A signature
style used by Williams throughout the vast majority of his videos was the
Fisheye lens which distorted the camera view around the central focus. However,
it was dropped by 2003, when he experienced his lowest level of production
activity since the beginning of his career as a music video director. Since
2003, Williams has adopted a signature style combining a centre camera focus on
the artist or actor's body from the torso upward and a solid colour background
with a soft different-colour light being shown in the centre of the background,
so as to give a sense of illumination of the background by the foreground
subject. This has been displayed in "Gold Digger" by Kanye West.
n Gold
Digger by Kanye west, Kanye Is the antagonist to relaying the story of
‘somebody payin’ child support for one of his kids. The gradual generalization
of the experience of dating a gold digger is thus enacted over the course of
the song, from the speaker’s story to a third party to the audience
collectively. Kanye takes a break at the end of each chorus to address the
girl: “get down girl go head get down (I gotta leave)” At the beginning of the
third verse, West proceeds to advise women to see that their boyfriend is going
to “make it to a Benz out of that Datsun, he got that ambition, baby, look in
his eyes This week he’s mopping floors, next week it’s the fries, So, stick by
his side, I know his dude’s ballin’ but yeah, that’s nice And they keep callin’
and tryin’, But you stay right, girl But when you get on he leave your ass for
a white girl.”
The
implication of this directive to women not to assess their partners’ potential
to provide for them – the social capital that men are taught is valuable in
making them attractive to partners- is coupled with a cruel reminder of the
white standard of beauty which dictates the social capital possessed by each
woman. This final surprise ‘turn’ effectively rejects all black women so that
even those women who might previously have been able to join in the speaker’s
condemnation of women who abuse their partners for money are excluded. The lack
of hip-hop directed at women is interesting, considering the amount of women
who listen to it.
Throughout
the video, the artists are being represented as rich in the way they express in
their lyrics that women are out to get their money. The video does not relate
to previous videos and does not carry on any previous motifs. Although, most of
Hype William’s music videos are Big Budget ‘black’ music videos, where the
artists and actors are mainly of black origin. The video consists mostly of
close ups of the two artists to show that they are important in the music
video. The video is constantly changing from close-ups of the artists to full
body shots of the half-naked women being represented in the video.
Women are
on sexual display throughout the whole of this music video. Firstly, the
costumes they are wearing show a lot of their body as they are dressed in
mostly bikinis and underwear. The male gaze is also used throughout the video
as a representation of how men see women. Through this gaze, women are
represented as sexual objects which is demonstrated through the costumes as well
the sexual innuendo of a pearl necklace. As part of the male gaze, there are
various close-ups of women’s breasts and buttocks, to enhance their sexual
fantasy. The women in the video are all set out on the front of magazine covers
which represents them as being objects to look at for men. But also, from a
woman’s point of view, that every woman should look like the women on magazine
covers, stereotypically having enlarged breasts, thin, toned waists and long,
slender legs. Also, the names of the magazines shown such as ‘Fantasy’, ‘fresh
hot’ and hot fun’ represents a males imagination to run wild. The cost of each magazine shown is 50 cents,
which represents that it does not cost Kanye a lot to look and idolise the
women on the magazine covers. It’s almost as if, if he did not have the fantasy
and had the real thing, it would cost him a lot more. Finally, the constant
flash from male to women represents what the artists are imagining in their
heads. They are imagining how women on covers should look and to look like
that, it must cost money, therefore, her being, in their eyes, a gold
digger. The fantasy is cheaper than the
real thing.
The music
video is based on the original song, blues of Ray Charles’ “I Got A Woman” in
the way that they sing the lyrics. Although the lyrics have changed, the
overall style remains the same. The only way this video relates to Hype
William’s other videos is the fact that the majority of artists are black
artists and the majority represent women in a sexual way. For example, Jay-Z-
Big Pimpin’ where he is on a boat full of half-naked women. He is also living
in a fantasy.
Gold Digger
is mostly performance-based, with a slight narrative. No conceptual elements
are used throughout the video. As a director, Hype Williams has portrayed the
lyrics of the song into a visual representation of how women will use their
bodies to attract rich men.
