2017 was the year of pivoting to video. As news publications moved from written to spoken word, and platforms like Snapchat and Instagram continued to morph and grow in popularity, the medium became more important than ever.
Long gone are the days of MTV and BET playing nonstop music videos and record labels budgeting barrels of money to shoot a single clip of Puff and Big letting bills fly off a boat—but that doesn't mean artists have abandoned videos altogether. If anything, the visuals have gotten better, bolder, and more creative simply as a result of having to accomplish so much with so little.
The year’s best videos varied wildly in style—animation jolted two concepts to life; taking their cues from Hollywood, certain videos were cinematic both in scope and inspiration; also to be noted, women proved the most clever of the bunch, crafting clips that sparkled visually while conveying resonant messages. One resourceful director even salvaged a massive fail by appealing to our reality show-addled brains and pulling back the curtain on what happens when rappers stop being polite and start getting real.
Of course, the year’s most affecting videos were those that spoke to the injustices that—having plagued our country since its inception—manifested themselves in ways both new and familiar in recent times.
Throughout the year, it seemed we gathered together and buzzed about these short films, setting aside whatever despairing bit of news broke that day, even if only for a few minutes. Here are the 10 visuals we ourselves “pivoted” to throughout the 12 bewildering months that were 2017.
"Wyclef Jean"
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Young Thug
Director: Pomp&Clout
If all had gone as planned, the video for Young Thug’s “Wyclef Jean” probably wouldn’t be on this list. But when Thug didn’t show up for the shoot, co-director Ryan Staake went all “VH-1 Pop-Up Video” on him and pulled back the curtain on what really happens behind the scenes (hint: lawyers and labels and cops). Those bats used to destroy the police cruiser? Rubber. Busting the windows out the car ala Jazmine Sullivan? Yeah, the cops put the kibosh on that pretty quickly, and Staake notes he just added it post-production. Ironically, this video is much more interesting than the standard-issue rap video they intended to make. Like The Roots’ “What They Do” and The Game’s “Wouldn’t Get Far,” “Wyclef Jean” reveals that much of the glitz and glamour associated with the rap star lifestyle is begged, borrowed, and manufactured for the camera. What’s it really like being on a big budget video set? Boring.
"T-Shirt"
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Migos
Director: DAPS
Trap recognize trap, right? Inspired by Leonardo DiCaprio’s turn as a bear trapper in the frozen film The Revenant, real-life trappers-turned-rappers the Migos traded Hotlanta for a wintry forest perfect for flexing in head-to-toe fur in “T-Shirt.” The guys don’t just pose in their pelts, though. They trained their whole lives for these roles. The explorers search, find, and hand over stacks of cash to a grizzled old-timer in a tent whipping up work over a handmade fire (in a Pyrex, no less). Once their business is settled, they enjoy some archery, a few snowmobiles, and the company of a handful of snow bunnies sipping hot chocolate. The scenery is stunning, and the concept wins points for being both tongue-in-cheek and actually complementary to Nard & B’s tremulous dawn of a beat. Oscars have been won for less.
"Who Dat Boy"
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Tyler, the Creator
Director: Wolf Haley
One of the most creative artists in rap, Tyler, the Creator’s video treatments are always the work of a wonky mad genius. “Who Dat Boy” finds Tyler blowing off a piece of his cheek and running next door to have Surgeon A$AP stitch on what seems to be one of Arya Stark’s faces. Endearingly, Tyler always pays homage to the artists he loved as a kid, and here, note the nods to Busta Rhymes’ brilliant cartoon flip “Gimme Some More” in the fisheye lens peephole and Technicolor hues. Setting off down a snaky stretch of freeway, Tyler in a 45-year-old golf dad whiteface isn’t subtle commentary, but it is strangely effective—or, at the very least, effectively strange.
"New Rules"
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Dua Lipa
Director: Henry Schofield
If only we all had a squad of friends who trail us post-breakup, reminding us in each moment of weakness why we aren’t texting/calling/seeing/drinking and sleeping with the fuckboys who broke our hearts. Dua Lipa’s video for “New Rules” makes breaking up a little bit easier. Her girlfriends have gathered for a slumber party in a tropical destination, complete with candy-colored matching robes. Every time Dua so much as doodles a heart on a fogged-up bathroom mirror, they descend, reminding her of her “new rules” like, “don’t pick up the phone, don’t let him in, don’t be his friend.” The simplistic genius of the video is that, with each chorus, Dua grows more and more over the guy that dumped her. By the end, it’s her friend going through a breakup, and Dua’s the one doing the reminding.
"HUMBLE."
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Kendrick Lamar
Director: Dave Meyers & the little homies
From a Greek chorus of bald, bobbing heads to a lone Kendrick Lamar shooting golf balls from the top of a broken-down car parked in the middle of a drained reservoir, “HUMBLE.” pieced together some of the year’s most arresting images. The song’s bouncy-ball production and immediate catchphrase made it the easy first single. But Lamar, who co-directed the video, wasn’t content to let the song sprint up the charts without imparting a message: The clip, which has racked up almost 400 million views, is weighted with religious iconography, such as a Last Supper re-creation with Lamar sitting in for Christ, and a striking reference to lynching. But the scene that caused the most commotion featured a woman shedding her Photoshop appearance for a more natural (and more pleasing, according to K. Dot) presentation of her body. However patronizing and misguided, neither that scene nor that line should distract from the advancements in the medium Kendrick Lamar and director Dave Meyers made with this video.
"P.O.W.A."
View this video on YouTube
Artist: M.I.A.
Director: M.I.A.
One of M.I.A.’s most potent tools as an artist has been the visual articulation of her songs. Whether they’re tongue-in-cheek, like the women stunting in “Bad Girls,” or overt, like the round up and beat down of redheads in “Born Free,” her video treatments are stark, powerful, and breathtakingly beautiful. “POWA” is no different. The clip opens with M.I.A. lying in a truck bed on a cushion of brightly colored flowers, their buds made even more electric by the dry, dusty fields of gravel through which she’s riding. The pops of color look almost obscene in this muted landscape—a saffron veil streams behind her, a crew of synchronized men performs against a blinding, caution-cone-orange background. How do you know if a video works? See if it makes you feel anywhere close to the way “POWA” does.
"The Story of O.J."
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Jay Z
Director: Mark Romanek & Jay Z
Storytelling raps can be so vivid, of course they translate well as cartoons. Legendary director Mark Romanek and Jay Z created world-weary character “Jaybo” to narrate one of the standouts on 4:44, the Nina Simone-sampling “The Story of OJ.” Strolling through animated New York City jazz clubs, Deep South cotton fields, and slave ships leaving Africa, Jaybo doles out lessons in life and investing. The track is so perfectly suited to for the animation, it’s hard to imagine any other treatment. It felt like the country watched in unison, more rapt than we’d been since we were kids mesmerized by the Saturday morning lineup. A truly special cinematic moment.
"Saturnz Barz"
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Gorillaz
Director: Jamie Hewlett
The second animated video on the list came to us courtesy of rock’s most lovable band, Gorillaz. In “Saturnz Barz,” the gang got back together and explored a dilapidated house full of psychological freak shows. As ever, so much is happening it’s almost impossible to absorb it all even on multiple viewings. If you enjoy taking a trip and turning out the insides of your mind to see what falls out, you’ll love “Saturnz Barz.”
"Boys"
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Charli XCX
Director: Charli XCX and Sarah McColgan
Bless Charli XCX. The ratio of videos that exist solely to present a veritable buffet of bikini-clad women to the viewer versus those that put beefcakes on display is laughable (thank you, Toni Braxton’s “You’re Makin’ Me High”). One clip won’t even the score, but Charli XCX’s self-directed, insta-viral, boy-crammed “Boys” video is a good-faith effort. Set against her cute ‘n catchy cha-chinging pop bop, the parade of boys makes for a lighthearted blast of a video. But there’s intention behind it. The all-star roster of bros—everybody from Joe Jonas to Wiz Khalifa to Riz Ahmed makes an appearance—prance around, engaging in everyday activities. As they snuggle puppies and eat sweets, they mimic the sexy things video girls do. In doing so, however, Charli is showing a gentler, less toxic side of masculinity. After the year they’ve had, those boys should add bowing down to their video to-do list.
"Moonlight"
View this video on YouTube
Artist: Jay Z
Director: Alan Yang
The first few seconds of Jay Z’s “Moonlight” video are clever fun. An episode of Friends, the silly yet iconic sitcom that dominated the mid-‘90s, gets recast with the most in-demand players in black Hollywood—Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Tessa Thompson and Lil Rel Howery—and the theme song is replaced by Whodini’s “Friends.” But then Jerrod Carmichael, who plays Ross, walks off set and gets a sobering wake-up call from Hannibal Buress, who obliquely references the long-simmering suspicion that Friends lifted the concept of Living Single and added a white cast. Rattled, Carmichael wanders away and ends up on a park bench staring up at the moon: “We stuck in La La Land/ Even when we win, we gon’ lose,” Jay raps. The video is Jay’s commentary on this year’s once-in-a-lifetime flub at the Oscars (La La Land was announced the Best Picture winner when in fact, the honor belonged to Moonlight) and the appropriation and white-washing of African American culture. “Moonlight” is only seven minutes long, but it packs more of a gut punch than the year’s sum total of think pieces—and proves once again that when it comes to incisive pop cultural criticism, very little competes with rap.
