Kanye West - All Falls Down ft. Syleena Johnson

Artist

Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 8, 1977. He left college to pursue a musical career, producing tracks for Jay-Z while polishing his demo. He released "The College Dropout" in 2002. It sold 2.6 million copies and won Best Rap Album.

Genre

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic subculture that originated in African-American and Hispanic-American communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically within the Bronx. The term often refers to hip hop music, which consists of poetry that is spoken - rather than sung - over either original or sampled instrumental recordings mixed with new original sounds from drum machines, and/or other instruments. However, the culture has expanded far beyond its original roots, and now is considered a worldwide subculture comprising rapping, DJing, hip hop dance, and graffiti art.

Lyrics

The lyrics are about  questioning the value of a education, as kanye west feels a lot of people go to college because it’s a safe choice after high school and assume they end up with a nice job, but  that’s not always the case

The lyric are fast paced and narrative, thus keeping the audience interested as they storytelling.

Man I promise, she's so self conscious
She has no idea what she's doing in college
That major that she majored in don't make no money
But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny
Now, tell me that ain't insecurrre
The concept of school seems so securrre
Sophmore three yearrrs aint picked a career

 Camera shots

Throughout most of the video we do not actually see Kanye west, as a point of view shot is used, the audience only sees him through reflection on mirrors, this camera shot engages the audience into the music video and lets them see things from kanye west perspective, thus enabling the audience to slightly understand the artist and relate to him in a way. The reflection on the mirrors allows the audience to know who the artist is. 

Medium shot are also used to show the audience were the artist is located.

There is are several non diegetic sounds throughout the video for example the metal detector and the plane taking off in the end. This adds realism to the music video.

This video challenges some of the codes and conventions found in the hip hop genre for instance it does not reference gang culture like many other hip hop music videos do. but it does conform in terms of the sexualising women, as the female character in the video is wearing a short dress.

There is a relation between between the lyrics and the visuals. For example when kanye west says “I'm so self conscious that's why you always see me with at least one of my watches”, a expensive watch is shown 

The music video is fast paced, as its trying to creating a rushing atmosphere, because the female character is rushing to catch a flight, this keeps the audience fascinated with the video.

the audience for this music video is mainly young males but it also has a female audience, this maybe because of the the feature done by Syleena Johnson, also kanye west talks about subject matters that the female audience can relate to.

Cause her baby daddy don't really care
She's so precious with the peer pressure
Couldn't afford a car so she named her daughter Alexus (a Lexus)
She had hair so long that it looked like weave
Then she cut it all off now she look like Eve
And she be dealing with some issues that you can't believe
Single black female addicted to retail and well

Directed by Chris Milk

Chris Milk is an American music video director and photographer. He has directed videos for Kanye West, U2, Green Day, Courtney Love, Audioslave, Modest Mouse, Gnarls Barkley and Arcade Fire. He also has numerous television commercials to his credit. Milk is signed to radicalmedia in the United States for commercials/music videos and WME Entertainment for feature films.

Shot at LA/Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California. It follows Kanye as he accompanies his girlfriend, played by Stacey Dash, to the airport to catch her flight. The music video is shot in first-person perspective, displaying the journey from their car to the airport terminal through West's eyes.

All Falls Down" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West. It was released as the second single from his debut album, The College Dropout. The song was produced by West and features singer Syleena Johnson