Ron Howard’s Pimp Game
The above image is a screengrab from a music video so stunning, it took us hours to fully process its awesomeness.
The video is for Jamie Foxx’ new single, “Blame It.” It was directed by Hype Williams, auteur of many classic hip hop clips.
Oddly enough for a video directed by the inventive Williams, the staging, plot, and ambience of this video are wholly banal; Foxx and his posse roll up to a party in a sweet ride, have some drinks with some ladies, a couple of girls kiss each other, T-Pain sings an awesome bridge, all the homies toast each other, the end.
That said, this video features Ron Howard as a key member of Jamie Foxx’ posse.
Playing himself. And every appearance he makes induces blurted laughter.
Here are some choice screengrabs of Opie rolling in the whip with Foxx, Forest Whitaker and Jake Gyllenhaal, then kicking it in the club with Sam Jackson and a bunch of video vixens.
This video would be instantly forgettable without him, but with the addition of Ron Howard, it becomes an instant classic.
Enjoy this piece of postmodern art as soon as you can.
When we first caught this video via Gawker, we were hugely amused and utterly astonished.
At first it seemed that the only rational explanation was as a brilliant piece of comedic irony. And yet that sort of move is pretty much antithetical to a hip hop video such as this one. And it’s evidenced nowhere else in the video’s approach. No, the video is completely consistent in its trite cliche of hiphopdom, with the single exception of the presence of Ron Howard.
After some research we found out the explanation:
Via Ace Showbiz:
The star-studded music video from Jamie Foxx has been released via BET on Wednesday, February 25. This would be the video of “Blame It” that features T-Pain and is lifted from his third studio album “Intuition” (2008)…
Foxx mainly lined up awards winners from his movie realm, such as Ron Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, Forest Whitaker and Jake Gyllenhaal. Not stopping there, cameos are also made by Quincy Jones, Cedric the Entertainer, Morris Chesnut, Clifton Powell, Alex Thomas, Tatyana Ali, Bill Bellamy, Clarence Avant, Tommy Davidson and more.
The idea of having so many stars in one music video roots from his inspiration of Notorious B.I.G. “We wanted to sort of relive the Biggie (experience),” Foxx said to MTV. “Remember when Biggie did the ‘One More Chance’ remix video? So, we relived that. But (we have) the most Oscar-nominated and Oscar winners in one video that you ever seen.”
The explanation is revealed. Ron Howard’s entree into the Jamie Foxx posse was his Oscar-winning prowess.
Ostensibly the next Jamie Foxx video will feature kids wearing airbrushed t-shirts with Heath Ledger’s face on them and someone spraypainting on a wall, “Mourn Ya Till I Join Ya.”
