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Kendrick Lamar, TDE continue to remain top dawgs of music videos with ‘All The Stars’
The visual is the lead single off the highly anticipated ‘Black Panther’ soundtrack
There’s a slight comparison to be made between the decline in the quality of music videos and the decline of the back-to-the-basket game for big men in the NBA. Back in the day, non-Michael Jordan-led teams needed a dominant center to be competitive. And back in the day, MTV, BET, VH1 and The Box were the one-stop shop for all things music videos. And while videos can be shot oftentimes with nothing more than a camera phone these days — yielding both fruitful and not-so-fruitful results — the allure of the music video has taken on a new look in part because there are so many to sift from and through.
Yet, make no mistake about this reality. No one’s doing videos better than Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) right now — at the very least in a dead heat with Jay Z’s 4:44 videos. About the only slip-up is SZA’s Solange-directed “The Weekend” visual, which left a huge opportunity on the table for not following the song’s storyline. Kendrick Lamar’s batting 1,000 right now though. Look no further than the visuals for his Grammy-winning album DAMN., a la “LOYALTY.” with Rihanna, “LOVE.” with Zacari, “ELEMENT.” and “DNA.” Many of those were fueled by Dave Meyers and the little homies, the directorial minds behind TDE’s newest video for “All The Stars.” The record is the lead single from the Black Panther-inspired soundtrack set to drop Friday. The video itself, however, is a wicked elixir of next-level graphic designs, transitions and, most importantly, overt homages to the images, inspirations, history, power and pigment that make Black Panther one of the most anticipated movies of this century, if not of all time.
Already a hit song currently being spun on radio stations nationwide, “All the Stars'” video provides added depth that wasn’t there before. And with TDE paying such close attention to detail with how they present themselves visually, it leaves but one question. Could they really be on the verge of bringing back the long-since extinct concept of the movie soundtrack too?