Have you ever heard of those casino trade shows where you can go and see all the acts you might want to bring to your casino? They exist but I've never been to one because I don't own a casino.
With the advent of the artist-owned record label that gets mentioned in every song (Young Moolah baby!), we've gotten a few of these types of "check out all these artists" showcases that have the added benefit of being songs that money could be made off as well. Today we're taking a look at one of the most successful showcase videos of the last few years, Young Money's "Bedrock" (2009), directed by Dayo Harewood and Lil Wayne.
In case you're confused, Young Money Entertainment is a record label founded by Lil Wayne, and once in a while YM will act as an artist and put out albums featuring everyone on the Young Money roster. So in 2009 they debuted an album called We Are Young Money, which featured "Bedrock" as a single. It turned out to be a successful single, rising to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard Rap Song charts, so this was a golden opportunity to introduce some new talent to the world.
The video pretty cleverly stays true to the song's concept by making it an homage to shows like The Real World, where everyone is in a house being filmed, and - most importantly - they all sit down for interviews where their names pop up. In a song that has a never-ending stream of verses from rappers, this is important to clear things up.
It's interesting to watch this now and see where everyone in this video has gone since. Lil Wayne was arguably at the peak of his stardom in 2009, post Tha Carter III, so he doesn't really count. But I had completely forgotten Drake was in this song/video - this was pre Thank Me Later, so the general pop radio audience was probably completely unfamiliar with him. Tyga has also done well for himself since.
This video is also notable for being many people's first introduction to Nicki Minaj, myself included, and it's an example something that I still haven't been able to find an explanation for: Minaj's inability to be synced with music in her first few video appearances. Watch her verse in this video and then her verse in "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz, which was released a few months later. She only seems to appear in jarring, half second increments, using a mix of fast motion and quick cuts to hide that fact that she isn't lip syncing to the music. She's got it down now, but it seems like having Nicki Minaj in a video early in her career was a bit of challenge.
On the list of people who have kept slightly lower profiles since this video is Gudda Gudda and Jae Millz. There are tons of cameos as well, including Mack Maine and a small, horny young man named Lil Chuckee. Birdman also makes an appearance because Birdman likes being in music videos.
The video itself manages to work pretty well thanks to the concept, and getting everyone together to just goof off in a house in Davie (explains why this house is so ugly) makes for some fun moments, even if the song and video starts to grate on you after a while. I've contacted Young Money about my idea for a version of "Bedrock" that just goes on indefinitely, featuring verses from thousands of people, but have not heard back.
