A staple of black standup comedy is the mocking of white characters in horror films who make one stupid choice after another, keeping themselves in harm’s way until they’re finally offed. Narrative tension (and unintentional humor) hinges on their stupidity. In Vince Staples’ “Prima Donna,” the music video/short film accompaniment to the 7-track EP of the same name that dropped last week, he’s the one making foolish choices: Are you really going to get in that clearly off-kilter cab, Vince, or in that creepy ass elevator? WTF are the specters of Jimi Hendrix Amy Winehouse and Tupac doing in this Shining-esque hotel? The payoff is a music video whose stylish, surreal visuals tap into the art-school aesthetics gaining traction in hip-hop (thanks, Kanye) without succumbing to the pretension.
The short begins with Vince wrapping up filming on a standard-issue rap video (big-booty video vixens surround him in the clip-within-the clip) before ankling it off the set and hailing a taxi whose driver is only slightly demonic. That’s when the nightmarish fun begins. Bonus points for director Nabil (Kanye West, Frank Ocean, FKA Twigs) for quickly making his point about how clichéd so many rap videos continue to be before nudging “Prima Donna” into cautionary tale that pushes beyond the glamorous/aspirational melancholic rap star woes so many rappers sell us. Vince and Nabil instead map the soul sucking nature of celebrity culture. That point is underscored as Vince raps, “Let me tell you ‘bout when a nigga went crazy/ at the Marriott having Kurt Cobain dreams… housekeeping keep knocking on my door though / don’t you know I’m staring in the mirror with a four-four…” And as he croons the old hymn, “This Little Light of Mine,” you realize he’s indicting his very own choices and dreams that led him to the place of his despair.
Top image courtesy Blacksmith/ARTium/Def Jam.
