J.Cole- Crooked Smile
Narrative
This music video is dedicated to a 7 year old girl who was accidentally killed in a police raid, in 2010. The 7 year old Aiayana Stanley-Jones, was in her grandmother's hand sleeping when the police raided in and a police officer shot her. In the music video the audience is with J.Cole and a DEA agent they both go through the same morning routine they brush their teeth, eat breakfast. As J.Cole washes his face we hear the water running which gives the audience a sense of realism, this happens throughout the starting this makes the audience seem like they are with them. He could be saying that about how races are the same it doesn't matter what colour we are we are the same, we go through the same routine. We later on find out that he is a drug dealer, as we find out that he is a drug dealer it is almost a stereotypical view of a young black man, as they are known to be into drugs and drinking. However as they celebrate his little sister's birthday there is a spilt between the happy times with J.Cole having a nice time celebrating , to the DEA who are on the way to J.Cole. They switches the scenes between the DEA and J.Cole to give the audience the idea that they DEA is on their way to him, this therefore makes the audience feel sad as their is a flip between happy and sad. As they sing happy birthday to the little sister, the audio fades out to make the birthday song more in focus, then the actual song which is in the background. As they are singing they show the DEA agent planning which contrasts with the happy and sad memory. During this happy moment it flips back to the DEA agents which is in a dark lighting which could connote that something bad is going to happen, and they are the bad guys. "Later that night" from now to the end is where this links to Aiayana, it the same narrative, the police raids a house at night, as J.Cole gets arrested she comes out of bed and a police shoots her.
As we get to the bit that she gets shot, the audio fades out and gives a dramatic music that goes in the background. This adds furthermore dramatic effects. The camera is behind the girl which is almost like giving the girl's perspective, this makes the audience feel sympathy and feel the emotion almost like they were the one that was going to get shot. Also as the camera looks like is is hand held and not still landscape held like it was before this make it more suspenceful atmosphere is created. Later on in video there is a close up on the leader of the DEA, which then adds in the information to add in more of a dramatic effect. At the end we can tell that he regrets everything due to the fact that his little sister died. He could be saying that everyone makes mistake but don't make a mistake on drugs as at the end he says "AND PLEASE RECONSIDER YOUR WAR ON DRUGS". His motif here is to end the war on drugs and avoid what happened in the music video and in real life (Aiyana), this makes him seem like an inspirational person as he is looking out for his fellow people. The text is quite simple nothing too outgoing about it, this links to how calm the staring of the music video is, it later on gets serious as the text is eaten by the DEA van. The use of slow motion between the little girl and the DEA agent, gives a dramatic effect as we are reaching the climax of this music video.
