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A Week of Best Of’s 2022: Music Video
12.27.22
We have officially made it, to the last week of 2022. The music industry is relatively quiet around this time, and hopefully a lot of us are at home resting, gearing up for the new year, as well. With every year-end, however, we finally get to talk about the ‘Best Of’s.’ Everyone has their own Spotify Wrap or Year In Apple Music, and everyone has an opinion on who had the best product out this year.
This week, we’ll round up 2022 with a ‘Best Of’ each day, leading up to the start of 2023. Here is what our schedule will look like:
Monday: Best Freestyle
Tuesday: Best Music Video
Wednesday: Best Collaboration Album of the Year
Thursday: Artist of the year
Friday: Album of the year
On our second day of the week, we’re focusing on some of the hottest music videos to come out of 2022. We’re talking about production, casting, choreography, wardrobe and film quality. There was a lot of dope music videos to come out of 2022, and here are some of For the Soule’s favorites. What was your favorite music video to come out of 2022?
Snoop Dogg and Eminem did something special with this one, every step of the way. The two had just come off of somewhat of a beef, but understood they each had immense respect for each other and their craft. Not only that, they were both legends in hip-hop, incredible businessmen, and played around in this ‘NFT’ space. Now they were not the only two this year to create an NFT music video, but they made the video half in-real-life, half NFT. So no, they did not just outsource the video to some computer geniuses. They still look their time to meet up, do some choreography and lines, and participate in a music video shoot, on top of having their NFT characters created. Going back and forth between to the two different stages of life between the story telling, and overall impact the two have together on this industry, is certainly impeccable. In the six months since being released, the official music video has over 66,000,000 views on YouTube.
Kendrick Lamar will continue to win awards throughout all of the hits on his album that dropped this year, Mr Morale & The Big Steppers. The single, We Cry Together, deserves more than it’ll ever get credit for, because of the controversy that may come with it, though it is genius, nonetheless. Just the way the song was produced, as if a regular, struggling, couple was arguing with each other til they are about to leave, then coming back to one another at the end. Is it love? Is it toxic? Can it both? A question many may ask themselves when struggling in their relationships. As if you could not already visualize the entire conversation (song), Kendrick put together a music video for the record, where her personally played the male character, throughout his dialog. He was dressed as a janitor, sitting at home, complaining. His girlfriend was getting ready to go to work, while they yelled back and forth at each other, moving between two to three rooms of their own home. The setting is simple. But realistic. The dramatization, makes your heart beat. You truthfully feel every moment throughout the song, and the music video. Talk about a video for impact, it does not get much more real than this one right here.
Both Becky G and Karol G have been making huge names for themselves in the US, crushing the Latin categories of all music awards. The two teaming up together, is something like Megan and Cardi. Young Thug and Gunna. Whatever your cup of tea may be, you love to see it. Keep in mind your best girlfriends, because the two are taking us out, for a girls night in with this music video. One of them is clearly going through a break-up, so they hit their mansion of a home, stomp on his pictures, smash some glasses, and have a nice, cold drink. When a new man comes over, they begin recording themselves in the bedroom, while newly ex-boyfriend is sitting at the bar, seemingly waiting for her arrival. Then, a new girls sits next to him, who he asks what has taken her so long. She tells the waitress she “will not be long,” then the whole bar gets a video, of the two back at home in the bedroom, to which the ex-boyfriend freaks out. Yup. He was cheating, and these girls all set him up. The ex-boyfriend? Angus Cloud. The context, the attention to detail, the storytelling, to the casting. It does not get more popular than Angus Cloud nowadays. Absolutely crushed it, ladies.
Big Glo makes the list again, and she deserves it. The thing is, Glo Rilla went viral with her hit single FNF, that looks like it was shot in a parking lot on an old iPhone. Everyone was dressed in jeans and tank tops, it was casual as ever. Now, we absolutely loved that, because of how real and how fun it was. However, to go from that, to this Tomorrow 2 video is insane. The image quality alone with the lighting and details, was top tier. There were additional digital graphics added on to the video that highlighted Glo Rilla, her cars, and other important details throughout the video. They took this music video through several different locations across New York City. Glo Rilla looked completely glow-ed-up, and not only did she hace Cardi B in her music video, but all her friends were still there, too. In three months, the official music video has over 77,000,000 views. Who is topping her?
Future made my list, but not because of the Wait For U medieval times music video. Sorry, just not my vibe. I really loved the Blues music video with G Herbo because of a few things. First, similar to my note above with Glo’s music video, the image quality is really special here. Whether or not the tones in the video are all dark colors, the picture is so vibrant and bright. I like that these two have talked about being from the streets, and they took something from those days, and made it luxurious, like the life they live now; RE: the laundromat. I love that they took into account the name and theme of the song, and incorporated that into the music video. With the title of the song being, Blues, much of the color-tones throughout the video are blue color tones. We know the real meaning of ‘blues’ in the song is money, which is also thrown throughout the music video. Finally, can we talk about the styling here?! The two in matching white outfits with different accessories compliment each other phenomenally, and look good with the blue neon lights in the background. Then of course, we have Future in the lime-green jacket with furry, multi-color bucket hat, that was also seen on Lil Uzi Vert at Rolling Loud, New York City. This look here put this video over the top for me. It was a staple look and moment in hip-hop this year. While Future was rocking the lime-green jacket and multi-color fur hat, G Herbo was wearing an orange vest, which still matched Future’s hat and played a contrasting color to the lime-green jacket. Shout out to the stylist of this music video because it really put them over the top to get them on this list.