The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

It has been almost a month since I published one of these. Fortunately, people pretty much stop putting out music videos in December. That entire artform just took a four-week nap. But there were exceptions. A few people were nice enough to come out with good videos during the long holiday break. I salute those people. This week’s picks are below.

5. Phoebe Bridgers – “Killer” (Dir. Gus Black)

Stark, desolate heaviness, with golden-hour light that somehow glows amber even in black-and-white.

4. Teyana Taylor – “Gonna Love Me (Remix)” (Feat. Ghostface Killah, Method Man, & Raekwon) (Dir. Teyana Taylor)

I see Method Man rapping on a rooftop, and I just get happy. I can’t help it. It’s pavlovian. The quasi-’90s fashion in this video is great, as is Ghostface Killah’s naturalistic acting, a gift just waiting for the indie film director smart enough to exploit it. All of this is more than enough to make up for the baffling fact that Raekwon didn’t show up for the shoot. You really had something more important going on, Raekwon?

3. Cardi B – “Money” (Dir. Jora Frantzis)

Cardi’s greatest strength is her fuck-you-up hurricane of personality, and that comes across better in Instagram Story videos than it does in big-budget affairs where she’s made up to look like a renaissance painting in a strip club. But this is that good renaissance-painting-in-a-strip-club shit, and Cardi gets bonus points for being the most famous person ever to breastfeed in a music video.

2. Joey Purp – “Aw Shit!” (Dir. Jason M. Peterson)

Look, this doesn’t have to be that hard. Sometimes, you can just film Chicago rap-scene greats footworking in front of lit-up walls, edit it together so that the cuts come on-beat, and walk away with a great video.

1. Justice – “Heavy Metal” (Dir. Filip Nilsson)

After Drumline and Beychella, we probably didn’t need another reminder that HBCU marching bands are one of our greatest cultural resources. We got one anyway.

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