New Kanye West (Feat. T-Pain) Video - "Good Life"
As much as Kanye runs around drumming up things to brag about/have his feelings hurt by, to his credit, he knows where to look (and what to appropriate) on his cool quest. So that little hipster-beloved French dance duo Justice with excellent taste in videos? Well their victory at the '06 Euro MTV Awards for "We Are Your Friends" may have set him off, but they got his attention -- and a year later, he confessed to TRL that "D.A.N.C.E." is the shit. And so West did what he does best: Grab the magic t-shirt man So Me for his own surefire autumnal club jam "Good Life," featuring Faheem Najm (aka T-Pain) and his trusty envelope follower vocal effect, along with plenty of of pop-arty illustrations and fontastic text. Hypercolor us impressed: three (wait, four) clips pre-Graduation day, all watch-worthy.
Posted at 10:09 AM in Video
Tags: Kanye West | T-Pain
Someone has been watching the D.A.N.C.E. video.
Posted by: Sarah at September 12, 2007 10:32 AM | ReplyScore = 0
andddd its down.
sarah, good insight. i wish they would have covered the similarities in THE ENTIRE POST CONCERNING THE VIDEO.
Posted by: nick at September 12, 2007 11:26 AM | ReplyScore = 0
Why didn't he put The Chipmunks in the video. Alvin must be pissed.
Posted by: mattshu at September 12, 2007 12:01 PM | ReplyScore = 0
After his public outburst at losing Best Video to Justice at the EuroMTV Awards, he blatantly (and poorly) bites off the video to which he lost. It's just another thinly-veiled attempt at shamelessly riding the wave of topical pop music trends in order to seem interesting.
Kanye West is a child.
Posted by: Jezy at September 12, 2007 12:17 PM | ReplyScore = 0
D.A.N.C.E isn't the video he lost to. It is a bit of a rip off though. But i love it!
Posted by: kevin king at September 12, 2007 12:23 PM | ReplyScore = 0
yeah, i love it. And I really hate to tell you, but America still doesn't know who Justice is. Sure they got a VMA nod but they only play the video at 3 in the morning and didn't even play the right song with the video when they were listing the nominees during the show. It's clear that, based on the plethora of Murakami related art that is accompanying this album that Kanye likes pop art. You know what trend he's not riding? Half-baked 808 and Casio beats with boring choruses and barely any verses. He bites the right stuff and I love him for it.
And not to be a constant apologist for Kanye, but I'm pretty sure he had no idea who Justice, or their collaborators Simian, were. It's not like he sat there and said, "Whoa, Justice? Those guys suck! Let's go crazy!" Fact of the matter was, that MTV promises awards to people if they come. That's how awards shows work, they give the award to who's there. Case in point, a friend of mine worked on production of one a few years ago and said that when the original winner of something didn't show, they just asked who was nominated that was there. Kanye claims, and this isn't the most glamorous claim, that MTV said if you drop everything you're doing and go to Europe you'll win best video. As a marketing move, it's a smart thing to do, and then they pulled the carpet out from under him again. So, put that together with the fact he was drunk, and subtract any dislike of Justice, and you've got it. He's a big personality, like pop stars should be, and a smart one at that. Why is it that all of sudden every person in popular music ad even unpopular music has to be the nicest person in the world? Frank Sinatra? Dick but a genius. Morrisey? Kind of a dick. Axl Rose? Major dick and we kind of even loved it. Shit, Oasis created their whole schtick around being drunk assholes and people ate it up. People in the spotlight are either assholes, or are going to appear to be assholes. If every outburst and outlandish thing I said was shown or printed, the world would hate me. I've got a foul mouth and little to no filter. Screw being on your best behavior all the time. Alright, I'm done talking about Kanye. Someone give me another topic...please.
Posted by: stafford at September 12, 2007 12:49 PM | ReplyScore = 0
it's almost uncanny how much this vid resembles the style for 'd.a.n.c.e', i wouldn't be surprised if they used the same director or whatever. i still dig it.
Posted by: liv at September 12, 2007 1:06 PM | ReplyScore = 0
> It's clear that, based on the plethora of
> Murakami related art that is accompanying
> this album that Kanye likes pop art.
Check his house:
Posted by: scott at September 12, 2007 1:09 PM | Replyhttp://www.interiordesign.net/index.asp?layout=slideshow_pic&articleid=CA6469699&sortorder=01
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are you people even READING?! I got SO ME to direct my new video! He did the Justice video and did my video.
Posted by: Kanye at September 12, 2007 1:12 PM | ReplyScore = 0
^Hahahahaha, that would be fucking hilarious if Kanye really did read these blogs.
Anyway, I really like the video. It's completely different visually from every other rap video out there.
Posted by: Chris at September 12, 2007 1:51 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Kanye, you beat me to your defense...
Posted by: Sean at September 12, 2007 1:52 PM | ReplyScore = 0
scott, I've never seen that, and I thank you for showing it to me. It made me happy. Sure people like to talk shit about that ceiling art he's got (which I guiltily love the hell out of) but dude's got some taste. I couldn't tell you how pumped I was to see Murakami's art popping up. Sure it may not be for everyone, but you better believe if I had some cash to drop totally irresponsibly and without consequences, I'd buy myself that trunk. Trunks are awesome. This is nice especially seeing the way other stars houses are decorated. "Cribs" was (is? is it on anymore?) basically an exercise in how not to design houses.
Posted by: stafford at September 12, 2007 1:53 PM | ReplyScore = 0
We just reported on Highbrid Nation that Kanye is way ahead of 50 Cent in album sells. I gotta admit, I love Kanye's music but his arogance almost makes me want to see him fail.
Posted by: Evorgleb at September 12, 2007 2:07 PM | ReplyScore = 0
We just reported on Highbrid Nation that Kanye is way ahead of 50 Cent in album sells. I gotta admit, I love Kanye's music but his arogance almost makes me want to see him fail.
Posted by: Evorgleb at September 12, 2007 2:15 PM | ReplyScore = 0
best part? the myspace sparkly animated gif Michael Jackson that pops up.
Posted by: jim at September 12, 2007 3:09 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I am amazed at this comment section...are you reading the initial post you are commenting?
The initial post explains the guy hired the same So Me to do this video, is not a rip-off if the same guy who did the first video does another one for another artist...
I can agree Kanye is a loudmouth, crybaby and egomanical individual but in this case he is just buying what he can buy and he is paying the guy. Maybe So Me selled out, but Mr. Krying West is not ripping off Justice.
Posted by: Ezequiel at September 12, 2007 4:04 PM | ReplyScore = 0
hey.. doesn't anyone else notice how much this looks like the video for Justice's D.A.N.C.E.???
Posted by: nick at September 12, 2007 4:15 PM | Reply...keeeeding.
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3:24 is the best facial expression you will see all day.
Posted by: Cody at September 12, 2007 5:28 PM | ReplyScore = 0
That video is fucking fantastic! It kinda has retro-cartoony feel, like the old 'Schoolhouse Rock' shorts.
Posted by: Johnny at September 12, 2007 6:26 PM | ReplyScore = 0
T-Pain absolutely ruins any potential this song had.
Posted by: Mos Def at September 12, 2007 8:16 PM | ReplyScore = 0
That girl is pretty. Grind up on me please.
Posted by: Avid'GumReader at September 12, 2007 8:33 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Wow, that's the most interesting interior design I have ever seen - thanks for the link, scott!
Posted by: Jules at September 13, 2007 8:45 AM | ReplyScore = 0
To nick, I didn't read the post before watching the vid. So sue me.
Posted by: Sarah at September 13, 2007 1:35 PM | ReplyScore = 0
LIKE OMG HE TOOOOTALLY RIPPED OFF THAT INSANE NEW JUSTICE BAND.
Posted by: mikey at September 14, 2007 12:19 PM | Replyyou are all a bunch of douches.
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Kanye and T-Pain have created the perfect "end-of-summer-but-we-still-want-summer-to-continue" jam. I am certain that most, if not all, of Stereogum's readers have felt that emotion.
All in all, another hit for Kanye. I know that 50 has had a few singles for his new album as well, but as far as mass appeal goes, Kanye outshines Fiddy by far.
Posted by: Justin Sane at September 16, 2007 10:13 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Kanye must be an art collector now. On BET's 106 and Park the other day he explained that Murakami's art work will be extremely valuable one day and that is cd is a collector's item. He then compared Murakami's work to that of Damien Hurst and Jeff Koons. several members of the audience were injured by all the name dropping.
but um.... fuck it, this video is awesome the song is crazy, and I think I finally like T-Pain.
Thanks be to Kanye
Posted by: conrad at September 17, 2007 3:16 PM | ReplyScore = 0
does anyone genuinely care about kanye west? i know i don't.
Posted by: Gillian at September 17, 2007 5:48 PM | ReplyScore = 0
who is the hot girl in the video?
Posted by: den at September 19, 2007 9:37 PM | ReplyScore = 0
To see Kanye and other celebs party at the hottest clubs in Chicago go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=1s-mEfhVELM
Posted by: emily at October 26, 2007 8:42 AM | ReplyScore = 0
Man I love this blog but your readers are fucking idiots.
oh, wait...
Posted by: ed at January 2, 2008 4:29 AM | ReplyScore = 0
The girl from "it's a good life" video is so HOT!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: End Zone at March 1, 2008 3:35 AM | ReplyScore = 0
whats even more coincedental is the fact that d.a.n.c.e( justice ) is a homeage to michael jackson,in particular his song p.y.t as the lyrics make reference too,and the good life (kanye west) happens to feature samples of p.y.t. by michael jackson, on top of that the videos are almost identical. kanyes actually plagerised the songs motifs as well as the video.
Posted by: trehane at March 12, 2008 8:19 PM | ReplyScore = 0