Kanye West's love of premiering music videos on The Ellen Degeneres Show show is puzzling. Yes, Ellen's show is extremely popular, but it just seems like an odd venue. This week Kanye revealed his video for "Bound 2", and every moment of it was full of cringe. Especially because the track is "Bound 2", which is a great song but not on my short list of "songs Ellen's audience will love".
But the spectacle of Kanye on the TV got me thinking of the last time I can remember Mr. West going on Ellen's show and premiering a music video - 2008 when he showed his video for "Love Lockdown", directed by Simon Henwood.
The spectrum of music videos that Kanye West has released is pretty incredible. He's made some of the worst music videos out there, and then he has some pretty amazing pieces - like this one. "Love Lockdown" is a pretty amazing video from a time that Kanye seemed to have more vision about what he wanted his videos to be like.
There are two main pieces in the video. One is Kanye West in a sterile-looking modern apartment. White sheets cover the furniture, the walls are white and bare, and his kitchen is sparse and smooth. The other side is an assortment of people styled as African tribal members. They appear in and around West's apartment - existing inside and outside of his space and time.
Although West's apartment set supposedly drew inspiration from Christian Bale's character's apartment in the film American Psycho, I feel like West is supposed to communicate as just a lonely and frustrated modern man (not a serial killer). He stares into space and walks around his environment with like someone devoid of emotion, not really knowing what to do or where to go. He is a direct reflection of the place that he has put himself in.
The African tribal people are a sort of contrast to Kanye's ultra modern style, but the real purpose of the tribal people is to display some ways that the two genders interact within the group. The tribal people are always displayed in separate genders, with the men looking at the women, and the women looking back at them. This gets even more pronounced towards the end of the video when we see a whole crowd of men who are gathered around two giant (tall) women in neon body paint. The women look out over a sea of men, all stomping their feet to the beat, before we Kanye in his home again, curled up in a fetal position on his white couch.
The song "Love Lockdown" is a song about a relationship, droning on about the complexities of the issues Kanye is facing. Lines line "I'm not loving you the way I wanted to" are vague, indicating a relationship that has become almost incoherent.
For the tribal people in the video, things appear to be much simpler. The men stare at the women, the women are on display in a basic and then very literal way towards the end of the video. It's a simple exchange, but it's also a fantasy. Kanye never really acknowledges the things around him - it's like they are in the back of his mind. They're visions of a type of relationship and society that are oversimplified, a stark contrast to the complex and tiring modern relationship that is making him curl up in the fetal position.
Then there is a space ship that we see in one or two shots, a futuristic ship just sort of hovering around. I have no idea what it means or why it's there, but it is there. This video feels like a video you feel like you understand that's hard to explain, and maybe Kanye and Henwood just threw it in there to make things more complicated.
