Awesome video, Am I the only one who thinks you guys should team up more often, and I mean WAY more often?

Agreed! They do good together.

Loved the video though the picture of Todd in a tutu just made me giggle so much.

lol, I agree TechnoStripe, that was just too good not to ignore.


Usually, I am not a big fan of rap music in general, but I love The Rap Critic, for his insightful reviews and his sense of humor. I hope he ends up in the 4th Anniversary movie, that would totally make my summer :D


15:21-Ahhhh run Kanye and Phoenix bird-chick its The Exmortis, they are out to get you! D:

I'm with you. I really, REALLY dislike rap, and I haven't seen any of Rap Critic's own videos, but he's always great in every cameo/crossover I've seen him do.

Oh, yeah, and I had no idea that Kanye West kept a delusional harpy from space and a sheep in his back yard. I'm not sure if I wanted to find that out, either.

Ah Kanye. You can make some damn good music when you put your mind to it, but film making just...isn't your thing. Nor is acting.

Great review guys! Glad to see you 2 working together again. You really do have a lot of chemistry mixing your review styles, and I'd love to see more crossovers between you two.

Yeah I'm a Kanye superfan and even I can say that film making, or dircting, isn't his thing.

It all looked very petty though didn't it? Just from this minifilm you can tell he has an eye for beauty. Maybe he would make a better cinematographer. Then again was he the cinematographer on this?

This "movie" made me laugh the first time I saw it. Typical Kanye West...

You guys are way better together than Kanye and Taylor.

I think you might have accidentally left in some audio about a minute after the credits end.
I thought it was an extra blooper or something but it seems more like an honest mistake.

Still, i thought it was a great crossover and nothing less than what I'd expect.

I really enjoyed this crossover. You guys play off each other pretty well. And the whole MagFest sequence was really fun.

I hope you guys do some more crossovers together in the future.

So she's not an alien, she's a mythological creature. But she's capable of sentience. Why the hell does she act like a dumb caveman when she sees the tv then? If Hugh Jackman can read a teleprompter espousing the joys of butter she should be able to comprehend that a television won't suck her soul out through her eyeballs. Also, Kanye, meteors aren't made of fire, they don't create action movie special effects when they impact. They create rainbows, daddy said so.

why wasn't this compared to moonwalker more?

That was the best part in my opinion

We get it. Crossovers come across as contrived. Might as well hang a lampshade on it.

My humble suggestion: at this point, if you guys are going to do crossovers, just do them and don't bother trying to set them up. That is, unless the setup is something decently cool in and of itself.

I'd have cut the first half minute.

But I got to say, this was one weird video. Kanye is out there. I kind of wish that the phoenix had disintegrated him like Jean Grey did all those people at the end of X3.

If I was making your post, I'd of cut the first two-thirds of it out.

And if I was making yours, I'd cut the first sentence.

Um... I love this album, but I never really got around to watching the "movie". Now I realize that's a very good thing.

If I remember correctly, this video is basically describing Kanye's rebirth or something like that. It's like 50 percent phoenix/rebirth symbolism, and then 50 percent obsession over Michael Jackson and Kanye's hope that he can overtake Michael as greatest entertainer of all time (This might not be stated in the video, yet Kanye has always been open about his desire to be considered the best entertainer of all time).

I mean, the part with the Effigy to Michael was supposed to show how those who crucified/lynched him in life (The red KKK figures), because they didn't understand him or try to understand him, were now celebrating him in death and making him a statue/idol. If I remember correctly, the little black boy in the white hood at the very end of this segment is suppose to symbolize his own taking on of this herd/slave mentality of Michael Jackson as some sort of legendary being/idol (statue). His hood isn't colored red like the others in the video though and I always thought that was showing that even though he is taking on the main group's idea, he is totally innocent of the crimes which the group committed.

That doesn't keep it from being 100% stupid though.
Did love the review, as others have said they should team up more often.

This turned out exactly as I thought. Its a Kanye West video. The bad thing is im sure some people will actually buy this because of this review, egging him on. *sigh*..moving on.

Okay, I know I'm going to seem crazy here, but...I didn't not completely hate this thing. If anything I was disappointed, but not because it was horrible; because the entire time I felt like it was trying to accomplish something, it just had no idea what that was.

There are a lot of obvious (if not pretentious)symbols in this, like the phoenix symbolizing rebirth and/or innocence, the people in the white dresses with ugly attitudes symbolizing Kanye's critics and jerks all around, and the ballerinas in black tutus symbolizing...going against the norm maybe? Anyway, all of these are symbols that, when used right could make for a really powerful statement...

The problem comes in where Kanye DOESN'T use these right. They all just kind of seem haphazardly tossed into the scenes with only a single strand of krazy glue holding them together. if you try your brain you can try to make some excuse of what it all means, and yet you still ask yourself...well...what the does does it all mean? The songs seems to try to make sense of them, but again, it just doesn't add up. I was trying to connect the douche-bag song to the white coat people, but it STILL didn't connect and I just kept trying to make excuses.

I feel disappointed because I know Kanye was (if not a little pretentiously) trying to say something, something striking and powerful. But it the end it just came off as a giant clusterfuck of nonsense as a whole. I kept saying as I watched this, "Okay, Kanye, I get it, you're trying to say something...what? What are you trying to say? why are the ballerinas still dancing? why are you on the roof? what the hell does the sheep mean? Just give me something here, anything! I wanna beliiiieeeeevvveee!!"

But yeah, I'm just disappointed that this just came off as confusing and nonsense when it really COULD have been something...

Hey, a TGWTG crossover that actually worked. Nice job, guys!
Also, it almost feels like you just have to have the artist explain the video in order to understand a lick of it. Lady Gaga is guilty of this as well. There's something to be said for trying to be literary, but there's also something to be said for not obfuscating the fuck out of your point in the process.

That's interesting rockybalboa. I hadn't understood that part.

It was all symbolism. The phoenixes who remain on earth and become statues just means unique and passionate people have to work and light up the world, even if it means burning out, like MJ, Freddie Mercury, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix etc.

The scene at the dinner, just symbolized the racist upper crust society (the partiers were only one race, the servants another) were douchebags because of their prejudice. No one noticed the Phoenix was different until the guy at the party pointed it out. That inspired Kanye to call them all douchebags and assholes. And he said it in a song. I don't understand how you didn't get all that.

I am aware that this is all artsy fartsy and Kanye is full of himself, but this shit seemed kind of simple to decipher, Todd and RC. Do you need to get Oan Citizen in here to explain it to you?

I would love to see Oancitizen decipher this video with his awesome skills of analysis.

Yeah, I kept expecting him to show up.

I was thinking the exact same thing!

Actually, you could interpret the phoenixes remaining on earth and turning into statues to mean that those who are unique must burn up early or revert to stasis and ineffectiveness in the face of human normality. It's not about lighting up the world, but the crushing weight of human normalism the denies individual expression.

The scene at the dinner could be interpreted very differently as well. The fact that all the diners were black, and the servants were white, but that the diners were WEARING white could indicate that although those of a skin colour other than white rise to a position of social elitism, they are still subservient to a caucasian-mediated standard. The fact that Kayne joined them while bringing someone who was significantly unique, but not before forcing her to behave in a socially acceptable manner, could indicate his own hypocrisy and inability to see beyond the immediate consequences of his actions.

You can read symbolism and interpret nearly anything in different ways if you want. The trick is not to subsidize symbolic imagery for actual substance.

I think Todd and RC were trying to make that point. Symbolism by itself has no meaning: hence, ignore it.

yeah, this is no Pink Floyd's 'the wall' where substance is constructed by symbolism and keeps you guessing instead of leaving you confused.

Kanye is an alright artist, but I think deep symbolism and subtext is a bit too unexplored and complex for him to use it successfully yet.

AHHH! AHHHHH!

Pyramid Head is here for Kanye! Throw him to it and hope Pyramid Head will be satisfied!

Damn you Todd. Last Friday Night is gonna be stuck in my head for days now.

I've figured it out! Kanye is a furry who's into birds. He wants to have sex with an anthropomorphic bird. ... That's the only way I can make sense of it.

That raises so many questions...


... And yet, it explains so much. Hey, Todd! We've got an explanation for Kayne's insanity! It also makes what he said in E.T. make sense!

Awesome video guys.

BUH BUH BUH BIRD BIRD BIRD darn you I almost had that song out of my head...

Seriously, you guys are probably my favorite crossover team up on the site, your like burger and fries, or Schwarzenegger and Stallone, just the most awesome combination ever, I just can't imagine anything else that's better or less perfect.

Please do more crossovers with each other.

I thought the funniest part was them coming back, seeing it wasn't over, and hard-cut to them dancing to more of Last Friday Night.

Also, I immediately shared the clip of Obama calling Kanye a jackass on my facebook. I somehow missed that when it was new... and it's so awesome.

I feel bad for those ballerinas. I'm betting they didn't know the lyrics of the song when they was dancing.

I love crossovers :D

It's as if someone took drugs & decided to make a Cognac West music video based loosely on an episode of Aeon Flux.

I am totally going to call him Cognac West from now on.

Good review, though I do agree that the whole lampshading crossovers thing is starting to wear out. I kinda thought that at the last anniversary, when more than one crossover used the meta gimmick at the start.

Anyway, the video itself is ripe with unintentiona humor, but it has some good visuals, and I kinda see where Kanye was going with some of it. It's a deconstruction in some areas, but that doesn't mean you can't riff it.

Also, I pointed this out in the blip comments, but did you notice the lyrics of TGIF that played during your montage? "I think we kissed but I forgot [...] think we had a menage a trois". Boys!

The Slow Motion Explosion is all-knowing. Do not question it, just make peace with its omniscience.

Wait... so you had this footage of you two having fun and you decided that lyrics like "I think we kissed but I forgot", "skinny dipping in the dark" and etc. were perfect for it?

Don't act surprised when the fanfiction and fanart rolls in.

I think the red hooded guys are supposed to be Holy Week nazarenos rather than KKK, making the scene more like a penitent divinization of Michael Jackson.

That's what I was thinking. Although, it would surprise me if Kanye knew about the nazarenos.