Video Analysis -Our muse

"Praise the Lord ( Da Shine)"- A$AP Rocky featuring Skepta

"Praise the Lord (Da Shine)" is a song by American rapper ASAP Rocky, with featured vocals from English rapper Skepta, released as the second single from his third studio album Testing on June 26, 2018. It marks the third collaboration between both artists, following Skepta's appearance on Cozy Tapes Vol. 1: Friends and ASAP Rocky's appearance on Skepta's Vicious EP in 2017. - Source: Wikipedia

The audience can easily observe from the very beginning the genre of the video and can be introduced in the hip hop culture. Being an illustrative video the lyrics and the visuals have a strong bond, by using the literal verses as a basis for the narrative.

A few establishing shots immediately sett up the class and the sort of background to this video, building the fundaments on which the artists are the architects of their own masterpiece. The artists already introduced the feeling of street life to the audience from the first twenty seconds of the video, presenting the locations ( mostly streets and blocks); the singers and the conventional outfits and props: expensive brand clothes, oversized jackets, sweat pants, gold jewelry, even a man in a tuxedo, cars, bikes, bandanas all of this representing the black culture through a montage of jump cuts and overlapping.

The music video uses most of the time a split-screen making a parallel between New York and London and the two artists.

The split-screen technique instaurates a feeling of a parallel being made between the two artists and the two main locations. This parallel exposing more of the similarities between the two artists and their past.

The right side is about A$AP who was born in New York meanwhile the left side it's allocated to Skepta, native from London, that's why they choose to film in these two towns, giving the audience the opportunity to understand a bit more about themselves by showing parts of their past and the environment, the culture in which they grew up and developed themselves. ( moreover, London it's Rocky's favorite town and the song was written in Londen while both Rocky and Skepta were heavily under the influence of LSD - relevant aspect regarding the environment they want to present in the video ). They transmit a sort of confession to the audience letting them enter in their lives and their past. This is a very often met convention when the artist is rapping about their future and challenges that they met through their life.

The split-screen evidentiate the fact that altho the artists grew in different parts of the world, their environment it's very similarly and here, they are evidentiating the culture and class affinity. They both grew up in a tough society, but they succeed to perform, their status and their sugerated power can be transmitted through numerous low angle shots, very used in the hip hop genre. The fish eye it's also a conventional effect used in the video to create a distorted image.

The main effect used here it's cut to the bet which gives a flowy structure to the video by matching the cuts to the rhythm of the song, allowing the audience to easily integrate the verses and the video in only one masterpiece. Lip-sinking is mostly used in all hip-hop/rap music videos, as so in this one, helping the artists to create a strong and profound bond with the audience as it seems that they are addressing them personally, looking directly at them.

Another outstanding technique is the computer-generated image, used mostly to bounce( up and down) some buildings by adding originality and dynamicity to the video. Also, the green screen is used through the compositing of some scenes by putting together elements filmed in NY and in London, creating the illusion that all these elements are part of a single scene.

Although the most present are afro-Americans men, being the predominant gender in the video, here it is not met the misogynist view and the objectification of women. There are some women who appear in the video, both black and wite without being presented from a sexual o inferior point. Moreover the male gaze theory it's not supported and followed in this video- points that are gong beyond the normal conventions of most hip-hop/rap creations. Kids and elderly characters are present in the video which brings diversification and an open-minded point of view.

The ambiance is constructed on primary colors: yellow, blue and red emphasizing certain elements that are relevant such as different clothing pieces, we can observe that mainly at Rocky, a technique that together with a symmetric positioning, succeeds to drive the audience attention especially on him.

The whole masterpiece has a materialistic view concentrating a lot on brand clothes, money(money shots) connoting the wealth of Rocky and Skepta. But, not only, as the title "Praise the Lord" and more verses have a spiritual connotation more than a materialistic one. Incorporating materialistic with spiritual and religious connotations and denotations the artists are creating a very unique and interesting product that make the audience meditate and think bout the meanings and the true sense of the creation ( " My shades, Dior, my pants Velour, Create, explore, expand, conquer"). Rocky is confessing a few of his beliefs in a video from Genius in the explanation of the video meanings:" I’m more of a spiritual person than a religious person. I grew up in a Christian household, so I have that relationship with God. My God, I don’t know if it’s a he or she. I’m praying to a higher power. I grew up believing that Jesus Christ was lord and all this other stuff, and a lot of people might disagree and say, “God is the lord. Jesus is the son of the God.” It’s really political. Whoever you choose to pray to, that’s your business and whatnot.".

A lot of people listen to hip-hop/rap to get a sense of understanding as usually, the artists are rapping about politics, social issues, and their own difficulties, and the lyrics are revolutionary. The case is also with this particular song as people can empathize and find similarities or contrast between their beliefs and the song. The target audience for this song is adults and youth ( as they are looking for models in rappers), rather than kids or elderly.

It is very interesting how A$AP and Skepta manage to merge the modern hip-hop together with the old school hip hop, transmitting both a deep sense and a good vibe through their lyrics and video, succeeding to manifest a unique and entertaining product.

After visualizing this music video, I, together with my team decide to use it as our muse and inspiration for our own music video as we loved the dynamic effects and the narrative of it. We decided to use the split-screen technique, the cut to the beat effect, lip sinking, montages, low angle view, the fisheye lens and more interesting effects that we saw as perfect for what we want to create. After deciding this, I did a very in-depth analysis in order to get to know better the media product that we will use as a model.