Videogum's review:

"Listen, Drake, it's about your new music video. It's got some problems. For one thing, you're performing in an empty nightclub? I mean, a handful of girls walk down the stairs at the beginning of the video, but perhaps they are walking down the stairs to exit the club, because after they walk down the stairs there is no one in there. Actually, no, one girl stays, standing by a meager bar with, like, six bottles of vodka behind it? I hope your crew likes vodka, but not too much vodka. Also you are performing on a two-story platform? That is on fire? Why are you doing that, Drake? Nevermind, don't answer that. It's not any worse than Kanye West's performance in absolute darkness, or Weezy's refusal to even get up off the couch to deliver his verse, or Eminem's 2002-sports-drink-commercial-soundstage. No, performing atop a two-story platform to an empty nightclub is not even your biggest problem at this point.

"Your biggest problem, Drake, is that with your hoodie pulled up and your mirror-rehearsed snarl, you think that you look very tough but you do not look very tough. You look like a 12-year-old about to start his first day of junior high who has spent all summer practicing looking tough alone in his room. Whoops, the bullies are unimpressed. Whoops, the bullies are beating you up. Whoops, now you're wearing your hoodie as pants because your real pants are in a dumpster or toilet somewhere.

"Also, I'm pretty sure the "dissolve" button on this video editing machine is broken.

"But don't worry, Drake! I think I've got a solution that will fix the whole video. Sure, it's lazy and aesthetically unpleasant and you look like a wimp in your outfit and your face, but all of those things can be fixed and/or distracted from if we just THROW A BUNCH OF BASKETBALL PLAYERS IN THERE*. Perfect. Cut and print. That's a wrap everyone. Bartender, a round of a tiny little bit of vodka, on me."

*I know that this song is on the LeBron James Soundtrack, but so what, it's still lame.

         

Hype gets points for this just because the degree of difficulty is off the charts.

1. Please 4 of rap's biggest egos on one's of this year's biggest trainwrecks of a song.
2. Add one of the biggest media stars in the world.
3. Do it on a budget that's most likely inadequate.
4. Stretch it over a song that's as long as 2 regular songs.
5. Oh, and sprinkle in completely unrelated basketball footage.
6. Finally, get it approved by a small army of managers, handlers, label people, agents, and corporations.

The fact that a video even exists is amazing.

         

I'm seriously so confused as to how Wheelchair Jimmy got this big.

         

I'm going to call bullshit on Budget.

Several directors have successfully managed a bunch of egos on a budget and extra long tracks.

This is a moot point however since Hype Williams has a rule of not working on anything with a budget of less than $100k. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if this cost $100k and he pocketed $70-80 of it.

Hype gets no points for turning in something this generic and mediocre.

Other directors, INCLUDING Hype himself, back when he wasn't this lazy, have managed to turn in creative work under these circumstances before and several others still could. Can any of you honestly say that someone like Joseph Kahn, Gil Green, Nez, or any other recent collaborators of the artists on this track wouldn't have done a much better job?

Drake is 0 for 3. This, "Best I Ever Had," and "Successful" should cement Drake as the Best New Artist with the Worst New Videos.

Gil Green's video for DJ Khaled's "We Takin' Over": www.youtube.com

Anthony Mandler's video for Jay Z's "Run This Town": www.youtube.com

Hype Williams' video for Group Therapy's "East Coast/West Coast Killas": www.youtube.com

Hype's video for LL Cool J's "I Shot Ya (Remix)": www.youtube.com

         

"I wouldn't be surprised in the least if this cost $100k and he pocketed $70-80 of it."

You have no concept of money. There is no way this video was made for $30k. Period. Not even close.

I'm not going to argue with you that the video wasn't amazing - but I'll agree with budget. I'm sure it was a bastard to pull off.

So on your next 30k vid, I'm expecting fire, pyro and a paid crew. Deal?

         

In case this wasn't clear, this is a soundtrack song, and the sports stuff is clips from the movie. www.apple.com

         

laughably bad in every regard

         

Questions:

Did "PokerStars" pay for the whole video?

Why does Kanye get the best shots, while everyone is just sitting or standing?

Did Kanye pay for the pyro, so all his shots featured fire?

Why does Drake fail at his music videos?

Who shot the opening product placement? (Definately wasn't Hype)

Why doesn't Eminem get to be Gel lighted?

Overall, this is the first Hype video I can't justify.

         

drek. (sorry, someone had to.)

         

bad bad video hype's getting lazy

         

@ legion: getting?

@ budget: you are right about the ego management and the crazy approval process needed to bring this off. Also dead right about the insane length of the track. That adds even more to the degree of difficulty.

@ donlee: I have been a long time critic of Hype and his current laziness. More than two years ago I made cracks about him being visible in some videos sneaking out the back with a bag if unspent budget money. But ...

You are pretty off base with your examples. This Drake video has two of the most uncontrollable stars ever - Em and Wayne. Artists who literally do not care what anyone else wants. DMX was, thankfully, unavailable.

Videos like 'Run This Town' are 'run' by Jay-Z. If Jay tells Ye and Rihanna to be there at 5am, they will damn well be there at 4:45. There is no one who can get Wayne or Eminem to do anything the don't want to, especially without out some of the monetary 'inducements' that used to be available on fustercluck jobs like this one.

All that being said, this video is a waste of pixels. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Hype did nothing.

Does NBA Commissioner Stern know that LeBron is promoting video poker? Hopefully he watched on an mtv site, where the poker is blurred out.

         

Is there a pyro "pyrologist" in the set? why didn't he / she set the whole thing on fire?

and skip the perceived stuff about stars being uncontrollable they read the treatment.

         

Does this discussion even really matter. DRAKE came from the Canadian teen soap opera Degrassi. He ain't no gangsta.