I am going to analyse Nicki Minaj ft Chris Brown – right by my side music video, which was directed by Benny Boom. The genre of the song is Hip Hop but it’s more like a ballad which isn’t very typical compared to singers like R Kelly and Nelly. However, the video does feature a number of characteristics of an R’n’B/Hip Hop music video such as luxury cars, jewellery, wealth, glamorous lifestyle and big houses. 
The visuals do not support the lyrics the lyrics are saying how Nicki is feeling and you can tell she’s upset by her facial expression. However, all her emotions builds up to the end because she sings about that she isn’t leaving but at the end she’s all alone on a bench outside. However then her boyfriend; (rapper Nas) joins her and they kiss and make up. There’s another relationship with lyrics and visual when Chris Brown sings the lyrics ‘care to sit down? Let’s talk it out, one on one, without a crowd’; it shows Nicki Minaj and Nas sitting outside at a posh cafe, one two one and without a crowd so it goes with the lyrics.
There are couple of times in the music video when it shows a direct relationship between the music and visual for example, at the bridge of the song when Nicki Minaj sings ‘I can’t eat I-I-I-I.... I can’t sleep I-I-I-I...’ she and Chris Brown move their heads to the ‘I-I-I-I’ parts. Also, when Nicki sings ‘I just hope your heart can hear me now’; every time she sings ‘now’ she breaks it up and the visual shows the shot seem like its vibrating. The video cuts to the beat at the beginning, just before Nicki starts singing and in the middle of the song when Chris Brown is looking down and pulls away his hands from each other. There is a slow paced editing with cross-dissolve transitions which reflect the mood of the song. Also, match cuts are used to add to the edginess of the song when Nicki is performing. The video changes pace with the music when Nicki Minaj is rapping, the camera shots change more frequently and when she finishes her rap the shots cut really fast and it looks like its flashing. 
The record company is looking to sell this track by representing Nicki Minaj as being desirable and beautiful so some girls can relate to it and aspire to be like her. They made the song into a ballad R’n’B/Hip Hop song which isn’t every typical for that genre so it would interest a wider audience. The song features two very popular and successful singers performing on the track. Also, the video features a rapper called Nas, to act as Nicki Minaj’s boyfriend. This song will attract three massive fan bases of each of the super stars on this track. Nas is shown as Nicki Minaj’s boyfriend rather than Chris Brown so the female audience don’t hate on Nicki and see Chris Brown as their boyfriend. This has helped sell the song more as Chris Brown is shown single in the video. The song is mainly a Nicki Minaj song as Chris Brown features in it and doesn’t sing throughout most of the song. The video for this song is very different compared to other Nicki Minaj songs such as Dance and Starships as she’s hardly dressed in them and it’s very sexual. However, in all her music videos her curves are much emphasised and in your face as well as her bum. This video she was wearing some revealing and short clothes but its more calm compared to her other videos.
Nicki Minaj is used as a sexual display in some parts of the video, when she’s wearing the black dress; it’s transparent so you can still see her legs although it’s a long dress. Furthermore before Nicki starts to rap the camera tracks up her legs for the male gaze but it wasn’t all the way to the top. There’s a slight voyeurism in the video when Nicki and Nas are outside sitting down at a cafe table, it shows a point of view shot of Chris Brown looking at Nicki when he’s driving past in his car. There’s also exhibition in the video as Nicki and Chris are performing they look into the camera with a direct mode of address to involve the target audience. There’s loads of close up shots throughout the whole video but most of them being Nicki Minaj’s face as she is the main singer and most of the screen time for the music video is of her.
At the beginning Nicki Minaj is on a big chair in a glamorous room where she is wearing a cute teddy bear top and the intertextual reference is that she looks like Barbie but that is her whole persona. Product placement has been used two times in the video because Nicki is seen wearing Christian Louboutin heels; you can spot the red sole and the shot of the Bentley and when Nas is driving in it.
The music video is a mix of performance-based and narrative-based as it shows Nicki and Chris Brown sing throughout the video and Nicki also moves around at a part like she’s dancing. It’s narrative-based as well because the video tells us a story of Nicki Minaj and her boyfriend Nas.
This is very much an R’n’B/Hip Hop music video as it features most of the characteristics of the genre although it’s more slow and ballad style. Slow motion editing has been used such as fades to the next shot to show that time has passed.
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