Music video analysis

The Notorious B.I.G - "Juicy"or

The Notorious B.I.G uses a wide range of different techniques to portray an emotional and extravagant living storyline through his music video and lyrics. Scenes of struggle and upset are used to show the ambition and determination, this is for the audience to understand what happening as it shows scenes of Biggie Smalls' past (Struggle) and present (living lavish). Close ups of Biggie's are used to show the emotion in his face and the type of hand movement used to exaggerate what he is saying. The editing is important as the shots go to and from scenes of 'the hood' and more of the violent area he used to live in and now the large mansion by the pool, celebrating success by having a party. It allows the audience to understand the Biggie as an artist and also have a visual representation of his lyrics. The camera angle that is used for the majority of this music video are from birds eye. Furthermore, it seems to be this angle when Biggie is talking about the hard parts of his life, to represent that he used to be looked down upon as someone who is an outlaw and not respected. However this changes and there are low angle scenes of Biggie Smalls in all white to portray his power. In addition, the connotations of white are more God like.

The mis en scene of this music video is extremely important in portraying the different lifestyle that Biggie used to live and went on to live. An example is the scene of him in prison wearing some type of prison shirt and then suddenly the scene will change to Biggie in all white in his mansion. The lighting is generally natural, bright or dark depending on the scenery itself. From the genre of this song being Rap, many of the conventions are seen. An example of this is seen on Biggie Smalls, his chain and clothing. In one of the scenes, he is wearing 'Sergio Tacchini' a brand that was quite popular and would have been seen by the audience and influenced the audience to purchase one themselves.

The lyrics are quite complimentary to the visuals as the audience are not only told but get a visual concept of what Biggie went through on his way to success. By doing this, it doesn't only help the audience know, it supports the audience in understand the amount of  hard work that was put in and also be able to relate some of the members of the audience.