Music Video Analysis: 99 Problems
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About the Music Video
Both Jay-Z’s third single album “99 Problems” and its corresponding music video were released in 2004. Although Jay-Z is known today as a famous rapper and a producer of Roc-A-Fella record label, he did not start off with the most fortunate setting. The music video portrays the ghetto of Brooklyn, New York in the 1990s and illustrates the struggles that Jay-Z had to go through during his career in order to reach the top of the music industry. This hip-hop music video won “three MVPA awards in 2005, MTV Video Music Awards, Video of the Year, and the Best Male Video” (Wikipedia).
Primary Audience
The primary audience for this music video is African American males. The second verse of the music video shows Jay-Z getting pulled over by a Caucasian policeman for something coming out from a discriminating heart—he gets pulled over for driving fifty-five miles per hour in a fifty-four mph zone. Feeling discriminated, Jay-Z raps about what happened and shows that this incident is just one of the many incidents of which him and his race deal with in their daily lives. Driving one mile over the speed limit is something that police would believe is not worth wasting time or effort to pull one over. However, because Jay-Z is from African decent, it is implied that Caucasians do not feel safe about African Americans driving around the streets—Caucasians may believe that African Americans are dangerous, criminals, and/or a possible threat to the community.
Another verse in the song refers to the court trial that Jay-Z faced in 1999. One day in “Kit Kat Klub”, located in Times Square of New York City, Jay-Z “was accused of stabbing record executive Lance вЂ?Un’ Rivera for Rivera’s bootlegging of Jay-Z’s third record вЂ?Life and Times of S. CarterвЂ™Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (Wikipedia, Biography). This incident led Jay-Z to court for a trial. In the end, the court ruled that Jay-Z can bail out for half of a million dollars for what he had done. Although he stabbed a person, something that is immoral and almost unforgivable, Jay-Z complains in his song about spotting another sign of the government’s discrimination against his race. Paying half a million dollar bail is an incredibly large amount of money, especially when the crime did not lead to death or can not be classified as attemptive murder. If the criminal were from another race, per se a Caucasian criminal, they may be able to bail out with approximately two thousand dollars. Due to the fact that Jay-Z is of African decent, the court’s action implied that an African American criminal should pay more than any other criminals would pay—once again, African American males seem to be “threats” and “dangerous” beings in “white” communities.
From court’s perspective, it is beneficial to keep African Americans in jail or only allowing them out at an expensive bail amount, for they are not trustworthy and may commit crime any time soon after release. To his audience, Jay-Z is trying to show the various problems he had to endure just for being who he is. Therefore, he created his video in this particular manner to show the injustice that the government is enforcing on African American males and to tell his race that this is not just anyone’s problem that they could care less about. One of them might go, or perhaps have gone, through the similar situation one day.
Secondary Audience
On the other hand, in a broader range, the secondary audiences are all males in general. By this time, it is clear that Jay-Z had gone through tough times throughout his career. He was caught selling drugs several times, was discriminated by the society, spent time in jail, and has “foes that wanna make sure his casket’s closed” (Verse 1, line 2). Metaphorically speaking, he had “99” problems which were important landmarks and may have been major threats in his life. Going through all the conflicts, Jay-Z still survives and stands firm and takes a look at other males with their minor problems—for example, having girl problems. In the chorus of his song, he says that he has “99 problems but a bitch ain’t one, if you are havin’ girl problems I feel bad for you son”(Chorus). The вЂ?feeling bad’ part of the chorus is not the literal intention of what Jay-Z is trying to tell the males with girl problems. He is being sarcastic and indirectly criticizing them for complaining for such little problems, compared to what Jay-Z went through. Here is Jay-Z who went through life or death problems looking at males who are complaining about little problems—it is almost comical to see them complaining from Jay-Z’s perspective. Through the music video, Jay-Z is sending a message to his audiences that we all have some kind of problems, big or small. He has gone through much worse than people who are dwelling on girl problems—life is not easy, but we all have to deal with it and move on.
Informative Purpose that Directs to Ethos
In “99 Problems”, Jay-Z is literally talking about the major problems that he hs gone through. For stabbing Lance “Un” Rivera, people who were associated with Rivera still has grudge against him today. In verse one of the song, Jay-Z raps about how “foes wanna make sure his casket’s closed” (Verse One, line two) which means people want to kill him as a revenge for stabbing Rivera.
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