The 5 Best Videos Of The Week
This week was a stacked one, and plenty of great videos didn’t make the cut for this list, including Thundercat’s existential samurai joke and Carly Rae Jepsen’s joyous travelogue. But I only want to talk about one of them, and that’s the Black Eyed Peas’ giddily sacrilegious retro-rap odyssey “Yesterday.” I have no idea what made these doofs think they could pose on Public Enemy’s Nation Of Millions album cover while blatantly biting an Erykah Badu video without pissing people off, but god bless them for it. Music videos could use more of this brand of unrepentant silliness. That part where they say they’re going to take us to the future? I may have actually clapped. But that video still didn’t make the list this week. The ones that did make it are below.
5. Gangrene – “Driving Gloves” (Feat. Action Bronson) (Dir. Jason Goldwatch)
The joke was better in the first Jackass movie, but it’s still funny now. Between this and Brock Lesnar, this is the summer of wanton and intentional automobile destruction.
4. Summer Camp – “You’re Gone” (Dir. Robert Frost & Andrew Kueh)
Without the subtle little touches, this would be your average humans-vs.-zombies roller-derby love-story video. But it’s the little things, like the story told in the championship wall-photos and the last little snarl at the end, that put this one over the top.
3. Kurt Vile – “Pretty Pimpin” (Dir. Daniel Henry)
The are very few people on this planet who can make deep slack look glamorous. KV is one of them. That house full of Kurt Vile clones: How chill an environment would that be?
2. Despot – “House Of Bricks” (Dir. Evan Mast)
Take a charming slice-of-life video about a family that’s New York as fuck, add a goddam falcon to it, and you’ve got yourself a winner.
1. Vince Staples – “Norf Norf” (Dir. Spike Jordan)
It’s not quite as instantly devastating as Staples “Señorita” video, but it pushes those same buttons with that same deadpan intensity. The heaviest thing about it is the bored, blase expression on Staples’ face, like he knows this has happened before and it’s going to happen again. It’s a part of life. It shouldn’t be.