Why So Serious?

Here's that new video for "No Church in the Wild" off WTT. It's directed by Romain Gavras, who you may remember as the director of M.I.A.'s "Born Free". (The ginger genocide video.) Several of his videos are set in a dystopian future, somewhere between now and when Mad Max takes place. In this future, Jay-Z is a freedom fighter, possibly picking up from where he left off in "Run This Town".

Jay's semi-endorsement of the occupy movement has been pretty curious. He had those t-shirts with "occupy all streets", but then it turned out he wasn't donating any of the money, because celebrity charity rule #1 is: Fuck you, pay me. Okay, that's not always the case, but it often is. In this case it was surprising because Jay claims he was "the first person that wrote checks to Columbine."

I have to think that Kanye didn't anticipate this video when he wrote those lyrics. I figure he was thinking about wearing a really snug outfit with a pair of Yeezy II's, probably wearing sunglasses in the dark.

Does this feel really over-manufactured to anyone else? I can't put my finger on it, but something doesn't feel right here. Anyway, moving on.