Kanye West “Can’t Tell Me Nothing

                                             Kanye West “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”

Two separate music videos accompanied "Can't Tell Me Nothing", with the first aired on television and the second made available solely online. The first music video was directed by Hype Williams and released on West's official website on May 25, 2007.

To visually complement the thematically distanced, alienated feel of the track, the video was filmed in a desert. It carries a minimal aesthetic, with scenes shot in a barren, wide-open desert landscape. For a limited time, the music video was available as a free download on the U.S. iTunes Store.

On July 25, 2007, West premiered an alternate music video for "Can't Tell Me Nothing" on his website. This version was directed by Michael Blieden and featured comedian Zach Galifianakis and folk singer-songwriter Will Oldham. West had been introduced to Galifianakis' work through his personal trainer, and eventually asked him to perform in his second video after attending one of Galifianakis' stand-up shows in Los Angeles. The unscripted, low-budget music video was filmed at Galifianakis' farm in North Carolina and features him and Oldham lip-synching to the song. The alternate video was selected by Rolling Stone as the third best music video of 2007 while Pitchfork Media cited the version as the thirtieth best music video of the decade.

With this music video it was set in the desert so when you watch the music video to this nothing really changes until the night time where you see Kanye West, rapping away with smoke appearing from the background then you see some lights in the background like stage lights for a play or a nightclub. Now to me this made no sense because if you are in the middle of the desert, stage lights aren’t going to appear out of nowhere. That is the only thing in the video to me that didn’t make sense.

The other thing I noticed about the video was Kanye West being very cocky which he is very famous for. Most of the time you have him frowning in the video with a very serious look on his face. The lyrics in the song are saying that all the bad things that are being said about him he already knows and he doesn’t really care so that is why he is saying you can’t tell him nothing because it is his life and that’s how he wants to live it.

A famous example was at the VMA awards and Taylor Swift won an award and he ran on stage telling everyone saying that Beyoncé should have won an award for the best video. That video was Single Ladies. Kanye West’s outburst caused a bit of a riot at the awards and he had to be evacuated from the building. After the incident he went quiet for 6 months and went on TV to say sorry to Taylor Swift. That is just one of the many examples that Kanye West, doesn’t care about what people think and he will do what he wants.

The song charted number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America which is an average entry into the chart. The single didn’t do so well in the UK charting in at 107 which is his lowest charting single in the UK to date. The song did go platinum in the USA a year later.

I found the video on YouTube, Vevo, MySpace and Kanye West.com. I think the reason the song charted so low on the chart is because it is not a club banger. It hasn’t got any cheesy lyrics about how much money he has earned or who he shot. The lyrics have a story behind them and a lot of people these days don’t like that they would rather hear about sex, drugs, money and cars which are everyday things but are talked about too much within rap music. That is why I like Kanye West, he raps about what is going on in the world. It is not just all about money. When you listen to his raps you can tell he does it from the heart. The other thing I love about him is that he doesn’t care what he says in his music and I respect him for that.