Thoughts On the Sunday Candy Music Video
Sunday Candy was a song that was originally released on Chance the Rapper and the Social Experiment's release of their self titled mix-tape, and on that mix-tape it was definitely one of my favorites. In the track you have Donnie Trumpet (Nico Segal) and the rest of the Social Experiment band on production, a vocal hook by the beautiful poet and vocalist Jamila Woods, and of course rapping and vocals by our main man Chancelor Bennett (Chance the Rapper). However I need to say that even though Chance plays a major part in the song, and a strong one at that, I feel like this track at most features Chance. It's a song that's more about the members of the Social Experiment's individual talents working together as a unit. The production is uplifting, upbeat, and it has good instrumental parts. I love the horns, the rapid kit/beat, and steel drum one off. Jamila Woods has very strong vocal part which provides a swaying hook that is really loving. It just goes to show that Chance has a talented group of people that he's working with, considering the way they compliment each other stylistically it's no wonder that he's recently decided to forgo his individual projects post Acid Rap.
If you haven't seen this music video yet you need to check it out. The video setting is a high school play and it fits the songs nature. The set itself looks like it's made by an after school stage crew, and I love that. It has this innocence and coming of age essence that makes it sweet and sincere. It's all cute and it gave me this sense of melancholy because of how well it represents young love, not in a conventional sense, but more in a theatrical sense. I think that theme is represented more in the song itself, but the video really packages it well.
Like a play the video is one long take, and it has a strength in this format. It doesn't feel choppy and it's hard to tell where they made cuts. It all flows nicely and does a lot of really cool transitions. For example most of the transitions I loved where when Jamila Woods sings the hook. I love how smooth it always is, and it's always a pretty shot. When the song transitions through it's verses, hooks, and bridges, the video transitions too. This way to visually cue the audio transitions of the song is fitting for a music video and that's what contributes most to the videos great continuity of scenes. I've seen this type of long take style shooting in music videos before, specifically in a lot of OK GO's stuff, but that's done to do their elaborate Rube Goldberg machines justice. Sunday Candy isn't as manic as that, but it is still visually stimulating.
With that being said one of the greatest parts of the video is the dancing. It's all well choreographed by Ian Eastwood, and I believe most of the lead dancers are provided by his dance crew as well. Trevor Takemoto (who is a friend of a friend of mine, actually), Monyett Crump, Ade Willis, and Domino Johnson are all very talented in their leads and have dancing styles that really complement Chance's music. These dancers have done backup dancing for Chance in the past so they're experienced enough with him as an artist so it makes sense. Their ability to be so light on their feet most notably fits the parts of the song where the beats and drum kits become more rapid and freeform. The choreography directing is very solid overall, there were some people in the larger groups bits that were out of sync a little, but never anyone that was a lead, or that was in focus, which is very impressive that someone is able to have that well of a direction over that many people.
If you look at the song under the light, or should I say spotlight, of its purpose being a compositional showcase of all the members of the Social Experiment then the music video being themed after a high school play just makes sense. I think that's kind of the spirit that type of production has. You know the old quote, "there are no small parts, only small actors" and that's entirely evident with the Social Experiment, Chance, Ian Eastwood's dancers, and everyone they've worked with to produce this song and music video. There is a remarkable amount of talent and dedication that is being drawn from here and it's very touching to see this much heart be put into a music video. I really enjoyed it. Definitely give it a watch if you haven't seen it already.
If you want to learn more about Chance the Rapper and what I think of his work make sure to check out my profile piece I did about him for the first episode of the Sad Mothcast, a series of videos that'll be covering artists that I like.
Thanks a lot guys, until next time,
Emanuel Aviles (Sad Moth Manny)
Stuff for you guys:
Oh by the way, I REALLY want to interview Chance the Rapper when he comes to UW Madison's music festival Revelry, so if you want to help me out tweet this or my profile piece that I made of him at him.
No comments:
Post a Comment