Mykki Blanco has one of the most unique sounds and images in hip-hop music right now. His latest music video, "The Initiation," features Mykki crawling through the streets, rapping in Latin though a face on the top of his head. Known for his amazing use of visual effects and motion tracking, director Ninian Doff’s idea and skill set match perfectly with the song, creating an eerie world where dudes with second faces fight in illegal, underground bouts to the death. We talked to Ninian about the video, working with Mykki Blanco, and matching his creativity.
It's Friday so you know what time it is - we're here to tally up all the top music videos that were released in in the last week so we can feed our crippling addiction to lists. Here we go!
The Lonely Island has been hovering around our Top 10 Most Popular Videos of the Week list for a few weeks now due to their weekly releases for the promotion of The Wack Album. This week, the album was released and the video for "Go Kindergarten" featuring Robyn, Paul Rudd, and Sean Combs sent them over the top to #1 with a little bit over 3 million views.
For a while in the early 2000s, bands were releasing DVD collections of their music videos and including DVD commentary tracks. There were a lot of good ones, but my favorite is probably Barelaked Nadies from 2002 where the Barenaked Ladies watch all of their videos from 1992 onwards in a hotel room.
It's hilarious (mainly because BNL has had a lot of weird music video experiences that they are more than willing to share), but it also reminds me of a time before Barenaked Ladies actively avoided making music videos, before they started opting for animation or videos where they don't appear. So today we're watching a Barenaked Ladies video from when they were super into making music videos - 2001's "Too Little Too Late", which is, interestingly enough, about the chaos of making a music video.
It’s the final weekend of Spectacle: The Music Video’s run in New York City, but if you haven’t made it out yet, there is still plenty of time and cool stuff for you to check out before it closes on Sunday, June 16th. Spectacle is a museum exhibit dedicated to music videos, curated by Meg and Jonathan Wells of Flux, and while there are a variety of film festivals and screenings where you can see music videos, what Spectacle offers is truly a one-of-a-kind experience.
Hand-picked favorites from your friends at IMVDb.