The music video i'm analysing is "Kanye West- Work Out Plan." The video, although not a typical hip-hop style video which glorifies the advertisement of money, it still displays the image of women being the image of perfection in the world of Hip-Hop.
The video is ultimately about women losing weight and with the perfect body, they can be promised with riches and success. Throughout the video several of the girls go through several "workout" stations which are not typical in gyms. They run through stations with names such as "Weave Check" and "Baby Pick-Up" which mocks the women of the black community and common connotations which they are associated with such as the extensive use of weave to highlight their looks and the common theme of black females "single baby mommas" who don't know the father of their child, also appears to be a gag in the video disguised as a workout. This is reinforced by the ultimate prize, being a rich or famous man for the women and here, we see one child mouth the words "daddy" continuing the the direct mocking of the black female community present in America.
The lyrics and visuals link very well together because ultimately, the video follows a linear narrative. we understand that Kanye has devised a work-out plan to get women looking fit and sexy which it will ultimately change their lives. the video follows an overall comical style as we see from the way in which he associates the whole theme around workout video commercials. Although the video is not too 'in your face' regarding the themes of Hip-Hop, it ultimately outlines that slim beautiful women get everthing. There is a part of the song where women are being interviewed regarding the work-out plan and they have before and after photos, with their fat pictures sporting words such as "Alright" but when compared to the after photo which say "Aight!" (colloquialism in America within the African American community) displaying a direct mockery of typical fitness advertisements in America. The women also appear to sport glamourous accessories to accentuate the way the work-out plan has changed their lives.
There are several close ups and Mid-shots throughout the video used on Kanye so that the message is being spread across to the audience successfully. As the video contains severals references to a website and phone number which audience can use, so these bits of editing give it that more believability in regards to the concept of the song.
The video follows a linear narrative in the sense that you get from the beginning to the end with an understanding of the story and concept. However, due to the intertextual referencing used throughout the video, it is not straight forward as it seems, which displays aspects of a concept-based video. The video however, is mainly for comical emphasis of how shallow the Hip-Hop Scene can be at times, particularly with this being Kanye's more "modest" period within the scene.
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