American rapper Kanye West has released four video albums and been featured in various music videos. He has also made cameo appearances in films and appeared in several television programs.
The music video was filmed in California and West is portrayed as a preacher rapping before a congregation from a pulpit. All the while, angels guide a prostitute, an alcoholic, and a drug dealer who want to change their lives to his Baptist church.
Shot in black-and-white, the low-budget video was filmed guerrilla-style in West's hometown of Chicago. It depicts Jesus in the present-day following West as he walks from his home and through his neighborhood to church, performing miracles along the way.
Filmed at the Ontario International Airport and shot from a first-person perspective. West escorts his girlfriend, played by Stacey Dash, from inside their car and throughout the departure terminal to catch her flight. The video illustrates their journey literally through West's eyes, but he is momentarily seen rapping lines when passing by reflective mirrors. Certain scenes are in slow-motion and include cameos by Syleena Johnson, Common, and Kel Mitchell playing the various roles of airport employees.
The music video was shot entirely in black-and-white and filmed on location in the city of Prague. West traverses throughout the Czech Republic capital as the video depicts young African children toiling away in mines juxtaposed with scenes of wealthy Europeans shopping in boutiques and trying on jewelry. The music video concludes with text which reads, "Please purchase conflict-free diamonds."
Filmed in Macy's flagship department store in New York City, the live-action music video expresses a surrealistic Christmas sentiment with the use of special effects. It depicts West as a homeless father of three young children who stay overnight inside the store which seems to come alive. Adam Levine plays a security guard while co-producer Jon Brion makes a brief cameo appearance.
The animated music video expresses grayscale pencil-sketch animation. It contains literal interpretations of select lyrics while West is portrayed as a taxicab driver working in a bleak city who picks up troubled passengers and encounters a young boy and his mother. The animated segments are interspersed with live-action scenes of West and Adam Levine performing.
The alternate version features comedian Zach Galifianakis and folk singer-songwriter Will Oldham and filmed at Galifianakis' farm in North Carolina. West is absent from the unscripted, low-budget music video, which instead sees Galifianakis and Oldham lip-synching to his lines.
Filmed entirely in slow-motion, the video has a Ford Mustang Bullitt roll onto the screen and stop at dusk in the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Playboy model Rita G. exits the vehicle dressed in a wig, fur coat and large black sunglasses. After walking a distance away from the car, stripping down to her lingerie and setting her clothes on fire, she walks back to the car and opens the trunk to reveal a bound and gagged West. She gently strokes his face and gives him a light kiss before retrieving a nearby shovel and bludgeons him to death as the camera pans out.
Filmed in the city of Chicago, the black-and-white music video features a montage of West visiting several different areas of his hometown, with slow-motion shots and camera angles highlighting its buildings, streets, monuments and citizens. Chicago hip-hop group L.E.P. Bogus Boys and rapper Common make cameos.
The video carries an Olympic theme and revolves around a puppet version of Kanye West participating in the 100-meter dash at a fictitious sporting event known as the Unified Games. Flashbacks display the extensive amount of training that the puppet undertook before the race commences.
An animated video centered around West's anthropomorphic teddy bear mascot Dropout Bear. He overcomes various obstacles while racing through a futuristic city in an effort to reach his college campus in time to attend his graduation ceremony.
The music video was filmed in Los Angeles and utilizes the visual technique of datamoshing. It contains multi-faceted textures of compression artifacts laced throughout its technicolor visuals. The bleeding pixels, calculated moshes and other manipulated imagery makes it seem as if the software that rendered the final video output a low-resolution, artifact-laden product. West and Kid Cudi appear at various intervals within the transitional music video, with certain shots in super-slow-motion.
The music video is composed from live concert footage of Jay-Z and West performing at the Staples Center during the last Los Angeles venue on their Watch the Throne Tour. The footage are treated with kaleidoscopic effects as well as images of big cats and Paris landmarks. It also includes a brief video clip taken from the comedy film Blades of Glory. The music video was accompanied by a warning message to viewers with photosensitive epilepsy regarding its extensive use of flashing lights.
The video uses split-screen presentation throughout and features footage of West's Saint Pablo Tour, police brutality, a gospel choir, people with masks on that struggle to breathe, goats, Afrofuturism, Breonna Taylor dancing, Ahmaud Arbery soon before his shooting, protests, church services, cars doing donuts, scenes from Grand Theft Auto V, computer-generated images of West, imprisoned people, and an unmanned drone.
The video was released on mothers day and featured images from West's childhood. [53] The music video served as both a commercial for Yeezy Gap and a tribute to Donda West.[54] A press release from Gap Inc. stated "in a seamless alignment between Ye’s creative platforms new visuals bridge the multidisciplinary artist’s past and future. Photos from Ye’s childhood have been updated to inlay pieces from the forthcoming Yeezy Gap engineered by Balenciaga creative exploration".[55]
The video showcases West, Ludacris and The Game using nationwide Boost Walkie-Talkie to exchange rhymes that pay tribute to their respective hometowns on location. West is shown rapping in front of a mixing console inside the control room of a recording studio in Chicago.
The commercial premiered during the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Entitled "Timeline," it uses special effects and computer graphics to illustrate West walking past iconic backdrops of various major cities, including Paris, Tokyo and Chicago, while leaving a trailing aura fueled by Pepsi.