The Changing of Rap Music Videos Across 30 Years

Run-D.M.C - "It's Tricky"(1987)

The song "It's Tricky" was released in early February of 1987 with the music video released three months later. It was directed by Jon Small and featured two famous magicians, Penn and Teller.

The album was released by record label Profile and the video contains a very basic premise.

Penn and Teller are haggling people on the streets of Los Angeles using a slight of hand card trick. When the two win a gold chain off of a woman, she claims the magicians have stolen from her and she calls for the help of the group Run-D.M.C. The three artists rush over to the scene in their branded helicopter to save the day.

They find Penn and Teller coning more people out of their money and step in to prove the two wrong. The group wins all the money back for the people and end up taking everything the magicians have. In the end, the rap group gives Penn and Teller Run-D.M.C. merchandise and show them how they perform the song.

The final scene is of the group showing up to a show in Japan six months later to find that the two con men are impersonated them and performing "It's Tricky" on stage. The video concludes with rapper Jam Master Jay saying, "that's tricky man."

The video features lots of jump cuts and separate scenes going from a close up of the group rapping in the streets, to the magicians doing their card tricks, to a shot of the rap group flying in on their helicopter while singing. 

The story the music video employs is very basic with the two hagglers winning money at the beginning, to then having Run-D.M.C. come to save the day, concluding with the hagglers impersonating the group, showing they still outsmarted the three rappers.

Watching this video back now, it is very clear that it is dated with the low-quality camera, the clothing worn by the extras, and the style of the video featuring lots of close-ups and jump cuts.

Nas, featuring Puffy Daddy - "Hate Me Now" (1999)

"Hate Me Now" was a single released in April 1999 by popular 1990's rapper, Nas, featuring another popular rapper during the decade, Puff Daddy (P Diddy). The music video was directed by Hype Williams and released just nine days after the song dropped.

The video premiered on MTV and was filled with controversy and turmoil.

The music video is controversial because it features Nas being crucified as if he were Jesus Christ. The video opens with the artist dragging the cross through a desert while being berated by many bystanders.

The video then quickly jumps to present day with Nas cooly strolling the streets with several gigantic explosions go off behind him for no apparent reason. The main setting for the video is the present day in these streets where Nas walks and raps before jumping onto a roof alongside some of his crew to perform in front of a mob like crowd who have assembled.

The video transitions to the two rappers in a strip club with Nas standing on a tiger cage rapping the song. The people in the club drink, dance, and hang out while staring at the camera. 

There is a verse near the end where Nas raps from on the cross, singing about how there is a thin line between friends and snakes and whether he will go to the "pearly gates" or hell.

The video received heavy criticism and controversy when the premiere airing of the video featured P Diddy alongside Nas on a cross which was supposed to be cut from the video due to the Puff Daddy's devout Christian ties.

A lawsuit ensued and the portion was removed from the now "official music video."

The framing and shooting of this video shows some resemblance to that of Run-D.M.C.'s video from 12-years before as there are lots of jump close-ups, and a moving camera. What's interesting is how stark the colors are in the scenes with Nas on the cross as opposed to the shots of him in the strip club where there are flashing lights, bright colors, and well-dressed people everywhere.

Despite all the controversy, the music video was nominated for the "MTV Music Video of the Year" in 1999 and the song rose as high as 62nd on the Billboard 100.

While the premise of the music video as a whole is a bit confusing and all over the place, I like the way it was shot and the contrasts in color employed by the director.

Eminem - "Like Toy Soldiers" (2005)

Released in January of 2005, "Like Toy Soldiers" by Eminem is a deep song and music video that could easily be overlooked. The video was directed by The Saline Project. 

The music video opens with two little kids reading a book of short stories. They open to the story "Toy Soldiers" and the sample of the 1989 hit "Toy Soldier" by Martika begins. After the sample, the video jumps to a distraught Eminem in a hospital, covered in blood, anxiously waiting as a nameless friend is dying in a hospital bed.

While jumping back to the hospital several times throughout the course of the video, the main focus is of Eminem sitting by himself in front of a green screen as a dark screen shows images and text that are unreadable.

The song lays out the incredibly violent rap beef that was taking place at the time, jumping from Eminem recording in the studios, to news clips of his enemey, Benzino, an editor at Source magazine ripping on him, to magazine and newspaper articles chronicling the fights between labels and rappers.

Eminem isn't his usual angry, up-tempo self in this video as the tone of the entire video is very somber. 

At the end of the video, Eminem looks up from his song lyrics while recording and walks out of the studio. When he walks out, the other rappers that were making songs ripping on each other start to disappear, the people around Eminem begin to disappear, and he is left on a street standing behind his friend who was shown in the hospital bed after being shot, in the midst of being shot with the artist looking on.

As the music fades, Eminem stands up from his chair in front of the green screen and lays his microphone down in a gesture showing that he is ending the feud with Benzino, 50 Cent, and Ja Rule. 

He sees the ignorance in the violence and wants to be the change needed to stop the debate.

The picture shown at the top is Eminem sitting in front of a picture of four rappers all killed due to rap beef and is used to symbolize that many great artists and friends were lost for something meaningless.

I had heard this song several times before but I had never seen the music video or looked into the deeper meaning of it. I was truly blown away by how deep Eminem went and his ability to spearhead the change needed to stop the violence.

The shooting of the video was very classy and well edited with figures in frame fading away as Eminem remains the only person walking through the shot.

The opening and the closing both grabbed my attention and kept me engaged for the entire video. The best shot of the entire video is the screenshot above of Marshall Mathers reliving the moment his friend is shot on the street.

The editing and contrast in color makes this an incredibly powerful image and one that makes the viewer really feel the pain the rapper was in at this time.