Music Video Analysis

Rap Artists: Lil Wayne, Drake and Future

Song: Lil Wayne - Love Me (Explicit) ft. Drake, Future

Cinematography
The overall feel of the video is quite dark and dirty. It begins with one of the artists singing close up into the camera with a black background. This is complemented also by the black clothes and sunglasses worn by future. This really appeals to the target audience as Rap is stereotypically a 'bad' and 'gang-type' genre. As the music video progresses we begin to see more artists, also dressed in typical 'rap' clothing - which include mainly the colours black and red. From very early on in the video we are shown women who have been sexualised and almost used as props. This is a very common thing to see in rap videos, it is very rare to find a music video where women are not sexualised by the male artists. For example, in this video they are dressed in very little, tight clothing which exposes a lot of their body. Their make up is also done to make them have animalistic qualities - to be precise, snakes and cats. The women are dressed as snakes to be seen in a predatory, seductive manner throughout the video and almost bring out their dark and dirty side, which emphasises the extent at which they have been sexualised to. Furthermore there are scenes in the video which show the women in cages which further emphasises their animalistic qualities. Throughout the music video there is never a seen where there is a female standing taller than a male. This again emphasises the sexualisation given to these women and also expresses inequality and the idea that women are objects.

The lighting the whole way through the video is extremely dark, usually with just a main bright light shining on the singing artist at that moment in time. The darkness is used to again emphasise rap in a stereotypical way and to complement the theme and lyrics of the video as it has a 'dark' feel. The music video begins with majority close up shots of the artists and women but gradually, the camera widens and shows more of a scene, this could represent the vision of a person once under the influence of drugs. For example there is a scene where Lil Wayne is on a bed surrounded by women, then surrounded by water which can be seen as a sexual symbol to represent the female genitalia. The movement of the camera can have a jolting effect and this could represent the side effects of smoking marijuana - which is spoke about a lot in the lyrics.

However when the video gets to 3.00, there is a complete set change. The theme at this point in the video changes to white and there is also a drop in the beat where it decreases in speed, but the rappers remain in the dark half of the video as they still fully represent rap. Lil Wayne then begins to role his eyes which complements the new white theme as he is just displaying the white part of his eye to the viewers. There is again more sexualised females in this part of video where they get into a bath of red paint. The red paint could represent the actual genre of rap and the white background could represent society, and therefore the effect of the females wiping the paint everywhere infers that the rap genre is taking over not just the music industry, but also society.

Editing
There are so many editing techniques shown throughout the video, however the mains ones are fast cut, jerking and there is also some slow motion and double imagery. All of these techniques have been used as they would all represent the side effects of smoking marijuana and drinking; which is seen a lot in the video. Fast cutting is the most popular technique and keeps up with the fast pace of the song and the frequent scene changes. Secondly, jerking is another camera technique used a lot and it again represents side effects of drugs. It's also quite a new technique that isn't seen in many music videos representing the freshness of the song.

The camera editing in the song reflects the lyrics. For example Lil Wayne says 'and these h*es love me like Satan'. As the word Satan is said, double imagery is used to quickly flick between an image of Lil Wayne with devil horns and the actual music video. I think this is a good technique as the music video has a link with the lyrics, even though there is no obvious narrative.

Performance
There is lots of choreography in this video, mainly with the females involved. However it's not dance choreography or a script which they specifically need to follow, which helps the video look a little less forced and professional. The choreography with the females is very seductive and they are showing sexual behaviour towards the artists. There isn't much choreography with the male artists because the main focus is on the lip syncing and using hand motions to express the lyrics. The lip syncing the whole way through the video is very accurate and precise showing the budget of the video being very high as everything is very thought out with lots of props. However there's also some scenes with no lip syncing where the main focus is the choreography with the females.