Farnsworth Bentley (Feat.
Andre 3000, Kanye West & Sa-Ra)
– “Everybody”
Young Jeezy (Feat. Kanye
West) – "Put On"
I want to preface this week’s
column by assuring you in advance that I don’t have any grand, over-arching
point or punchline here. I simply want to look at these two videos,
both of which feature Kanye West collecting a big ol’ paycheck for
not a whole lot of work. There’s nothing incredibly remarkable
about a famous guy making some phoned-in appearances (“phoned-in,”
potentially being literal in the case of “Everybody.”) Hell,
it’s possible that Kanye’s just generously trying to help these
guys out, or maybe he just wanted the chance to chill with Andre 3000
and Young Jeezy. I would buy that plane ticket. Still, there’s
something interesting here. I have no idea what it is, but, then
again, it’s my music column.
Farnsworth Bentley is best
known as the P. Diddy’s butler circa Making the Band 2 or that guy
dancing funny with Big Boi in the video for “The Way You Move
In other words, he’s spent a lot of years building a rolodex, and
he’s not afraid to make those phone calls. Given what we know
about him, it also comes as no surprise that the first video from his
long-delayed debut album is an anonymous bit of hip-hop R&B, reliant
on marquee names for even the tiniest sense of being compelling.
It is cute, though. Bentley,
Kanye, Andre 3000 and Sa-Ra (a lukewarm songwriting duo that showed
up a lot in some magazines’ front-of-book “Artists to Watch” sections
a couple years ago) play members of a group called C.O.L.O.U.R.S. (Cool
Outrageous Lovers of Uniquely Raw Style.) Andre loves this playing-a-band
gag, so much that he’s willing to wear an eyepatch on his forehead
to convince us that this is nothing like the “Hey Ya!” video.
While the band gets pumped backstage—pumped, meaning sitting in a
circle with their backs to the camera, presumably bored out of their
minds—Andre mentions that the group could tour to Africa. Kanye
responds, “I ain’t tryin’ to leave my old lady.” Notice
how he stutters. Andre says, “There’s a lot of your old ladies
all around the country.” Good one. These are no particularly
subtle clues here, people. Seriously, Paul is dead.
The rest of the video is… well, less clever than “Hey Ya!” I really want to give props to the three main guys’ choreography, because it’s genuinely pleasurable to see Kanye, Andre and Farnsworth dancing together, but they probably spent about five minutes putting it together. Which is more time than Kanye spent recording the song. His part is this: “Don’t stop, baby. Don’t stop, man.” At least, as far as I can tell. The first time I watched the video, I thought I’d missed his appearance altogether. Then I realized that he had, essentially, been woven into the rhythm of the song. On the other hand, it is worth noting that Andre 3000 gives a typically off-the-meat-rack performance. But, remember, it’s Kayne we’re interested in. What makes a notorious egomaniac take a spot in his buddy’s song that essentially reduces him to the role of a sample?
As far as “Put On” goes, let me start by saying this: I fucking love Young Jeezy. Seriously, I want to pinch his little puffy cheeks. It’s a genuine thrill to drop Kanye into a Jeezy track, for the same reason that it was compelling to watch that chick on Top Chef try to combine tomatoes with peanut butter—because if she could have pulled it off, we would be living in a whole new world.
The video starts out as an unglamorous vision of the inner city, with a news station sound bite stating, “Every city across America is feeling the effects of the recession.” Jeezy’s upcoming album is called… wait for it… The Recession. I swear I fucking love this guy so much. The camera rolls through the streets and things are looking bleak. When Jeezy’s on the screen, things look a little less bleak. His rawness gives the struggle an anchor. Or something. But, again, we’re interested in Kanye.
Kanye's appearance on record, this time, is pretty compelling. "I got the Jesus on a chain," he raps, "But it don't mean shit." He uses an auto-tuner, reinforcing these videos' inference that he's trying to position himself as T-Pain, but overall? No complaints. But he puts in an appearance in the video as slapdash as his recorded appearance on "Everybody"--just him, alone, in front of an American flag, playing with a bandana on his face like it's some sort of a brilliant metaphor. Notice how Kanye doesn't appear anywhere near the hood, except on television. None of this is a big deal, but if Kanye's really trying to be an egomaniac, he's doing it all wrong. You have to get in there, take up ¾ of the song, do the best dance. You can't be doing videos for butlers. You have to save the children.
-Martin Brown, 2008.
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