The Best of Hype Williams by Sean Brown

SB: I know, I know, how could I rank this higher than “Put Your Hands”? For one, the use of two songs in a single video was a huge marketing play I wish was still widely a thing. I loved Busta’s E.L.E. album and “Party Is Going On Over Here” wasn’t even a song with heavy radio play if any at all. And that’s why I love Busta and Hype’s chemistry. It was purely about the arts. It felt like they were ideating before they knew which song would be the single, and then would pluck ideas out to fit with the songs. I think that in the same way Scorsese had found a muse in De Niro, Hype had found it in Busta. There was a creative trust so strong between them, it felt as though Hype could press record and step away from the camera. The locations in this video are nothing crazy, it relies heavily on Busta’s performance, lighting, and angles. It’s simple and simple can be hard to do.

SB: I mean c’mon, the long continuous shot of DMX spitting the first verse to shorty while leaning on the whip, paired with the slow motion trailing shots. It feels like a lot of the voyeuristic perspective that would be prevalent throughout Belly later that year. Also, look at the use of cameos here. Portraits of Ja Rule, and Eve on what looks like a summer day in the hood and only at the end. Never forget thugs need love, too, bruh.

SB: It was a tough decision on what Missy video to include in this round up, obviously, but man, “She’s A B**ch” is a video shot in 1999, for a song that sounds like it was recorded in 2099, which I believe in the year 3099 won’t look out of date. I don’t know what convos Missy and Hype were having, I don’t know what was on the moldboard when they worked together, but everything just laid the future out for a genre that was still in its infancy.

SB: Aside from the epic use of the sample, one of the first questions I asked Puff when I met him was, “Why the shiny suits? What was the thinking behind all of that?” He said he grew up watching Diana Ross with all the glam in her performances and he wanted to bring that to rap. It all connected for me right then. Look at the living icon that is June Ambrose, and the set design here. This video is not only one of Hype’s most notable works, it doubles as one of the conduits to further commercializing rap culture. The song would be a hit for ages, but the video matches the scale of a song this b.i.g.

SB: I’m always going to have an affinity for nature focused videos. As a kid I didn ‘t understand the beauty of this video. I knew it was a beautiful video, like I could comprehend that, but it didn ‘t make sense until I started travelling. During this time, this wasn ‘t what R&B videos looked like in rotation. I love the simplicity of this song and video. I feel like there is reference to this video when you watch Kanye ‘s “Amazing,” also directed by Hype in Hawaii. This video also inspired how I approached Amaal ‘s “Not What I Thought” once I started directing.

SB: This is that intersection thing Hype specializes in. Taking hood energy and presenting it in a way that amplifies its beauty. It’s still very much Queensbridge, but it’s the backdrop of a honeymoon, or the lavish day-in-the-life of a cartel boss depending on how you look at it. And that was the genius of Hype’s take on the rap video, specifically, they’re not just good videos, they’re beautiful videos.

SB: At this point, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ had already gone diamond and 50 Cent was setting the stage for the next crop of stars to follow. He was a superstar in his own right, but could apply that formula to others. Cause think about it, both “How We Do” & “Hate It Or Love It” are on Game’s debut album! Rappers were getting bigger, larger than life even, and so the cameras got better, lenses got clearer. What I love about this era of Hype videos is his ability to evolve with the times, culture, and technology. There isn’t a fish eye in sight, but the high definition capture of groupie love and Lamborghini doors on that Escalade is all there.

SB: It’s the Soul II Soul acapella that makes this intro so chilling. What else would’ve worked as a score? The club light flashes that give us just enough to make sense of what’s happening frame by frame, but even if you had never heard a Nas or DMX song in your life, this intro pulls you in. From the sound, colours, to slow motion, it commands your attention until the very end. There is a lot of back and forth about the storyline of Belly, but if you can watch it from the perspective of a master storyteller being tasked to translate short form genius into long format, then I’d say this film did exactly what it was supposed to do.

SB: When Hype linked with Nas for this and “Street Dreams,” he really flexed his understanding of lighting. I can’t make this claim without giving flowers to his go-to DP Malik Sayeed, but you can see the film study clearly. Just look at the lighting of Lauryn and Nas’ skin tones at night! And on film! Hype’s imagery inspired me to take great care in the editing and processing of colour in my own photography. Everything from skin tones, the green of the grass, to the colour of the sky I take into consideration. For “Street Dreams,” Hype mentioned that they had film stocks used for things like aviation testing put back into production just for the video. It is a huge undertaking to experiment with what we would now consider limited technology, and yet look at the reward.

SB: I liked this song when I first heard it. But I loved it after seeing the video. The entire thing feels like a dream sequence shot from sun up to sun down. This video embodies the aesthetic transformation Graduation had, and is another example of Hype’s grand simplicity.