This week, we bring you the battle of street videos. If you’re unfamiliar with the genre, it’s simply the natural progression from the mixtape game. Mixtapes gave fans music that wasn’t necessarily being released by the labels. Mixtapes also gave rise to the urban DVD magazine genre. Bring the two together, and you get visuals behind the songs artists make with the sole intent of a street release.
SOULJA BOY – “Work”
Let the battle begin: Soulja Boy’s “Work,” a video that represents all kinds of firsts for the young artist, vs. Jadakiss’ “Child Abuse” from his Green Lantern-assisted mixtape Kiss My Ass mixtape.
Is this the first of many attempts by Soulja Boy to transition into adulthood as an artist? We’ll have to wait and see, but from the sounds of this new joint, it would seem like it. From the beat to the subject matter, Soulja looks like he’s trying to carve a spot in the trap-rap lane popularized by artists like Young Jeezy and OJ Da Juiceman. He may have missed the mark a little with the visual though, giving us a city park background instead of the prerequisite “shot in the hood” look that usually comes along with these types of songs. We won’t make any assumptions about the colors, so he can’t get hood credit for that alone. Still, for something that he clearly shot with his own budget, and possibly his own camera, it came out much better than it could have. You might even see it on a video channel sooner rather than later.
JADAKISS – “Child Abuse”Despite being “produced” by The Come Up DVD, which has been around almost as long as the Urban DVD Mag thing has been, Jada’s “Child Abuse” doesn’t quite stand up to the crisp look of Soulja Boy’s clip. Where experience might be obvious, however, is the concept of the clip. You see qualities in this video that you might actually see in a label-released video. Someone definitely put more thought into the treatment for this video. So put-aside Jada’s jaundiced appearance, the sometimes-shaky camera, and the uneven lighting, and you have what would have been perfect for our dearly departed Rap City.
RICK ROSS – “Gun Play”To make things a bit more interesting, lets toss Rick Ross in this battle since he’s made more street videos than any single artist this year. This video is for “Gun Play” from Deeper Than Rap and it features a rapper named Gun Play. Can Ross play spoiler or are they just playing?