Hip Hop Music Video Analysis

Hip Hop music video analysis

Drake - Marvins Room

Relationship between the lyrics and visuals

Overall, there is a strong link between the lyrics and the music video. In the beginning stages of the video when Drake is on the phone with a girl, there's a scene showing the girl on the phone so we as the audience, know who the girl who is speaking. Drake is portrayed to be drunk, so the visuals have a red tint to it, that could be representing what you see when you're drunk. The whole video is set in a slower time frame, much like the lyrics and the song itself which is slow. The colours are very dark and based around red/pink/black. The mood created is sad and missing someone. The lyrics tie in well with the visuals such as when Drake is rapping 'I've been drinking too much' the shot is a 360 shot of him downing a shot.

Relationship between music and visuals
The music is at a slow tempo generally with one moment where the song goes into slow motion. The music, visuals and lyrics all combine together to create a sense of 'drunkeness'. The differing shots such as close ups, medium shots, panning shots and long shots which are predominantly focused on Drake to show his emotional side, are well transitioned with each beat of the song. The editing is very slow and synchronised with the tempo of the song. At one moment where the music video slows down along with the music. Overall, as most music videos, editing is at a minimal throughout the music video and the shots are transitioned one after another with no special effect. The scences are short to keep the audience interested.

The music video is also performance based, following Drake around for a night while he's on a night out hung up on a girl. 

Kanye West - Homecoming

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

There is a strong relationship between the lyrics and visuals, such as Kanye singing along within the music video, kids being shown while Kanye is rapping about his past. The video itself is in plain black and white reinforcing that Kanye is singing about the past rather than the present as black and white is often associated with the past due to old movies being presented in black and white. The housing seen in the video represents his home in the past as it looks like a rough neighborhood. Specific lyrics are visually portrayed such as when Kanye raps 'I met this girl when she was three years old' the visuals on the screen is of a little boy and girl holding hands, 'when I grew up, she showed me how to go downtown' there is then a visual of Kanye in a different location. This occurs throughout the whole video so this backs up the fact that there is a strong relationship between the lyrics and visuals.

Relationship between music and visuals

There is a very strong relationship between the music and visuals. There is a medium tempo throughout the video. This is clear within the first 10 seconds of the video, at the start of the video while the piano is being played the visual on the screen is of an almost see through piano, where you can see the train in the background. It cross cuts between different shots with each beat, every time you hear Kanye rapping the visuals are of Kanye himself. This is the same case when Chris Martin is singing. There are a lot of mixed shots and you are never looking at one shot for more than 3-4 seconds, the shots used are handheld, tracking shot, low angle, high angle, mid shot, close up, long shots. The interesting point here is that there are quick transitions between different locations. 

This music video is mainly performance based with some references to a narrative based as the lyrics tell a story about Kanye's past.