I admit, I saw this “trailer” yesterday and thought really hard about posting it. Yeah, it’s Kanye West, arguably one of the biggest music icons of this generation, but then again… it’s Kanye West. Ultimately, I opted not to, not out of any prejudices against Kanye (I love the man and everything he does), but simply because I couldn’t find a proper embed code for the trailer. I’ve spent the last hour watching and re-watching this purported trailer, and it has me wondering exactly what this film “directed by Hype Williams coming to theaters” really is, and what it would mean for Kanye’s never-ending quest for artistic expression.
Last week, we reported American Psycho‘s Bret Easton Ellis’s involvement on a film for Kanye. Could this Yeezus trailer be the same project? Probably. Now then, exactly what Yeezus will be is the real question. From my initial reactions, it seemed that Yeezus would just be a glorified concert movie a la Never Say Never. However, knowing Kanye and his taste for the grandiose, it could be that Yeezus will be so much more than a collection of Yeezus Tour clips.
Remember, when My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released, it was paired with the Runaway short film, which itself served as a visual supplement to the album, but was otherwise a long, glorified medley. However, in saying that, I absolutely loved some of the “chapters” found in the short. Yeezus, then, could be an expansion of the Runaway experiment, and with two talented artists in Hype Williams and Bret Easton Ellis involved, it could be Kanye’s first real step in a successful future in cinema.
…or it could be a completely convoluted mess. As all things with Kanye, there’s nothing but extremes with no middle ground. Here’s hoping that the register will tilt towards positive.