The 11 best rap music videos by movie directors

As far back as the earliest music short films in the early 1900s to the mass broadcast premiere of “Video Killed the Radio Star” on MTV in 1981, the format of music video has left an indelible mark on the shape of popular culture for over a century. Arguably no other genre of music has been more thoroughly defined by music videos than hip-hop, a genre whose mass cultural breakthrough in the late ’70s runs parallel to the ascendant popularity of music videos as a mode of both commercial promotion and artistic expression.

As long as there has been music videos there have also been music video directors. Hip-hop’s history is tied as much to the rise of music video commercials as the legacy of film. Numerous music video directors have been able to go on to direct feature movies, as well as vice versa. This includes the likes Michel Gondry and Ridley Scott and Mary Lambert and Paul Thomas Anderson. Each of these men have made videos for various artists, including The White Stripes and Roxy Music and Nine Inch Nails.

The work of many visual professionals and music video producers is well-deserving of long-overdue praise and appreciation. With that said, for this particular piece, we’re limiting the scope of our selections to (A) music videos featuring a song that falls approximately within the genre of hip-hop and (B) videos created by directors who at one point in their career have produced a work equivalent to that of a feature-length film (longer than 40 minutes).

Now that we’ve got the preliminaries out of the way, let’s get down to it!

“Gangsta’s Paradise” (1995) – Coolio

Director: Antoine Fuqua
This is what it’s known for: Training Day (2001), The Equalizer (2014), The Magnificent 7 (2016)

In 2023, Antoine Fuqua’s name is synonymous with big-budget action thrillers, an artist known for his work on such movies as 2001’s Training DayAnd more recently, the historical action drama 2022 EmancipationWill Smith stars in the film. Fuqua, a young up-and-coming director from Pittsburgh in 1995 who loved Akira Kurosawa’s music and Caravaggio back then. After making a name for himself directing videos for the likes of Stevie Wonder and Prince, Fuqua got his shot at breaking into Hollywood when Jerry Bruckheimer offered him the opportunity to direct a music video for Coolio’s single “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which was intended to promote the Bruckheimer-produced Dangerous minds.

“When I spoke to Bruckheimer, I wanted to move into movies,” Fuqua told the hip-hop news site SOHH in 2010. Fuqua asked Bruckheimer if it was possible to become the star. Dangerous mindsMichelle Pfeiffer was invited to be in Coolio’s video. Fuqua was offered the number by Bruckheimer, Pfeiffer agreed, and that’s how it all began. The video featured Coolio being interrogated by Pfeiffer’s character LouAnne Johnson in the dark ransacked room of a tenement building, punctuated by scenes from the movie.

Coolio told Rolling Stone in 2015 he initially questioned Fuqua’s concept for the video, citing how different it was from what he had first imagined. “I wanted some low-riders and some shit in it; I was trying to take it ‘hood.’” Eventually however, Coolio relented and was pleased with the final version of the video. “Gangsta’s Paradise” would earn the award for Best Rap Video at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, and the success of “Gangsta’s Paradise” would open up even more doors for Fuqua’s career, with Bruckheimer eventually tapping him to direct the 2004 film King Arthur starring Clive Owen.

“Alright” (2015) – Kendrick Lamar

Directors:Colin Tilley, The Little Homies with Kendrick Lamar & Dave Free
This is what it’s known for: If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power (2021)

Kendrick lamar has released his third studio album. How to Pimp a Butterfly, In 2015, the album won near universal critical acclaim. It received seven nominations for the 2016 Grammy Awards as well as the award winning Best Rap Album. The album’s fourth single, “Alright,” was elevated to the status of a generational anthem and rallying cry in the wake of several youth-led Black Lives Matter protests throughout 2015 and following the election of Donald Trump in 2016.

The music video for “Alright,” directed by Colin Tilley, was released on June 30, 2015. Black and white, this video runs for just seven minutes. The opening shot shows the Golden Gate Bridge seen through a body water. In the distance is a collection of dark clouds. After a brief montage of images of social strife for a minute, the camera switches to the actual video with Lamar driving around California in his 1969 Chevy Camaro, tossing cash out the passenger window and dancing in the streets. It’s a video as raucous and defiant as it is eminently beautiful, emphasizing a message of solidarity and hope in a time rife with uncertainty and tumult.

“One day, I got a call from Dave Free, Kendrick’s manager. He was like, ‘Kendrick and I really want you to do this video,’” Tilley told MTV in 2015. “He was like, ‘We want to see what you can come up with. One thing we’re thinking about is we keep seeing this image of Kendrick floating.’ […] I just kind of took it from there and created this treatment revolving around Kendrick floating through the city.” Both Lamar and former TDE co-president Dave Free are credited as co-directors on the video under the name “The Little Homies.” The music video for “Alright” would go on to receive seven nominations at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards and win the award for Best Direction.

Honorable mention: “These Walls” (2015) – Kendrick Lamar

“Turn Down for What” (2013) – DJ Snake and Lil Jon

Directors: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Daniels”)
This is what it’s known for: Swiss Army Man (2016), Everything at Once (2022)

Directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known collectively as the Daniels, have been working together since 2007, producing videos for musical artists including Foster the People, The Shins, and Tenacious D. The pair are known for their outlandish concepts, raunchy humor, and strong emphasis on practical effects, all of which are evident in their 2014 breakout video for DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s EDM trap single “Turn Down for What.”

“It’s about a guy humping things until they explode,” Scheinert explained in a 2015 breakdown of the video. “It’s contagious, and [so]Other people dance and hum along with their genitals. Our moms weren’t happy [laughs].” Daniel Kwan himself stars in the video alongside actress Sunita Mani (Get Glow, Spirited), whom the pair first met while attending Emerson College and who would go on to appear in the duo’s 2022 sophomore film, Everything at Once. The original video had over 1142,000,000 views as of January 2023.

“Lose Control” (2005) – Missy Elliott

Director:Dave Meyers
This is what it’s known for: Foolish (1999), The Hitcher (2007)

While Dave Meyers is a director best known for his commercial and music video work, having produced videos for artists like Outkast, No Doubt, SZA, and Taylor Swift, he’s also the director of two feature films: the 1999 comedy drama FoolishThe remake in 2007 of this horror movie thriller from 1986 The Hitcher. It’s difficult combing through Meyers’ body of work to highlight just one video, but his 2005 video for Missy Elliott’s “Lose Control” nonetheless stands out.

Set to the lead single off of Elliott’s sixth studio album, The Cookbook, the video features a variety of eccentric scenes, including an ensemble of performers clad in navy blue hoodies dancing against a black background to an elaborate sequence featuring Ciara, and an accompanying group of dancers in vintage attire performing an elaborate number that combines elaborate wire work à la 1988’s BeetlejuiceWith Lindy Hop-style dancing choreography. The music video for “Lose Control” won the Grammy award for Best Short Form Music Video, while the song itself would become Elliott’s second-highest-charting single to date.

Honorable mention: “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)” – Outkast

“Ms. Jackson” (2000) – Outkast

Director:F. Gary Gray
This is what it’s known for: Friday (1995), Straight Outta Compton (2015), Fate of the Furious (2017)

F. Gary Gray’s career as a film director is nearly entirely owed to his career as a music video director. Gray was hand-selected by Ice Cube, who had previously collaborated with Gray on the music video for his 1993 single “It Was a Good Day,” to direct the buddy comedy Friday in 1995 — Gray’s feature debut at the modest age of 26. Gray went on to direct 10 feature films, as well music videos for Whitney Houston, Jay-Z, TLC and Queen Latifah.

Gray’s 2000 music video for Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson,” the second single off the duo’s fourth album Stankonia, follows André 3000 and Big Boi as they attempt to weather a torrential storm that threatens to tear their dilapidated farmhouse apart — all while under the watchful eye of the eponymous “Ms. Jackson.” The tone of the video is perfectly in sync with the song’s lyrics: Equal parts comical, sincere, caustic, and unflagging hopefulness in the face of life’s many hurdles and disappointments. The concluding shot of André 3000 and Big Boi smiling up at the sun shining through a gaping hole in the house’s ceiling as droplets of water trickle around them easily ranks as one of the most beautiful images in hip-hop history.

Honorable mention: “It Was a Good Day” – Ice Cube

“This Is America” (2018) – Childish Gambino

Director: Hiro Murai
This is what it’s known for: Atlanta (2016-2022), Guava Island (2019), Station Eleven (2021-2022)

As far as contemporary music video directors go, Hiro Murai is his generation’s answer to Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. Murai, who graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2007, has earned a reputation for creating dark and cerebral music videos that feature artists like Earl Sweatshirt (Cheat Faker), Flying Lotus and Childish Gambino.

Glover and Murai collaborated in the past on many projects including the short film from 2013. Claiming for the Wrong MotivesA 2016 FX TV original series. AtlantaAnd the musical film of 2019 Guava Island is co-starring Rihanna, I’d argue the peak of Murai’s ongoing creative partnership with Glover and his own subsequent breakthrough into mainstream recognition was his 2018 music video for Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.”

As Murai told IndieWire in 2018, “[I was inspired]By the concept of a video of dance that was recorded in the 20th minute of [Darren Aronofsky’s] Mother!Or in the World of [Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s] City of God.” The result is four minutes of pantomime-like surrealism that gives way to unbridled pandemonium, as Murai and DP Larkin Seiple’s camera follows a shirtless, unshaven, and visibly shaken Glover dancing alongside a group of African school children throughout a derelict warehouse gradually filling with rioters and cars. This scene shows violence and mayhem without any apparent cause. Glover’s performance has been compared to that of Jim Crow-like Pied Piper, exaggeratedly dancing to distract himself and others from horrors enveloping around them — though occasionally sneaking away to take part in the mayhem himself.

The video for “This Is America” has been analyzed to death, with the commonly accepted reading of the work being that it is a commentary on the ways in which Black culture, and Black pain, is commodified for mass consumption — more often than not at the expense of Black people themselves. This video could also be seen as an expression of tension and catharsis in Black art, as well as the ability to escape the hostilities inherent in living in America as a minority.

The video would go on to not only win the 10th place on Billboard’s list of the greatest music videos of the 21st century in 2018, but the award for Best Music Video at the 61st Grammy Awards. Murai has since gone on to directe episode of Patrick Somerville’s Station ElevenSeries, dark comedy crime drama BarryAs well as producing videos for other artists such as FKA Twigs or the iconic hip-hop band A Tribe Called Quest, he also produces them.

Honorable mention: “Dis Generation” – A Tribe Called Quest

“Diamonds From Sierra Leone” (2005) – Kanye West

Director:Hype Williams
This is what it’s known for: Belly (1998)

Hype Williams is unquestionably the greatest hip-hop video producer. With a career spanning over three decades, the list of Williams’ clients and collaborators is a who’s who of hip-hop luminaries, featuring the likes of such musicians as Outkast, Wu-Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, and DMX, the latter two of whom would co-star in Williams’ sole feature film to date: the 1998 crime drama Belly.

His career is so vast, that it’s difficult to pick just one. One music video to represent Williams’ contribution to the culture and visual language of hip-hop feels daunting, if not impossible. That said, if I were asked to choose only one Hype Williams music video for preservation in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, I would choose the 2005 music video for “Diamonds From Sierra Leone.”

Kanye west, who changed his legal name to Ye late in 2021, was always a hot topic. That fact took a dramatic and unexpected turn recently. Ye was expelled from Twitter after making a string of hateful comments that spanned several weeks. Ye also publicly cut ties to John Legend and PushaT while appearing alongside white supremacists, alt-right commentators, and banned from Twitter. This is a very dire turning point in recent history. One has to wonder: “Why highlight?” This Video by This artist?

It is not easy or simple to answer this question. Kanye West is — was — one of the most influential musical artists of the 21st century, and the onetime vanguard of a significant aesthetic shift in the culture and history of hip-hop. In 2023, the music video for “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” stands as both a testament to that fact and bittersweet proof of just how far this once-in-a-generation talent has fallen not only from grace, but his own artistic apex.

Honorable mention: “California Love” – Tupac Shakur ft. Dr. Dre

“Without Me” (2002) – Eminem

Director: Joseph Kahn
This is what it’s known for: Torque (2004), Intention (2011), Bodied (2017)

Joseph Kahn has been a music video director for over three decades, producing videos for artists as varied and diverse as Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, Dr. Dre, and Eminem, for whom he would direct the Grammy Award-winning video “Without Me” in 2002. Created at the inarguable peak of Eminem’s breakthrough success, Kahn’s video is as boisterous, freewheeling, and gleefully uninhibited as the rapper’s own lyrics, referencing everything from the 1966 Batman series and BladeJerry Springer’s absurdity and reality television in general. Kahn would go on to produce three more music videos for Eminem between 2009 and 2011, and Eminem in turn would be a producer on Kahn’s 2017 battle rap comedy-drama Bodied starring Calum Worthy.

“Picasso Baby” (2013) — Jay-Z

Director: Mark Romanek
This is what it’s known for: Static (1985), Photograph for One Hour (2002), Never Let Me Go (2010)

Mark Romanek’s work with Jay-Z dates as far back as 2004, when the Photograph for One Hour director created the music video for “99 Problems,” for which Romanek would win his first MTV Video Music Award for Best Director. The two have since collaborated several times, though nothing else the pair has produced together quite matches the conceptual audacity of the 2013 video for “Picasso Baby.” Clocking in at over 10 minutes, Picasso Baby: A Performance Art FilmIt is precisely what its title says. A music video that Jay-Z performed live in an installation at Museum of Modern Art. Featuring appearances by Jim Jarmusch, Judd Apatow, Alan Cumming, and performance artist Marina Abramović, whose work and 2010 installation The Artist is Here inspired the video, “Picasso Baby” represents nothing short of Jay-Z’s bid to to elevate the genre of hip-hop — and himself — to a cultural status equal to that of contemporary fine art.

Honorable mention: “99 Problems” – Jay-Z

“No Church in the Wild” (2012) — Jay-Z and Kanye West

Director: Romain Gavras
This is what it’s known for: We will all live to see the day (2010), You Are the World (2018), Athena (2022)

Romain Gavras’ 2022 epic action drama Athena feels so indebted to the visuals of his 2012 music video for “No Church in the Wild” that it’s almost impossible to imagine the former even existing without the latter. Gavras’ video is perhaps one of the most striking examples of mass protest depicted in popular media produced in the last decade-plus. Employing over two hundred extras as police and rioters engaged in a bitter, prolonged battle through the smoke- and fire-laden streets of Prague, “No Church in the Wild” for better or worse encapsulates the modern aestheticization of civil unrest at a time in which said unrest is impossible to ignore or look away from.

Honorable mention: “Bad Girls” (2012) – M.I.A.

“Drop” (1995) – The Pharcyde

Director: Spike Jonze
This is what it’s known for: Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), Her (2013)

Spike Jonze is a film director who has made countless rap music videos. As the co-creator of MTV’s Jackass reality comedy franchise and the acclaimed director for such films as 1999’s Being John Malkovich and 2013’s Her, it’s not hyperbole to say Jonze’s music videos for artists like Beastie Boys, Chemical Brothers, and Daft Punk inspired an entire generation of young directors who followed him, shaping their aesthetic tastes and aspirations. Like Hype Williams, there’s just too many videos to choose only One “definitive” Spike Jonze music video, but his 1995 video for The Pharcyde’s “Drop” certainly ranks as one of his very best.

This video shows the group performing the song, with one catch. Jonze’s video features footage of the group performing the song backward, with the footage itself played backward in the final version. The end result is an extraordinary music video with members of The Pharcyde defying gravity as Neo. The MatrixThey make mischief and magic as they walk through Los Angeles streets. Hiro Murai cited Jonze’s video for “Drop” as one of his “essential” favorites in 2021, saying, “[I’m] pretty sure this is what made me want to direct music videos.”

Honorable mention: “Sabotage” (1994) – Beastie Boys