Jay-Z begins by rapping that he’s “inspired by Basquiat,” and puts the artist-born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican and Haitian parents in 1960, an international star by his early 20s, dead of a drug overdose at 27-in a continuum of fallen icons that includes Malcolm X, Michael Jackson, and Kurt Cobain. An insight into his appreciation comes in one of the best, most dexterous rhymes of his career, a 2006 freestyle over Kanye West’s “Grammy Family” instrumental. Jay-Z seems to feel a kinship of a different sort with Jean-Michel Basquiat. Jay-Z, the implication goes, totally knows. We’re left to scratch our heads as to what, for instance, that ram skull is about, or why the woman crouched on that stack of crates is holding martial-arts fighting sticks.
The gleaming 2011 Jaguar XJ that appears in several shots isn’t the only thing tantalizingly beyond our grasp-so is the meaning behind most of what we see. Photographed in the sumptuous black and white of a Richard Avedon portrait, these images and others combine to form a seductive, faintly menacing cipher. For starters: No other rap video has featured flaming basketballs, power cords whipping madly beneath fluorescent bulbs, and a fidgety evil clown. In the lyrics, Jay-Z promises that no matter where you are, he’s one step ahead of you-“on that next shit”-and the video is his attempt to illustrate that boast in unexpected ways.
The video for Jay-Z’s “ On to the Next One,” which he released on New Year’s Eve, is the sort of densely packed curio cabinet that encourages repeat visits.
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