Thursday, 24 September 2015

Analysis of J Cole Ft TLC- Crooked Smile


This song was released September 18th 2013, the genre of this song is rap/hip hop. The video is a narrative and disjunction video about a little girl that gets shot by the police due to a drug raid. The artist in this video is represented as a drug dealer and a father, the start of the video shows the father preparing for his daughters birthday as he is doing this the subheading on the video says 'anywhere in america'. Therefore this shows that drug problems are not uncommon in America. The video shows how people lead completely different lives but still go through the same troubles, in addition it portrays the difference between a drug dealer and a police man; who are completely different people, however they are both fathers and both lose their daughters.

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals isn't particularly clear, as the song is about imperfections and how we should let our flaws effect us, however the lyrics could relate as the video shows that the little girl dies therefore it could be seen as this is the message the father is saying to his daughter but it is too late now she has died 'to all the women, know its hard my darling'.

Furthermore, the opening of the video is a mid shot of the artist in a police car, with the diegetic sound of police sirens; which instantly indicates that he is related to crime. It then quickly cuts to a black screen, and then cuts to a flash back of an action shot of the artist washing his face and then looking in the mirror, the shot is then cut to a mid shot of a man standing in the mirror, the mid shots of the two men are followed by each other showing each of them brushing their teeth. This implies that although people's appearances and what their occupation is, they still do the same things a person would do in their day to day life.

The diegetic backing track of the song then cuts in, while there is a diegetic sound and a shot of a hoover and also shots of the artist mowing the lawn and preparing a birthday cake; while he is doing all of this the diegetic sound of the song is still playing as though he is listening to it himself, this makes the video realistic. There is then shots of him setting a BBQ up, therefore it's suggesting his is preparing a birthday party. The setting he is in isn't a stereotypical setting for the genre of the music which is RnB/Rap as these genres usually relate to wealth, designer and voyeuristic images of women. However this setting is a normal house and no voyeuristic images of women. This relates to the meaning of the song.

This then cuts back to shots of the other man and the artist again, the artist looks as though he is waiting for someone as the other man is sitting having breakfast with his daughter. There is a variety of shot-reverse-shots of the daughter and the man making faces at each other whilst laughing. By this time the music has been made non-diegetic. The shots the move back to artist, showing him looking at drugs he has in his house, also showing him then hiding them, after this there is a close up of the other man now showing to be a police man. Therefore by this we can interpret how different the different mans lives are.

Move over, there is then an establishing shot of a car pulling up to the artists house and two older people and a girl getting out of the car, the girl runs up to the artist and hugs him. From this we can see that that girl is his daughter and it also implies that she doesn't live with him due to drug crime. However, despite this the shots show that his family still love him a lot.

The next shots are now night time and close ups of the four holding sprinklers. After that, diegetic sound is uses as a close up of the police man comes in talking. The police look like they are plotting something and we can imply that the are plotting something on the artists house as it cuts straight back to the family celebrating the little girls birthday, diegetic sound is also used here of them singing happy birthday to her.

There is then a sub-heading 'later that night' which is showing the outside of the artists house. The police van pulls up here and the police run into the house with guns, therefore the police are raiding the artists house. There is then a long shot of the little girl in bed scared and showing a shot from her point of view of her Father being arrested. Sad non-diegetic sound then quickly cuts in as a gun is pointed at the little girl due to the police thinking she is a threat and a gun sound is made. There is then flash backs of previous shots, suggesting this is what the little girl is thinking of just before her death, the artist who has been arrested realises his little girl has been shot and is taking away trying to get to her. The police officer that has shot her has a instant look of regret on his face. The song then is cut back in while the other non-diegetic sound is still playing and there is a mid shot of the artist crying and a close up of the officer looking as though he sympathises with him. There are then shots of the two daughters of the artist and the police man together in school, as though they are both in heaven. By this we can see that the police mans daughter also died, but we don't know how. The shot then cuts to both of the men upset as the child's body is carried out. The video ends on the shot it began with.




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