The camera pans slowly towards a black
maybach luxury car flanked by a cadre of men in white suits. So far, so
standard. The common mainstream rap themes of wealth, style and glamour
look set to star. The setting of several blue industrial buildings adds
an air of mystery.
'Luxury rap, the Hermes of verses
Yet, all is not as
it seems. Slowly, a circular saw and a welding gun come into view, as
the video creeps forward, it is revealed that the industrial tools are
in the hands of none other than the modern day Herodotus and Thucydides: Jay-Z and Kanye West.
The Maybach appears
to be their target: the destruction of modern, consumer capitalist
culture. Sure enough, the next few shots portray the poet-orators
slicing through the Maybach's expensive hood and throwing away the
bullet proof windows, a refreshing act of rebellion against a rap
culture that confuses excess with sucess.
Yet, only a few seconds away lies the true
meaning of the destructive events. In a masterful twist, Kanye and
Jay-z are seen driving a greatly modified, in fact barely recognizable
version of the Maybach.
The true
significance of this incredible change is far more subtle than just a
few modifications. It is a living defnition of both the song 'otis' and
the oft-mocked genre of rap as a whole. The Maybach symbolises the Otis
Reading song 'Try a Little Tenderness', samples from which form the
basis of the track. The Maybach is a perfect embodiment of 'Try a Little
Tenderness' - like the luxury car; it is classy, sophisticated and
powerful. Yet if there is one word you not use to describe a Maybach it
is 'crazy'. You would never dare to drag race a Maybach for example.
Thus the transformation of the car from a finely
engineered, traditional beauty into something far more experimental and
fast mirrors the transformation of 'Try a little Tenderness' into
'Otis'. Just as the Maybach was chopped and shopped, so was the Otis
Reading song via a method called 'sampling'. The rap duo are not
destroying a much loved classic. They are doing something far more
radical: taking a classic and turning it into something completely
different.
As Kanye Proclaims:
Sophisticated ignorance, write my curses in cursive
I get it custom, you a customer'
Rap is almost a higher form of music, an improvement on
the beautiful, yet dull tones of songs. 'Otis' and its accompanying
visual embodiment, serve not only as beautiful works of art, but also a
long overdue defence of the genre and methods of hip-hop.
