Watching the Throne Too Many Times, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #142

August 23, 2011 Arthur Tebbel 0 Comments

Dear Art,
    This is an intervention.  You have a problem.  You can’t stop watching my new music video for “Otis” the Jay-Z Kanye West collaboration track.  After watching it more than a dozen times on YouTube you purchased the video on iTunes and put it on your phone to watch even more.  Do we need to talk about this?  The car from the video is up for auction soon.  Should we be expecting you to be a serious bidder when it goes up?  We can talk this through man.
    -Spike Jonze

Spike,
I don’t think I have a problem.  I think you made the best video in the history of hip-hop.  It’s well shot it has great atmosphere but I don’t think that’s where it really shines.  Jay and Kanye look like they’re having so much fun.  That’s so refreshing in a genre that’s often defined by how hard the stars can look.  No one would mistake this for a giant step away from convention, the video is centered on a Maybach full of supermodels, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rick Ross smile in a music video.  That deserves a lot of props.

The video has undeniable aura of cool.  Actor/Comedian Aziz Ansari is in the background of a number of shots, a glorified extra really, and I’m unsure of what this will do for his career.  He’s mentioned in his act that he has a friendship with West but I can’t imagine what this will do for his career.  He went from playing a poseur on NBC Thursday nights to hanging around on the coolest music video of the summer.  Completely mind-blowing.  He even got to look cool in it; you know if Louis C.K. got in a video he would be the butt of some joke not chilling in an expensive car in a suit and sunglasses.

Auctioning off the car is a bold move.  I mean the car retails for over $300k and now it has no doors and the hood is on the back now.  That said, it’s undeniably been made into a work of art now.  Will that add value?  Are there collectors of rap memorabilia with hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on it?  I mean there’s no way that’s still street legal.  Is it embarrassing if they sell it for less than it originally cost?  I guess the short answer is there’s no way I could afford it and I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.  That’s counting that I would need to pay for a place to keep it.  It must be hard being the king.