A good music video embraces the song’s lyrics and provides a visual aid for the viewer that interprets the meaning of the song, but a great music video has the viewer rewinding the video to pick up all the double meanings and hidden messages.
The brand new music video for “No Love” Eminem featuring Lil’ Wayne, premiered last Thursday night on MTV and in my eyes, the video is exactly what the doctor ordered.
However, according to lackluster online bloggers like www.idolator.com’s Becky Bain, some people are apparently just too simple minded to understand the pure genius behind this artistic view of school bullies and how some of us find ourselves playing the role of the underdog on a day-to-day basis.
The video opens with a shot of a young boy sporting a black eye and then pans over to a scene that shows him getting pegged by dodge balls as he tries to fend off his bullies by knocking the balls away from his face, since he has no chance of catching one with three attackers simultaneously launching them at him.
Next up we get a shot of the young boy’s room, his walls are covered with Lil’ Wayne and Eminem memorabilia and extra attention is focused on the motto embedded on Eminem’s “8 Mile” poster, “Every moment is another chance,” as the kid hangs his head and sits on his bean bag, contemplating life’s obstacles.
After the sample of “What Is Love” kicks in, Lil Wayne’s verse begins and the boy is shown getting dressed after gym class as the same bullies approach him. They push him around, eventually knocking the fitted cap off his head and pinning him against the lockers.
The bullies continue intimidating and demeaning the terrified youth, but even though the kid has heart, he’s seen looking down at the floor and the viewer can just tell that he’s had enough of their cowardly attacks on him.
Wayne’s verse is very dark, which fits the scenes of the boy being portrayed perfectly, as he raps memorable punch lines like:
“I think about more than I forget/ But I don’t go around fire expecting not to sweat,”
“Ok you want me up in that cage, then I’ll come out in beast mode/ I got this world stuck in the safe, combination is the G Code.”
And:
“Be good or be good at it/ fuckin’ right I got my gun, semi carter-matic” (a metaphor that he’s “strapped” with lyrical ammunition/ wisdom to deal with his foes… not an actual gun, despite popular opinion like simple minded critics such as Bain may be prone to point outJ)
Halfway through Wayne’s verse, the same kid is shown walking through the hallways at school as the lead bully purposely bumps into him, trying to scare him, but finally the victim stares back coldly and the viewer can sense that soon enough he’s going to stand up to this non sense that’s plaguing him.
While Wayne’s verse is dark and portrays the gloomy opening of the video fabulously, the last ¼ of his verse is sped up and has more of an upbeat “I’m going to strike down my enemy” feel to it.
The viewer can sense the change in the young boy’s demeanor as Wayne raps frantically about not being able to keep him down, while the boy in the video fights back for his hat in the restroom of his school as the bullies try to steal it from him. Weezy concludes his verse with:
“You can keep knocking, but won’t knock me down, no love lost, no love found.”
At the conclusion of the bathroom scene, which ends with the young boy being knocked down to the floor after he stands up for himself, Eminem begins what is arguably this year’s best verse in rap, and in my eyes, one of the greatest ever.
As Eminem is shown standing in a recording booth rapping his lyrics, the young boy goes to his house where his father is shown looking at the marks on his son’s face from the altercation and seems to be mouthing something along the lines of “do something about it,” the young boy jumps on his skateboard and heads back to the school as Em raps:
“Man get these wack c*&ksuckers off stage/ Where the f&^k is Kanye when you need him?!”
The verse is incredibly symbolic of the upcoming scene in which the boy is finally ready to make a stand against the bullies, once and for all. Em’s lyrics have an underdog vibe to them, something I haven’t really felt him convey this strong in his music since the “Marshall Mathers LP” days, his wordplay and delivery are amazing and the director of the video does an incredible job capturing the power of the verse on film. As Em spits ferocious bars such as:
“It’s an adrenaline rush you feel the bass thump all the way to the parking lot fellow/ set fire to the mic and ignite the crowd you can see the sparks from hot metal.”
And:
“Till’ I’m toppling from the top I’m not going to stop/ I’m standing on top of my Monopoly board/ That means that I’m on top of my game and it don’t stop till my hip don’t hop anymore/ When you’re so good that you can’t say it/ Because it ain’t even cool to sound cocky anymore/ People just get sick when you spit/ These fools can’t drool or dribble a drop anymore”
The young boy is shown in a separate scene fighting back against the school bullies, punching the leader of the hooligans in the face and then shoving one of his accomplices, however at the end of the video it’s revealed that the boy was just imagining physically fighting back against his foes and instead walks past them now with a new found swagger.
Instead of attacking him like the bullies had in the past, stares are exchanged and the boy continues on his way to class, his enemies are now nothing but irrelevant chumps to him, their immaturity can no longer bother him.
Much like Eminem’s film “8 Mile” the video provides a memorable depiction of the underdogs in our society and how we cope with our daily dilemmas. Overall, it’s definitely not the greatest music video ever, but it definitely was an incredible portrayal of Em and Wayne’s lyrics from the song.
And nothing is stronger within the song than Em’s final bars of his verse:
“You’ll never take my pride/ Killing the flow/ Slow venom/ And the opponent is getting no mercy/ Mark my words ain’t letting up/ relentless/ I smell blood/ I don’t give a f&^k/ Keep giving them hell/ Where was you when I fell and needed help/ You get NO LOVE”
Keep rockin’ it Em, you’ve helped “Recover” rap and for God sakes, somebody FREE WEEZY J
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