Jay Z 99 problems Analysis

1. Genre Characteristics

Urban setting Brooklyn, New Jersey Jay Z 'hood' - He makes a point of drawing our attention to this by revealing the name on his hoodie.
Representation of a 'gansta' lifestyle cruising in cars, dog fights, loitering on the streets, getting pulled over by the police.
Street dancing/Freestyle
Scantily- "Sexy" women - cheap looking in gold bikini.
Jail scenes- all inmates are black. Stereotypical race representations - white guy in the suit, policemen is white. Black people are jailbreak/on the streets.
Goes againest convention of representation of wealth- lacks fancy cars, clothes, bling and women etc.
Women are only a minor element in the video - usually hip hop videos would have more shots of sexy women.
Shooting at the end reflects the image of gansta cool.

2. Lyric and Visuals

From the hood Jay Z pulls down hood.
Radio - Image of a radio
Bitch - Image of a women
Fast Forward- moves his hand along to demonstrate.
Police bit showing the situation and becoming part of the narrative.
Overall images illustrate the lyrics sometimes very literally, sometimes in a more subtle way. showing all problems Jay Z has - video shows problems

3 Music and Visuals

Video is cut in time with the beat of the song.
Music is hard hitting, aggressive sounding with an emphasis or beat. The visuals are also hard looking and edits are fast paced to emphasis this aggression.

4. Close up /motifs/ Demands

Lots of shots of Jay Z not all close ups but there are some close ups of other men as well.
Shots of women are long shots/mid shots because they aren't important. Less emphasis on Jay Z on his own - he is an established artist and doesn't need as much exposure.
Jay Z puts his hand over the camera so that it seems as though the audience is looking through his fingers.
X - ray vision shot of money is car.
Scophillic treatment of women is quiet uncomfortable to watch- seemed unnecessary.
Early establishing shots are almost point of views, creating the impression that the audience is looking around the hood.
Video of Jay Z outside subway station.

6. Intertextual Reference

Possibly a video of him - referenceing himself. Very specific on who's in the video.