Music Video Analysis 1 - Ni**as in Paris

N****s in Paris - Jay-Z and Kanye West

'N****s in Paris' released by Jay Z and Kanye West in 2011 is an influental music video for me due to the use of editing and link between the music and live show/band performance.

Firstly the artists 'Kanye' and 'Jay' are introduced at the start of the music video in bold point emphasising their importance straight from the beginning of the video, furthermore the song title 'Paris' is also shown. This is an odd feature for a music video and may have been used to created a sense of an epic build up to the on screen action, this follows on to the use of live footage constrasting between on stage footage and crowd footage showing the connection and link between artist and audience. The use of heavy strobes throughout the music video emphasises a sense of their live show and also reflects the fast pace of the music, this is also suiting to the double screen zooming effect used throughout the whole music video, which gives the video a specific theme which is not common is any other music video I have seen.

The fast pace of both the music, strobing and double screen effect is then elaborated on the movement and dancing in the crowd emphasising a connection between the music and the crowd, whilst this connection between crowd and artist is used often there are quite often close ups of both Kanye West and Jay-Z using the double screen to show their importance to the crowd. The cutaway to the quote by Will Ferrell links the video the song lyrics and also slows down the tempo for the only time in the whole music video. It also adds a sense of humour to a video which is otherwise a serious performance based video. Finally, the link between 'Paris' and the music video is elaborated on with the use of different landmarks, for example the Arc De Triomphe is used with the use of never ending walls. I believe the purpose of this music video is not only to promote to song but to also promote Jay Z and Kanye West's live show perhaps appealing to a younger audience as the music does aswell.