldn't mind losing to Justice because their new video was genius.
While Justice had nothing to do with it, Kanye threw another tantrum this past weekend when he went 0/5 at the VMAs (who really cares about those damn awards anyways?). Two days later, he drops his new video for "Good Life" that's nothing more than a D.A.N.C.E. clone.
I really shouldn't be surprised by this. Kanye has spent the entire summer jacking the collective steezes of Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell (Japanese culture, Daft Punk, Synthed Out Music, etc...), but I figured he'd have the awareness to not be so blatant about it. I guess I was wrong.
Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
Posted in:
JUSTICE
,
KANYE WEST
,
T-PAIN
,
THE WOMBATS
,
YOUTUBE
More features, reviews, photos, mp3s, and video for:
Justice
Kanye West
12 Responses
September 13, 2007 at 3:36 a.m.
| Video Review: Kanye West f/ T-Pain - ''"Good Life' |
[...] Video Review: Kanye West f/ T-Pain - ''"Good Life''" (Alternate Title: Kanye Is An Unoriginal Jackass) 13Sep07 http://www.prefixmag.com/blog/kanye-west-sucks/7163 [...] |
September 13, 2007 at 7:03 a.m.
| Dave Park |
I swear that Kanye periodically must be asking A-Trak what's cool. |
September 13, 2007 at 8:42 a.m.
| Dave Park |
where'd the video go? |
September 13, 2007 at 9:33 a.m.
| Al |
Im so tired of bubba gumps spoiled little brother its ridiculous. Grown men throwing temper tantrums is some of the saddest shit you'll see.. its right up there with dying babies and refugee camps in Darfur. |
September 13, 2007 at 10:24 a.m.
| John B |
When did kanye become the fonz? eyyyyyy |
September 13, 2007 at 11:49 a.m.
| Bradford |
I just hope Kanye is creating a brand new stereotype for black urban musicians. Instead of stabbing people in the arse, imitating FBI agents, shooting cops, video taping yourself raping your hairdresser, having strip club scuffles and getting killed, now rappers can be looked at as emotionally stunted manbabies. Add this with Lil' Waynes behaviour...a new day is dawning, my friends. |
September 13, 2007 at 1:57 p.m.
| Adrian Covert |
@MKvalid point indeed. i don't even mind that he went out and got so me for the vid. but its like he approached the dude and was like, here's alot of money and exposure, "i want a video just like justice has" instead of letting so me do his thing and create something else that's distinctive and cool.i guess so me is just as much to blame, but then again, its hard to turn down an opportunity to work on a video like this. |
September 13, 2007 at 2:40 p.m.
| Mike Krolak |
yeah, that's true, actually. it's kinda like so me started dating justice's sister after a breakup or something. he could have said no given the circumstances, but if you're a director, it certainly would be hard to say no to kanye, since you know the amount of exposure you'll get. maybe so me is a one-trick pony and he just wanted to cash in...though i can't see the first part of that being the case. |
September 13, 2007 at 8:07 p.m.
| Adrian Covert |
i think the we are your friends video makes a pretty good argument for the multi-trick poniness of so me |
September 14, 2007 at 1:42 a.m.
| Mike Krolak |
"hi, we're the multi-trick ponies, and we rock." |
September 24, 2007 at 2:47 p.m.
| Seán B |
His video for "Stronger" was also a complete copy of all the major scenes of the cult manga sci-fi thriller "Akira". While some artists sampling styles may pay homage to the original in very fine ways, Kanye West always comes across as hackish and laboured. This is just one more example of his thinking that attaching himself to something inventive may eventually rub off on him. |
i agree, but i think it's more complicated than that.it's hard for me to knock the video, because as you say, it's so me's unique style that drives it. i actually don't much care for the song, but this makes me actually not mind listening to it. it's like when das efx came out...they were so original that everyone started jacking it, but it was kinda sweet (at least for a while) because it was so different. they eventually had to drop it because it had been so redone...so me's style is so unique, you'd hate to see him have to abandon it just because approval-seekers like kanye abuse it, but it's entirely possible.what i can knock is the obvious cool-chasing kanye's doing here. totally agree with you on the dude's blatant "i'm cool, right?" thing that he's doing...it's like he reads blogs all day and then decides what his next move is. that's what makes this video suck, because you know he's so self-aware about what he's putting out there...that the style is so identifiable with justice and that whole fiasco makes the whole thing that much more suspect and weird.basically, i'm saying you can knock the intentions behind the video, but the video itself is kinda cool, and to me, makes a ho-hum song enjoyable. jesus, i need to go to bed.