When I was in high school in South Florida, one of my jobs was working for a company that did live event entertainment. There was the odd wedding, but mostly it was bar/bat mitzvahs every weekend. I know, I know - I was cool.
The point is, I saw a lot of bar mitzvahs, and never once did I say "hey this would make a great music video". So when Drake released the Director X-directed video for "HYFR" in 2012, I thought to myself "wow, bar mitzvhs do make for great music videos". Let's take a look.
The video, shot at Temple Israel in Miami, starts off with some footage of little Drake cutting a rug at his original bar mitzvah sometime in the early 1990s. He looks really young to be having a bar mitzvah though, so we think its more likely that this is him at another event, but it doesn't really matter - his dancing is hilarious. It then explains that Drake reaffirmed his commitment to the Jewish religion in 2011 in a sort of re-bar mitvahing and that's what we're about to see. Then, the party starts.
First of all, I didn't even know having a second bar mitzvah was a thing. However, it looks a lot more fun than the bar mitzvahs that I've been present at. 13 year olds tend to go with themed bar mitzvahs like "movies" or "baseball" and they're friends are also 13 year olds, so really, nobody has any fun. That's not the case at Drake's shindig, though. Drake's friends are a mix of his family, what seems like random old men, and his friends in the rap industry. Instead of root beer there are bottles of expensive looking alcohol that Drake and his friends drink out of. It's not that hard to pour it in a glass, but whatever.
Out of all of the hip hop artists present, however, Lil Wayne is the only one with a verse to perform, and he is also the only one who seems to have fallen asleep with some sort of knitted mask on. He is woken up and immediately jumps into action, giving one of the most energetic performances I think I've ever seen from Lil Wayne. I guess he likes bar mitzvahs.
The thing I love about this video is how Director X and his crew get all the little details right, down to those rental party chairs that seem to show up at every single catered function in the USA. There's also the awesomely awful cake with the torah on it, and the square, faux wood dance floor. It's not that these items are hard to get, it's that Drake could've had a really ridiculously glamorous party, and he instead called Miami Party Rentals or whoever rents stuff down there. That, I think, makes the video.
There's also definitely a feeling that Director X just sort of captured what was going on for at least some of the shots. There are some great candid ones of Drake in there, and although I'm sure there was a lot of set ups and coaching for a lot of the "old white guy dances with young lovely lady" stuff, a part of it still feels sort like it could've actually happened at Drake's crazy bar mitzvah.
I'm not Jewish, so I guess having a bar mitzvah would be inappropriate for me, but maybe I can do a second first communion? You bring the whiskey but no glasses please.
