Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life
**1/2 (of four)
This is a supreme example of how a song and video you despise the first few hundred times you hear/see it can eventually win you over and earn the right to be played voluntarily and even purchased. Yes, after a string of Jay-Z bashing in my video reviews that lasted years, I finally broke down and purchased an $8.99 used CD copy of Volume 2: Hard Knock Life a year and a half ago at a store called Slackers. I'm not sure if it was a sudden realization, but I wore down. I had to admit I was wrong about Jay-Z not being talented and individual. And I'm sure my ex post facto approval of him helps the Jiggaman sleep better at night, so it's a win-win situation.
I think my big issue with "Hard Knock Life" was the fact that a self-proclaimed thug was sampling a main theme from one of the honkiest musicals of all time, Annie. Really, okay, I'm sure anyone of any race who grows up in poverty and despair can identify with the curly red-headed orphan and fantasize about having their own Daddy Warbucks or Phillip Drummond or George Papadapolous. But do I really need to see a perky nine-year-old girl with her hand on her hip sashaying down a ghetto street while lip synching to the decades-old kid's choir rendering of "It's a Hard Knock Life"? It undermines a touch of credibility and is just, really, when it comes down to it, rather gay.
But Jay-Z isn't in pimp mode here and he isn't in badass mode. He's in humble, respect-your-roots mode. I could go out to the living room and connect my computer to the Internet and do a little research and see if Jay-Z actually went back to his old neighborhood to shoot the "Hard Knock Life" video, but... um... I'm a lazy bastard. So let's just say the fictional Jay-Z character in the video is going back to visit his fictional childhood spots and leave it at that.
This Steven Carr effort is really just a collection of neighborhood shots with lots of real extras, either looking sexy and confident or defeated and weathered - no in-betweens here. And what starts as a hotass Mya doppelganger walking down the sidewalk lip synching to the kid's choir turns into a series of perky children of both genders. (Hey, Steven Carr, give me Mya back!) If it is a fictional Jay-Z in a fictional neighorhood, it takes away from the effect some, but either way it rings genuine and actually kinda folksy for someone who's sold his glamour image so freakin' hard for so long.
Curious to read my original, zero-star review of the "Hard Knock Life" video? Click here and scan down to #22 on the countdown.
This is a supreme example of how a song and video you despise the first few hundred times you hear/see it can eventually win you over and earn the right to be played voluntarily and even purchased. Yes, after a string of Jay-Z bashing in my video reviews that lasted years, I finally broke down and purchased an $8.99 used CD copy of Volume 2: Hard Knock Life a year and a half ago at a store called Slackers. I'm not sure if it was a sudden realization, but I wore down. I had to admit I was wrong about Jay-Z not being talented and individual. And I'm sure my ex post facto approval of him helps the Jiggaman sleep better at night, so it's a win-win situation.
I think my big issue with "Hard Knock Life" was the fact that a self-proclaimed thug was sampling a main theme from one of the honkiest musicals of all time, Annie. Really, okay, I'm sure anyone of any race who grows up in poverty and despair can identify with the curly red-headed orphan and fantasize about having their own Daddy Warbucks or Phillip Drummond or George Papadapolous. But do I really need to see a perky nine-year-old girl with her hand on her hip sashaying down a ghetto street while lip synching to the decades-old kid's choir rendering of "It's a Hard Knock Life"? It undermines a touch of credibility and is just, really, when it comes down to it, rather gay.
But Jay-Z isn't in pimp mode here and he isn't in badass mode. He's in humble, respect-your-roots mode. I could go out to the living room and connect my computer to the Internet and do a little research and see if Jay-Z actually went back to his old neighborhood to shoot the "Hard Knock Life" video, but... um... I'm a lazy bastard. So let's just say the fictional Jay-Z character in the video is going back to visit his fictional childhood spots and leave it at that.
This Steven Carr effort is really just a collection of neighborhood shots with lots of real extras, either looking sexy and confident or defeated and weathered - no in-betweens here. And what starts as a hotass Mya doppelganger walking down the sidewalk lip synching to the kid's choir turns into a series of perky children of both genders. (Hey, Steven Carr, give me Mya back!) If it is a fictional Jay-Z in a fictional neighorhood, it takes away from the effect some, but either way it rings genuine and actually kinda folksy for someone who's sold his glamour image so freakin' hard for so long.
Curious to read my original, zero-star review of the "Hard Knock Life" video? Click here and scan down to #22 on the countdown.
posted by daytime at 3:46 AM
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