Method Man featuring Hanz On & Streetlife “The Meth Lab”
Method Man, Hanz On, and Streetlife go Breaking Bad in their video for “The Meth Lab”. Method Man is out cooking meth in a trailer somewhere in the desert. Hanz On and Streetlife are down in a basement somewhere. The biggest difference between Method Man’s business and Walter White’s is all the women in bikinis. Walter didn’t have that because he knew how to keep a low profile. Method Man is scared of no one..
Nate Ruess “AhHa”
Nate Ruess’s latest song “AhHa” is catchy, and it also fetures Ruess reading E.E. Cummings’s somewhere I have never traveled,gladly beyond which is one of my favorite poems. The video gives us an exagerated version of Nate. His head is larger than his body. And he’s more animated, even having the ability to fly or breathe under water. I’m not certain that Nate is doing his own dancing in this video, but I do enjoy the appearance of him letting go.
Saul Williams featuring Emily Kokal “Burundi”
Saul Williams is back with a new track called “Burundi” that features Emily Kokal . The inspiration for the song is the turmoil of politics in Burundi. The last time that main stream news carried stories of Burundi was in the early 1990’s when the small African country invaded its neighbors Rwanda. The troubles of the region didn’t just go away, but the stories on your nightly news did. For his video “Burundi”, Saul uses videos of unrest, people kicking at and attacking police cars, police themselves marchin in riot gear. We see Putin petting a cheetah. We see missiles fired. The people who run the world don’t know much about taking care of something you care about. All the while Saul states that he’ll be a candle, that image of a flicker of light in the darkness to beat the shade back and reveal the truth. He even has a hacker persona in this video. In the end, we see him facing a gun. But the gun turns into a camera, and it is at this point that Saul falls back as though he’s been shot. But ever defiant, he raises a middle finger to the screen, and it carries a flickering light like a candle.
Zedd featuring Jon Bellion “Beautiful Now”
Zedd and Jon Bellion have come together to collaborate on “Beautiful Now”. The video deals with people making difficult choices about their lives as they introspect. You have the old man who says goodbye to everyone he knows, ventures up the volcano where his wife is buried, and has no plans of returning. It’s finally, he’s decided, his time to join her once again. There’s the lesban couple who seem so happy, yet the one woman sits by the pool where her love has drowned herself. There’s the young man whose family is terrorized by men with guns, and decides to get revenge by pulling a gun on them. There’s another young man who is trouble with his friends, entering a store and trying to steal a bottle of liquor only to draw a knife and threaten the store owner who catches him in the act. Interspersed are scenes of these people’s memories as they had better times. But there is also a moment where each one looks at themeselves in the mirrors. It is in this moment that they have to make difficult choices based on what they see.
Isaura “Change It”
Isaura is a Portuguese artist who crafts her soothing vocals in English. Her latest track is “Change It”. The video centers around a Portuguese woman who is in love with another woman. She works with her mother at a food stand. At some point during her shift, I’m thinking a carload of males shows up, some of whom are related to her. The fact that she is with another woman isn’t approved of by her family. They all yell at her, she storms off to have a smoke before finally returning to the food stand to throw down her apron and take off. She goes to a club to drink, and by the end of the video she’s smiling. It’s only the second time you see her smile in the video. Both times have to do with her love. Life is difficult for everyone, and it’s a real shame we try to make it more difficult for others.
