Nas's "A Queen's Story" Video: Reviewed

Nas has long been served by his reputation as a "rapper's rapper", who no matter the Illmatic highs and the Nastradamus lows of his "up down up" career, remains always a man of the people. I'm not sure if Nas was seeking to strengthen this reputation by releasing a video that looks like it was made by the people, or just felt like saving some money, but the results are surprising to say the least.

0:00-0:10: My first reaction was that I clicked on the wrong video in Youtube. I wanted the official Nasir Jones approved, professionally produced video, not a fan made slide show set to the song with notes added later. I'm waiting for a note to pop up here, "I KNOW SOME OF THE LYRICS ARE WRONG STOP COMMENTING ABOUT IT."

0:11: With the credits just about out of the way, let's think of a great way to kick off this visual representation of the song. How about, and I'm just spitballing here, we use the album cover? Perfect! Let's not waste time formatting the image, we'll save some money we can use later. Oh and let's remind people it can be purchased. This should probably be done with a snappy, eye grabbing color. Flat, cheap car seat gray? Only if sort of blends with the background please!

0:11-0:34: Don't worry, this video will not only be starring static images, but moving people. Lots of them, in fact. People yelling! Champagne! Crowds! Brief flashes of jiggling haunches! In other words, a club video, which you think would be hard to screw up.

0:35: After hitting play and pause sixty times here, I am nearly positive you see an entire cavernous hooha for a couple of frames. Say what you will about the production value, but this video delivers on the subliminal pornography.

0:40: We catch a first look at what the majority of the video's budget seems to be blown on: sparklers. Seriously, they're shown almost as much as Nas in this video.

0:42: A WorldStarHipHop watermark promises an insane ghetto fight will enter the picture at some point.

0:43-1:45: Oh, you didn't think the slide shows would stop at some point, did you? This video does an innovative approach where video of Nas rhyming is integrated seamlessly with still images of what he is talking about. It's done with all the subtlety of a flaming sparkler attached to a Moet bottle.

For a video very short on symbolism, having the song not completely synced up with Nas rapping is a masterful metaphor for the disparity of the quality in the song and the video. Salaam Remi sound, Microsoft Paint visuals.

2:04: Someone getting smacked with a chair! WorldStarHipHop never lets you down.

2:21: It's worth noting that at times the QB OGs Nas is rapping in front of seem unaware that a video is being shot. A lot of occasional nodding and standing going on here. Could be because they thought the video production team (Nas's brother with a camcorder and iMovie open on his laptop) was a fan trying to get a home movie.

3:42: I don't doubt anyone's sincerity in remembering their fallen friends, but a quad box of grainy photos feels like the video equivalent of an airbrushed RIP t shirt.

4:55-5:04: The video closes as deftly as it began, only instead of the album cover, we get the song title in big block letters in case you weren't clear what this all was about. We close with a middle school girl's idea of cinematography: a spinning camera on blurry city lights.

I wish I was there when Nas saw this for the first time with his brother in the room, so I could see what he looks like when he's trying really hard to like something terrible. If anyone knows what face he made when he heard the beats for Street's Disciple, that would work too. 

The most amazing thing about this video is that it got released, but the astonishingly low production value
alone still makes it worth a view.