"They Not Like Us" emerged as a big winner for last night's Grammy Awards, getting nods as
Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and the one category we really track, Best Music Video.
Winners: Dave Free & Kendrick Lamar, video directors; Jack Begert, Cornell Brown, Sam Canter, Jared Heinke, Jamie Rabineau & Anthony Saleh, video producers
Kendrick Lamar's Drake diss "Not Like Us" takes another step towards being the unifying West Coast anthem of the moment with a sprawling and free-spirited video that ends with the OVO owl in a cage.
Actor LaKeith Stanfield co-stars with SZA in this edgy cinematic tale that's not too distant from the Tarantino universe, but with its own eccentric and dangerous charm.
Billed as a Short Film, "We Cry Together" goes even beyond that: It's essentially a filmed piece of live theater. Kendrick Lamar and Taylour Paige go back and forth at each other as the camera roves around them, capturing the raw conversational rap and the even more NSFW ending.
This shit may be hard, but Kendrick Lamar continues to make it look easy with another tight track and a video filled with unexpected imagery at every turn.
Bob Marley's spirit is clearly on the prowl as we move through phases of meditation, work, love and celebration in this soulful journey through Jamaica.
Director Dave Meyers does dystopian sci-fi in a video that seems to take place in the not-too-distant future, if not the here and now, with Justin Timberlake coming out of the dark to spread some light and plant some seeds for the rebuilding to come.
Master Of None co-creator Alan Yang directs a genius video that pokes fun at the fact that Friends was an exceptionally white show, by recasting a remake with a who's who of current black stars, including Jerrod Carmichael, Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Tessa Thompson and Lil Rel Howery.
