Vince Staples- Blue Suede

Illustrative -
Blowing 40s as a youth, amplifying - He is visibly rapping / performing his lyrics in time with the editing.
Always keep it GC, ask my homies for the proof

The video is also shot on location in Long Beach, California as is it partly one of the main references throughout the songs course. The narrative running through his song details gang life in his neighbourhood, The struggles of living where he does and the issues he has had to face throughout his life and the visuals perfectly detail the stark realities he faces. E.g. People cooking drugs, gambling, prostitution etc.

The idea of the star image is presented as well with multiple close up shots of vince while he’s rapping and also an emphasis on his performance in the video itself. Star iconography is featured as well with vince paying a lot of attention to the Crip gang ( he’s a part of ) and making that known throughout the video.

Voyeurism is demonstrated through out the video from the very offset . With vince starting the video getting out of bed with a half naked girl in it. There are also multiple shots throughout the video demonstrating this concept.

There is evidence of intertextuality in this video with vince paying homage to Snoop Dogg ( long beach native ) in which he is standing on a roof performing which is very similar to one of snoop’s early videos for the song - What’s my name.

Never gon' switch, my momma raised soldiers- when he says this a picture frame comes into shot with a picture of his mother on it , this shot is just another illustrative use of camera techniques to amplify the meanings within the video.

In terms of special effects the video contains a lot of slow motion tracking shots to give certain shots more meaning or more significance within the video for example at 1:33 somebody counting money, 1:34 somebody smoking and at 1:35 somebody rolling dice. All of the subjects for the shots have purposely been slowed down for the viewer to be able to pay more attention to certain shots to maybe pick out other meanings from the video. There’s been much speculation as to whether this song is an extended metaphor of the hood life or a mockery of fake rappers that portray that image so all the shots detail some things that are associated with that life whether it be earning money, doing drugs or gambling to maybe make the audience question things that they have seen if associated with those things.

At 1:53 Non-diegetic sound becomes diegetic through camera movements and editing. In the shot a female hand is seen reaching to a speaker on the table at the house party and she when presses the on button through editing the backing track re-enters and the bass-line returns to the song which the restarts the main point of the video.

camera - close ups , mid shots, long shots.
movement
mise em scene - guns, drugs, alcohol, girls, dominoes (gambling) gang paraphernalia ,
editing - the overall video is in black and white but the only colour shown is blue . this links to the very title of the track ‘Blue Suede’ which is a metaphor for the colours worn by the crip gang members.
sound - 1:53 non diegetic goes to diegetic through camera and editing.
special effects . slow motion, black and white.