Kanye West Produces Gorgeous Hot Mess In "Runaway"
Image via GawkerWell, that was 34 minutes I probably won't get back. I wasn't necessarily mad that I lost 34 minutes to watching Kanye West's opus "Runaway." But as someone who has consumed as much media as I have, I came away will feeling that Kanye is someone who's also consumed a lot of media, and while talented with a good eye and ear, I can't say the actual writing and execution of "Runaway" was particularly ground-breaking. But, hey! He tried something different! Ballerinas! Explosions! Giant white Michael Jackson heads! All starring Victoria's Secret model Selita Ebanks near naked in nothing but feathers as that hoary trope "The Phoenix" and Kanye West as that other hoary trope "The Troubled Artist No One Understands!"
All that is written below is out of love. I actually enjoy Kanye's music. I own all his albums and several mixtapes and will probably purchase this latest album when it is released.
That said ... what on earth was this?
I realize that some folks think the video is deep. I didn't really find it to be that deep. Especially considering the story of the phoenix and the misunderstood artist are pretty old, well-worn stories. The narrative is simple. Phoenix falls from earth and hits Kanye's car. Kanye likes the Phoenix and takes her home. (Pssst. The Phoenix is a metaphor for Kanye.) He shows the Phoenix around. They go to a marching band funeral parade for Michael Jackson. (Psst. Michael Jackson was a master of the long-form music video and this is a long-form music video. He was also an visionary artist. He was also misunderstood. See previous "metaphor for Kanye.")
Later he takes the Phoenix to dinner where there are a bunch of darker complexioned black people dressed in white being served by white people. These black folks are uppity. They really aren't that impressed by the Phoenix as, you know, she's a bird and weird. Kanye performs "Runaway" with a bunch of ballerinas. (Psst. Ballerinas are classy n' shit.) This is pretty much my favorite part of the video because I like ballet and I like the song "Runaway" which I actually think is much deeper and more layered than this video it wound up with.
The song, by my estimation, is about Kanye's own self-hatred issues and living a life where he is both surrounded by rotten people, but is also a rotten person himself at times. Throughout the lyrics he suggests that all women who make the mistake of trying to love him should probably make a break for it because he's too messed up to really love. (But still don't leave him. He'll miss you.)
Later dinner is served and there's a giant pheasant on the table that looks a lot like the Phoenix so she freaks out. (Metaphor: We eat our own. Subtle.) Later the Phoenix and Kanye have a stilted chat about how this world eats its own, in case you didn't get it the first time. She, essentially, announces that his world blows and she wants to "burn" so she can go back to where she came from. Kanye doesn't want the Phoenix to leave. But ... you know she does anyway, and then Kanye runs through the woods so fast you're afraid the buttons are going to fly off his shirt.
Video ends!
Throughout the piece you hear some pretty great music from the coming album, and that was pretty much my favorite part. But the actual video had the look of the glossiest film school project ever based on a script by something I might have written when I was 13. This doesn't mean that Kanye should stop trying, but that, you know, maybe he should get more people. People who will be critical and give valuable insight on things. Because it's obvious he's still learning and has talent, but would benefit from a film mentor and a decent writer who could make his visions come together better until he's able to fully handle a project on his own. But this is pretty much my same gripe with Tyler Perry, someone who has a ton of money, but no interest in actually learning the craft, hence keeps making films that ask the audience to forgive his shortcomings so they can enjoy entertainment that reflects their tastes. Meaning, I can appreciate his right to make art, but don't particularly care for it because I know what decent plot, good writing and a story arc is.
My issue with Runaway is that Kanye could have had all those outstanding visuals, but could have also had a better story to hang it on if he'd move past the navel gazing self-indulgence with the whole "I'm so different in the exact same way other people are different" and get at the real introspection it takes to create transformative art.
To paraphrase the film "Inception," Kanye needs to "go deeper." Then go hang out with Spike Jonze or Spike Lee or SPIKE SOMEBODY for a few hours.
Couldn't hurt.
Side note: Would it have killed him to hire someone who can actually sing to sing the hook? I mean, I don't mind unusual singing if you have an unusual (i.e. "interesting") voice. I blame Pharell. He started this marginal singing craze by rappers and as much as I love N.E.R.D. I have no real desire to hear Ye sing with or without autotune. You're friends with John Legend, for goodness sake! Work it out! Get Cody Chestnutt to sing the chorus on "Runaway." It's not like he's doing anything.
Danielle Belton | 25 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged hip hop, kanye west, music, music videos, runaway 
Reader Comments (25)
I love this synopsis, I personally loved it but I am biased because I love Kanye not because I think that he is so well rounded but because I feel that he isn't afraid to put new things out there and wait for the backlash. I mean I admire his cockiness and confidence, how could you not.
P.S. I totally agree with your side note
This is by far the funniest piece I've read on Runaway!
@ Africa Hannibal
Oh. I love Kanye. I just wish he'd be as a perfectionist about other things as he is about music. It reminds me of the first time I wrote a screenplay and an agent was kind enough to write me back and tell me that I'd written the whole thing in the wrong format. I was grateful to learn the proper technique to make my stories better. It's frustrating for me to watch someone who is very talented just not learn the basics because he "doesn't have to." He should want to learn the basics if only so he can keep pushing the creative envelop and make the best art possible. I think the last thing he wanted was for it to be so derivative, but he just didn't know or is surrounded by people who aren't going to challenge him. Being challenged is a good thing, but you have to have a thick skin. I don't think he's emotionally there yet and he's made so much money in spite of it he probably doesn't think he needs to be.
Kanye is a visual artist. His eye is impeccable and the use of color and the angles/composition were fantastic. It would have been much better without the dialog. The music was good enough. Overall, I'd give him an A for effort.
The reality is, I would have gotten it without the heavy handed yet simplistic dialog and blatant metaphors because I have always been into art but the world is grossly un-cultured and folks just don't have a developed enough palate to truly get the implied but unspoken. Some see a bowl of fruit while others see a masterpiece. So I undertand why he had to spell it out, even if he didn't do that intentionally. I think he's going in the right direction and if he can further broaden the gen-pop's horizons by exposing them to beautiful things you can't see if you never leave your're hood, thats a good thing.
Kanye strikes me as someone who wants to be deep and artistic who has not seen the art in his true life yet and he is emersing himself in things that look and scream "artsy" ie. high-fashion, ballerinas, fine china, models, marble columns, and suede slippers with no socks. However, he has yet to grasp the fact that art is the most effective when the artist forms his own perspective based on what is relative to him/her, not when its the result of globe trotting and creating a collage of the bits and pieces that you have picked up along the way. Those should be a part of but not the entirety of your work.
Oh my God! Where is Cody Chestnutt? It's been a minute since I've heard from him.
This is a great post! Without it, I would have never understood what I just spent the last 34 minutes watching. I agree, the tracks on the album seem pretty tight. I might just buy this one. Thanks!
Great post! And good Cody Chestnut reference... I think we need to send a search party out for Mr. Chestnut!
Re: Runaway -- I blame Kanye's co-writer-- Hype Williams. Hype's foray into full length feature film, Belly, although a cult classic was as deep as my bathtub. That movie had every cliche and "symbolism" in the book thrown into that movie. Runaway reminded me exactly of that film -- more gloss than substance. Hype definitely delivered on the stunning visuals, but the content was often lost in the delivery and leaves the viewer scratching our heads.
However, when watching Runaway I couldn't help to think the story was directly related to Kanye's relationship with Amber Rose. I saw her as the Phoenix (odd, different, not in the same "class" as Kanye). Kanye "found her" and "kept her" -- introduced her to a new world of "uppity black folk" who probably judgmentally asked Ye, "you know she's a stripper, right" just as old dude asked him at the dinner party, "Your girlfriends beautiful. You know she's a bird, right?". I could be reaching and in all reality I don't think we will ever fully know what the heck that 34 minutes was about!
I didn't watch the whole thing. It was pretty but disjointed - like a really artistic schizophrenic wrote/shot it.
He is a visual artist though. He does different and does it well. No fear of failing there - and one of the few people who deserve the term Hip Hop ARTIST.
@That Girl :
oooh good commentary.
I'm sorry but when I saw this on the Direct TV guide and read the summary and saw that it was Kanye, I knew that It would be a colossal waste of time (and I'm unemployed) so I didn't look at it. I'm Kanye'd out!!
Excellent summary!
Cody...where are you???? Can you at least do a collabo or something....?
It was TBS/TPT (TBS - Tyler Perry TV) this weekend - well not all TP but it was black movie weekend so I heard Cody and was like, dang, its been a while....
CODY CHESNUTT!!!!!!!!!!
@ ThatGirl,
You're not the only one who thought that. As soon as the RMDIW (Rude Man Dressed In White) said that, I thought "Don't you talk about my Amber!"
But yes, I agree with you Danielle. This video reminded me of some AP Art Studio pieces back in high school. The surface is nice, but their is no depth. Watching this video I felt like you could pause it at any given time and get a "pretty picture." I'll give Kanye and Hype an A for effort, but it's time for Kanye to enroll himself into a storyboard workshop course over the summer. It would be nice to see him take all that time he puts into being different for the sake of saying he's different, into mastering his art form.
Cody Chestnutt was at the Weeksville Heritage Society in Brooklyn doing slices of new and it was just Fab!!!
http://www.weeksvillesociety.org/oasis-2010/july_03.html
I'm glad you broke it down cuz I didn't know what the hell I was watching. Even now I still think it was 34 mins of pretty still frames with no cohesive thought. I LOVE Kanye but I hate when ppl try so hard to be deep and different that they end up getting lost (and losing others in the process). I'm getting the album but his whole media run this go around has me tuning him out.
PS @ Snob
Totally unrelated to this post but are you gonna continue writing those "What We Lost" articles? Part 1 was one of the best things I've read in a long while.
@ EmpressDivine
I've been meaning to put up an explanation for the story series. I got such wonderful feedback from the first piece that I'm actually super concerned about making sure the next one is at least somewhat equal in quality and realized I needed more time to put it together and a week was not long enough. I plan on continuing the series, but I'm probably going to make it monthly rather than weekly. That's a lot to turn around in a week.
Very interesting. I agree, I didnt find it all too deep but I did find it entertaining.
Amen. I was thinking, "We get it! You're different. It's ok." <pats Kanye on the back soothingly> That whole conversation with the phoenix was like when someone has to say 'get it?' after they tell a joke. If they have to explain it that heavy handedly, then was it really worth the time?
There's a much better video that came out in May of 2009 called Famous Girl by Christain Rich, it executes!!!!!!
Maybe Mr.West borrowed from that effort but his execution not so much!!!!!
I felt the exact same way. After watching the premiere, Kanye gave an interview. I was looking forward to hearing about his creative process while making this "film", but instead he had no answers. When the interviewer asked him what does all of this mean, Kanye replied " I didn't even know until after it was all put together". I sat there with a blank stare at the screen. As someone wh grew up with a couple of family members who were artist, that answer was insulting. Basically he just looks at other people's art and gets "inspired" to create his own. The fact that he had little to no reason behind creating his work is incredible. Kanye is a genius for many reason, sadly this film is not one of them.
Self indulgent hyperbole, good analysis snob...Kayne obviously has too much money and time on his hand, Kayne is also colour struck and has deep seated self hate...his obession with light skinned black women, and what was up with the uppity darkies at the dinner party, who weren't impressed with his yella girlfriend.
sidebar item: Too all my light skinned sistas, please perform your community service by giving these talent non athletic dark skinned brothers some play, it will cut down on the self destructive...Kayne West, Clarence Thomas, Chris Dardens of the world!
@ Mike H
As a woman who's not even really that light, I can attest that dating self-hating color fetishists is a bridge too far. I've accidentally stumbled in a few relationships with these brothers and I was miserable. When I dated the light-almost-white self-loathing guy he berated me when my hair was curly and expected me to look like a Barbie doll at all times. When I dated the blue-black dark self-loathing guy he eventually grew to resent me and accused me all the time of things I wasn't doing, of having it much easier than him and he grew possessive, obsessed and, quite frankly, scary. At the end of both relationships I prayed they would just find themselves a white woman and leave me, and all other black women, alone. Because, they really don't want anyone who is black at all. Not even a "lighter" black. Light-skinned women are like the consolation prize to them when they really wanted that white woman.
I say, I'm not going to get in your way, angry man who hates it when I don't have a perm! YOU GO GET YOU THAT WHITE WOMAN! And I salute you. Just don't come around here anymore, asking me to invest in sun block so you can indulge in your lighter, brighter, good hair fantasies without upsetting your mother.
@Belton, LOL where is the luv, where is the luv...seriously though, we do need ya to perform community servce! Those brothers you dated had issues, that any form of outreach wouldnt have helped...just look at Michael Strahan, had it out for the sistas until his white wife took everything, so when he decided to date a black women...he went after of all women...Nicole Murphy!
You keep dating those blue black brothers, Derek Luke, Rob Brown, Idris Elba, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje!
Finally I get to talk to someone about this
I have to disagree with you Ms. Belton. I thought the video/movie was awesome. I also never saw him as the Phoenix, I saw the phoenix as Hip Hop...it came down from the heavens and smashed into him. The part with him looking at the phoenix with the fawn and bunny rabbit (fawns and bunnies are samples of Spring or the beginning of something, but I know you already knew that) was him watching it grow right along with the people that listen to it. Also when he is playing the drum machine with the "Power" samples in it, I thuoght that to be him making Hip Hop (The Phoenix) dance.The part with MJ is pretty much obvious, The dinner scene I thought was what you said but when the guy said "your girlfiend is very beautiful, did you know she was a bird?" I thought it was saying Hip Hop is not always what you think it is. When the Phoenix screams at the colorful turkey I thought it was trying to tell people Hip Hop is (as it has been) in a state of emergency ( I hate that tired ass term) but over all I loved the video and think it will make other artist do the same and open their minds. But you more than likely are right, I am just a regular cat with no cinema background.
As always love the blog
Anyone still caught up in the light skin vs dark skin, good hair vs. bad hair nonsense is an idiot. No one should be forced to date an idiot.