S. Samuel
Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West answered hip-hop fans' questions and revealed his personal favorite music video from his collection in a UStream broadcast Friday (August 6) afternoon.
With over 50 music videos to his name, West chose 2007’s “Flashing Lights” off his Graduation album as his favorite.
“My personal favorite music video, I don’t know if I’ve ever said this in an interview, it’s ‘Flashing Lights,'” Yeezy revealed in his UStream broadcast. “Hands down. Like, by a mile. My personal favorite is ‘Flashing Lights.’ Actually, I got the same outfit from ‘Flashing Lights’ on right now. It was like the references, I loved all those simple images with the woman looking so powerufl and even though she’s nude, it wasn’t submissive in any way and that was one of the things on ‘Flashing Lights’ that this woman was so powerful when she hopped out of the car and we used a real American, Americana type car instead of trying to be extra sophisticated with some fancy new car. She had the mink coat with the lingerie, and her body was just my taste. And it was way different than what’s in the magazines nowadays and what the fashion world says is hot. As you know, my taste is completely different. It’s hood, I’m straight Chicago…It’s kind of the brand that I want to put out. Even when we did the ‘Power’ shoot, the girls, some of the girls when they came to the set, they were shocking to some of the makeup artists because they hadn’t seen girls with that level of body. Of course if we go to any club in the hood, World Star Hip Hop or something, you see that type of thing but in a world where it’s breaking into the art and fashion world, they hadn’t seen that.” (UStream)
West also talked about being inspired by some famous celebrities.
And that’s what I love. I love bringing my opinion to different places that hadn’t seen that before. One of the hardest things and what I think is the most successful art — is when it just connects across the board which is one of the hardest things to do. I always use the example of people like Will Smith and Marc Jacobs, people that can connect multi-culturally, that the work that they do can connect with the souls of so many…and when I make my music, every song, every line, I want to connect in that way. But be a hundred percent me. A hundred percent what I’m feeling.” (UStream)
West informed fans of his intimate one-on-one session via a Twitter update.
“Go to http://www.ustream.tv/KanyeWest I’m bout to get on to answer questions and chip away at my mystique one humanizing question at a time,” he tweeted around 4 PM EST.
“LOL it’s a joke but I really am about to ustream in about a minute.. this my first time so bare with me.haha haven’t said that in awhile.” (Kanye West’s Twitter)
The “Flashing Lights” music video’s female lead previously talked about Ye’s genius in constructing a mysterious storyline.
“It’s so funny,” Rita G, the clip’s star, told MTV News about the clip. “This video will go over a lot of people’s heads — and it’s supposed to. I think it’s great that it does. Because Kanye is just on another level; he’s ahead of his time, in a sense. So all the third-graders who come home from school and want to watch videos and snap their fingers and all that, they’re probably gonna think, ‘That video is wack, but that chick got a fat a–.’ And that’s fine. But people in higher positions, they’re gonna see something different. They’re gonna get it, people who are thinkers.” (MTV)
Following the video’s release, multiple interpretations hit the Internet.
‘Flashing Lights’ is about a superstar who is caught cheating with another woman while traveling on business. He tries to apologize to his girlfriend by telling her how much he cares about her, but is unsuccessful. The video shows us just how unsuccessful the superstar was as we see his girlfriend killing him in the trunk of her car. Kanye begins the song by saying: “She don’t believe in shooting stars.” This shows that the woman does not care if her man is a superstar or not, and that nothing will excuse his actions. He goes on to say, “but she believes in shoes and cars.” Her ‘belief’ in shoes and cars is shown by her stripping down and burning her clothing, but never taking off her shoes. Also, rather than turning some of the gasoline she possessed on the car, and burning her boyfriend alive inside, she chose to kill in the trunk and keep her car intact. (The Rundown)
Check out Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights” below:
Also check out Kanye West’s UStream broadcast below:
