Rap Music Videos from 1980's-2000's

1980’s

Biz Markie – Just A Friend

The video “Just A Friend” was released in September of 1989. Although it was written by Ronald Murray, it was produced and preformed by Marcel Hall. This song was released as the lead single on the album, The Biz Never Sleeps. It is by far Markie’s most successful song, and it ended up reaching #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song makes use of a 1968 hit called “You Got What I Need”.

The music video begins with Biz hanging out with a group of his friends, when two beautiful women walk by them. The group proceeds to make cat calls and tell the women that they have what they need. Biz is the only one in the group not fawning over the girls as they walk away, and instead turns to his friends advising them to forget about those girls. After this Biz proceeds to start his song about how he also thought he found a girl that had what he needed only to be heartbroken and realize that girls are not worth it.

Here you can see that Biz is not only talking to his friends, but also breaking the fourth wall and advising the audience as well.

Shortly after, the scene changes and fades to Biz Markie’s memory of his first time meeting this heartbreaker of a woman.

The music video also changes scene for the chorus, to add a sense of jocularity to the video by dressing Biz up ridiculously and having him preforming in a fancy setting.

The music video also makes use of reflecting the video on itself for a doubled version of Biz Markie preforming his song.

Throughout the whole video, Biz Markie is constantly looking at the camera breaking the fourth wall to plead with the audience to not make the same mistake he had by trusting that his girl was only friends with the guy in her life.

1990’s

Insane in the Brain – Cypress Hill

“Insane in the Brain” is a single that was released in 1993 by the hip hop group Cypress Hill. The song went on to not only reach number one on the US rap chart, but it also hit number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was released on the album Black Sunday and is recognized for the catchy “Insane in the membrane” line.

The music video for this song does not tell much of a story other than the group’s claim to insanity. The video starts with the main vocalist DJ Muggs breaking the fourth wall and asking the audience, “ Who you tryna get crazy with ese? Don’t you know I’m loco?”

The music video then immediately changes scene to the group preforming for a crowd.

The music video depicts a crowd going wild for the performance, while the group repeats the catchy line about being “insane in the membrane”. In addition to an aerial shot of the concert, the camera also cuts to a shot of what it would look like being in the crowd for the fun.  

The music video does a good job of making the group seem popular while also being cool for being so crazy. To emphasize just how crazy they are, the group again breaks the fourth wall and adds wild flashing designs while their faces are distorted.

2000’s

Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z

Empire State of Mind is a song written by Angela Hunte and Jane’t Sewell-Ulepic. The song is preformed by the rapper Jay-Z while also featuring back up vocals by Alicia Keys. It was released as the third single from Jay-Z’s 11^th studio album called, The Blueprint 3 in the year 2009.

This song can almost be said to be the national anthem of New York. On one hand, the song is littered with very specific details of Jay’s life, from giving his wife a shout out, to naming the address of the actual street that he grew up on. On the other hand, the song is describing New York as this magical alluring place where people can go to fulfill their dreams. He sings not only of the promises of greatness but also the very real challenges you must face and overcome. The song is not only about how amazing New York is, but also about Jay-Z himself and how he made it to the top coming from the streets of New York.

The music video begins with various locations and streets of New York being flashed to show the greatness of New York and all the places that make it so.

Following the street signs and buildings, is Jay-Z himself breaking the fourth wall and singing to the audience about his come up. In this picture he is talking about how he could be found whipping up food when he was younger as work.

At this point in the song, Jay-Z raps about growing up where Biggy did. The music video does a good job of crediting this as true by flashing a picture of him with Biggy and another street sign of where he grew up.

The music video also switches to Alicia Keys singing at the heart of the city, giving a sense of fanciness or success by her elegant clothing and fine piano. Alicia in this part of the video sings about the greatness of New York by saying that there is nothing you cannot do and that the streets will inspire you. This is followed by the music video switching to an aerial view of the city to emphasize its massive greatness.  

In addition to the emphasis on the city being great, the song also emphasizes that Jay-Z is proud of his upbringing and represents New York however he can.

There is even a line about how Jay-Z made the Yankee’s symbol more famous than they ever could because he is always representing New York, as seen in this part of the video where he is wearing his Yankee’s Hat. The video does an excellent job of switching between this theme of him being a nothing on the streets, to making it to the top and owing it all to New York.