"Die Tonight" by Kadence from Positive Hip Hop on Vimeo.
Kadence’s new “Die Tonight” music video recently hit the web. It has a great message that the artist is spiritually prepared to surrender his life at the drop of a hat but features a Grim Reaper character that leaves me a bit confused.In the clip he’s mostly played for laughs by doing some break dancing and goofing with the artist and his crew at the end of the story.
My feeling is that this waters downs the message. Instead of contemplating the realities of death on this earth I find myself thinking of the comical "Scream" character played in the “Scary Movie” Wayans Brothers parodies.
What's your take? Do you think the Grim Reaper character adds or detracts from the song's message?
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1 comment:
As someone that was involved with the video, I have to say that this isn't an unbiased reaction to the video, but perhaps I can provide a little clarity behind the concept. It is a fun, light, tongue-in-cheek video to a song with a very serious subject matter. The juxtaposition of the two makes you think and opens the door for more people (of all backgrounds) to see/enjoy the video. I do not want to "over-spiritualize" the video. However, the "depth" of the video is very well executed as well. Death is something that most people fear. We had a close friend that passed away from cancer in 2006 (Vocab, member of Exodus, who is represented in the banner on the wall behind Kadence). Vocab was strong to the end and ready for death. He taught me that it isn't something to fear. It is something we seldom talk about, but as Christians, we should all be prepared for death. The lyrics to the song speak for themselves and do not need me to repeat them, but they explain a lot of this. The concept was born out of the lyric "when Vocab died, I looked death in the face and I told him: I'll be ready when you take me away. Most cats aint scared of nobody but God, but then they live like He aint even alive." Many videos that have a similar look to this one feature artists claiming to not be afraid of death, so they live any kind of way they want. However, many of these artists do fear death because they do not know where they are going. We, as Christians, should not fear death as we are conditioned to (as is demonstrated in the opening scene). Yes, there are light-hearted moments in this video. They open up the conversation. Often, we get caught up taking ourselves too seriously and don't realize they we are preaching to the choir since those are the only people remotely interested in watching what we put out there.
Sketch, I love what you do and stand for. Thanks for opening up the conversation.
Hope this helps!
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