Kanye West Champion

The music video for "Champion" was directed by NEON. The Olympic-themed music video revolves around a puppet version of Kanye West participating in the 100 m sprint in the Unified Games. After receiving permission to race thanks to majority vote on live "K-Span" television broadcast, the scene transits to the starting line, where flashbacks display the extensive training the puppet undertook to get where he is. The race commences and nearing the finishing line, the puppet is able to pass the other runners and emerge victorious. The video was filmed at Adolfo Camarillo High School in Camarillo, California. In the video Kanye West, is the only puppet playing in the race everyone else is human which I think it’s clever because it makes the audiences life when you watch a Kanye West music video you can tell he has a very big ego which is good in rap music it gives him edge over other rappers the video starts off where Kanye West is sitting in a meeting with the hosts of the games then after they talk it goes straight into the action the lyrics in the song mean Kanye West, is telling the world that he is the champion in anything he does so for example because he is a rapper he is telling people that he is the champion of rap the song is very short and only comes in at 2.27 the song was never released as a single but when the album the graduation dropped which the song was on it became very popular with listeners so Kanye West, decided to make a video just for the fans when it came to finding the video for the song it became quite difficult the video was nowhere to be seen on YouTube, MySpace, Vevo or Daily Motion. I found the video on two sites. The first site was Kanye West.com which is his main website for his fans. On that website you can watch every video he has made, find out when he is doing concerts, buy t shirts and listen to a 20 second sample of songs from his albums. The site also tells you when a new single from Kanye West will be released and when he will release a new album. The other site I found the video on was ebaumsworld.com this site usually puts on stupid videos of famous people falling over and hurting themselves. After the video was released the song charted on the billboard pop 100 at number 94. On billboard pop you can only get the song if you buy the album Graduation and you can also buy the song on iTunes. I think the song is very underrated and should have been released as a single but Kanye West did release 4 other singles from that album which were strong so in a way I can imagine the song falling off the charts very quickly. The other singles that were released for the album were Stronger, Can’t tell me nothing, Good Life and Flashing Lights. Even though the album and the song came out in 2007 the music video was released in 2008. The reason Kanye West did not appear in the video was because at the time he was depressed with the recent passing of his mother and he was working on an album of love songs

Kanye West - Diamonds from Sierra Leone

The music video for "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" was directed by Hype Williams and shot entirely in black and white. It was filmed on location in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. West was fascinated by the architecture found in the capital and felt its sculptures, cathedrals, and stone pavements emitted the timeless feel of "Diamonds".  The video illustrates the topics West would later touch on within the remix of the song, as it features visuals of young African children digging away in mines under the careful watch of their wardens. The images are juxtaposed with scenes of wealthy Westerners shopping in boutiques and trying on jewellery. The music video ends with text that reads, "Please purchase conflict-free diamonds”.

The whole video is very clever as it is filmed in black and white so you get a cold shiver down your back when you watch it. It is almost like some of the nasty scenes in Schindlers List, which throughout the whole film is in black and white. Just before the music starts in the video there is a subtitled intro saying “Little is known of Sierra Leone and how it connects to the diamonds we own”. Then the video starts to play and subtitles are shown saying

 “we work in the Diamond Rivers. From sunrise to sunset. Under the watchful eyes of soldiers. Every day we fear for our lives. Some of us were enslaved by rebels. And forced to kill our own families for Diamonds. We are the children of the blood diamonds”.

 The music video is one of the few music videos that I know of that have credits at the end of the video. As the credits are rolling down in the video you see Kanye West, walking off in the background. To me when he was walking off it looked like a chapter in his life was ending because in the video you see him driving a car into a jewel store and you see children running out helping Kanye him get on his feet then you see them running off heading towards a church. Kanye West, must think is a safe place for the children that is why I thought a chapter in his life was complete because you feel he has finally done something good in his life. The song went gold in America. I think the reason for this is the song is not a club banger it actually has a message to give to people but now with the current generation we are in, people want club bangers with awful lyrics that mean nothing and are not important to their word. The song came in to the chart at 43 but the song was a bigger hit in the United Kingdom. It came in to the chart at number 8. I think the reason for this is that everyone knows that Kanye West is a producer who samples other peoples beats. For this song in the background when he stops rapping you hear Shirley Bassey vocals. The original song which was sung by her was used for the James bond song Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. I found the song on YouTube, MySpace, Vevo and Daily Motion. On YouTube the video has been watched  7,163,895 times by the public. The video was released in 2005 but uploaded onto YouTube in 2009 by Kanye West. Vevo channel the video also has  16,626 likes and 406 dislikes with some of the comments I have read about the video a lot of them don’t seem to talk about the video. Most of the comments say “ah man I miss this Kanye West”, “it’s a shame that he sold out”. Now as a Kanye West fan I don’t think he has sold out, I think he is getting better and better with each album that he makes but that is just my opinion. The song got so popular in the United Kingdom that they made a remix featuring Jay Z. The song proved even more popular than the original but no video was made. Critics gave Jay z’s verse very good reviews. With all the music videos I have looked at this one is one of my favourites

Kanye West Stronger

The music video for "Stronger" was directed by Hype Williams and shot over nine days in Japan. It includes shots filmed in Aoyama-based clothing store A Bathing Ape as well as Harajuku clothing store Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream. The video took over three months to complete. West first premiered a rough cut at the Tribeca Studios in New York City on June 19, 2007. It made its public premiere on June 26, 2007, on MTV Germany's TRL. The video was also shown on the BET countdown show 106 & Park on June 28, 2007. The video features appearances by singer and model Cassie Ventura, a real-life Japanese motorcycle gang, and the two principal actors from the film Daft Punk's Electroma dressed as Daft Punk. The video also features multiple scenes which pay homage to the 1988 anime film Akira. These include the light effects on the motorbikes, the hospital scenes and West being scanned by machines. Both West and Williams had originally planned to integrate scenes from the film into the video. West also wears a pair of Alain Mikli sunglasses, which he requested from the designer specifically for the video. The sunglasses have since become a signature of West, who for a period of time often donned them during performances. The video was nominated for two 2007 MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year and Best Editing in a Video. It won Best Hip-Hop Video at the BET Hip-Hop Awards as well as Best Video at the MOBO Awards. The first thing that came to my mind when I watched this video was, god they had a big budget! It is one of the most expensive videos that I have ever seen. The other thing I noticed, was it did not have a story that made sense. The video starts off with a flashing light. I think they were trying to tell the audience that Kanye West has been born into the world, or that a new life has been created. That is what I think. Then the audience enters a portal where Kanye West is sleeping, waiting to be waken up by a machine. Half way through the video you see Kanye West not well in hospital. When you watch the video you can tell he is bed bound, then all of a sudden he is fighting the sickness that is in his body and he starts to walk. He is still stumbling and a nurse starts to scream and she starts to run in fear. About two seconds later a group of police come storming into the building locked and loaded. Then Kanye West starts rapping the lyrics, "and that that don’t kill me can only make me stronger." After these words are said, the police get thrown back in the elevator. What I liked about that part was when the police got thrown back into the elevator, they used slow motion for about 10 seconds. I thought the way they did it was very clever. When the song was released in 2007 it was very popular in the United States and went straight to number one. The single sold 4 million copies in the United States making it go 4x platinum. The song also went straight to number 1 in the United Kingdom. The song is now played in nightclubs across the world and at house parties. The single went gold in New Zealand and the single went platinum in Australia. In September 2011 the Billboard chart released a statement on their website that the song has now been downloaded  4,848,000 times, making it one of the most downloaded songs of all time. The video on YouTube has been watched  82,851,631 times. The video has more likes than dislikes. The video has 166,850 likes and 6,833 dislike,s proving that the song is very popular. The only sites I found the video on were Google video, YouTube Daily motion, Kanye west.com and MySpace. I think the video has not dated at all because it still looks fresh today. The special effects they used in the video are amazing and they look like they would have been used in a big Hollywood Blockbuster.