Jay-Z - Moonlight

[JustHMLover 1,635]

After much anticipation, the music video for Jay-Z’s “Moonlight” from his recent 4:44 album just dropped on YouTube. Directed by Master of None co-creator Alan Yang (whom we had a chance to interview about this project), the music video is a re-creation of Friends with an all-black cast that turns into a contemplative meta-commentary on race representation in the industry. And while Tidal subscribers have already been able to enjoy this video, non-Tidal subscribers have only gotten to enjoy some GIFs up until now. Behold: a thoughtful parody in all its glory.

- Vulture

 

 

[TheCureinMalibu 45,913]

OMG FRIENDS!!!

[Solitaiire 2,564]

anticipation from who?

I forgot he existed

[MaybeKermit 4,977]

I love the concept! Also love the fact they put the Moonlight/Lala Land part in it

[JDi 1,495]

so what I got from this is that black people are metaphorically trying to sit in white people's chairs and they shouldn't because even if they get to sit in one of those, they'd still be winners at a white people's game, so it's merely a moment when black takes the place of white instead of black having its very own moment? they shouldn't fight for being a replacement but rather for being irreplaceable? 

damn bruh that's deep?

 

[JDi 1,495]

12 minutes ago, Funkymonkey said:

I love the concept! Also love the fact they put the Moonlight/Lala Land part in it

but do you think he's suggesting that it wasn't an honest mistake?

[Robagaga 9,345]

But the la la land/moonlight thing was an honest mistake. Jay Z knows that right?

There wasnt one big conspiracy to not let black movies have their moment.

Imo sometimes we can't make everything about racism because then we lose credibilty and when something that is really racist happens people wont be paying attention because they will just think you are making a big fuss out of nothing again

[MaybeKermit 4,977]

8 minutes ago, Robagaga said:

But the la la land/moonlight thing was an honest mistake. Jay Z knows that right?

There wasnt one big conspiracy to not let black movies have their moment.

Imo sometimes we can't make everything about racism because then we lose credibilty and when something that is really racist happens people wont be paying attention because they will just think you are making a big fuss out of nothing again

 

11 minutes ago, JDi said:

but do you think he's suggesting that it wasn't an honest mistake?

I do think that that"s what he's suggesting.. because pls, it did seem weird at the time, and it still seems weird now.

For such a big event, it is exptremely unprofessional when these things happen. They plan these shows months in advance, so yes, if they make a mistake in one of the biggest categories, when a 'black movie" is involved, it does seem shady.... that's all

[Robagaga 9,345]

Just now, Funkymonkey said:

 

I do think that that"s what he's suggesting.. because pls, it did seem weird at the time, and it still seems weird now.

For such a big event, it is exptremely unprofessional when these things happen. They plan these shows months in advance, so yes, if they make a mistake in one of the biggest categories, when a 'black movie" is involved, it does seem shady.... that's all

The issue was with the font of the letters. 

This vid explains it very well. 

People have to stop putting tin foil hats on and instead use occams razor. 

Most of the nominees for best picture was also black movies. There is racism in the academy but this was just an honest mistake and has nothing to do with race I believe. 

Like I said before when you start make everything about race people will no longer listen to your points of view even if they are right. It is dangerous

[MaybeKermit 4,977]

4 minutes ago, Robagaga said:

The issue was with the font of the letters. 

This vid explains it very well. 

People have to stop putting tin foil hats on and instead use occams razor. 

Most of the nominees for best picture was also black movies. There is racism in the academy but this was just an honest mistake and has nothing to do with race I believe. 

Like I said before when you start make everything about race people will no longer listen to your points of view even if they are right. It is dangerous

Even if it was an honest mistake, it still looked a tiny bit shady lol

But I do get ur point and not everything can be blamed on racism

[DiamondAngel 5,044]

Not sure I want to watch it because I'm 90% sure there's going to be an "all white people suck" message in there 

[Thomas P 18,479]

This is actually really amazing. 

[Thomas P 18,479]

57 minutes ago, GAGA1972 said:

Not sure I want to watch it because I'm 90% sure there's going to be an "all white people suck" message in there 

No it's more about how white people and black people CAN have equal opportunity. 

[StrawberryBlond 14,900]

Oh, cringe, this is another one of those videos. The kind that think they're saying so much more than they actually are. Or, worse still, reinforces a completely different message from what its trying to say.

He's trying to say: "Black people can't better themselves by merely replacing white people in the same roles, their attempts at humour won't be considered as funny because they're black and their achievements will ultimately end up overshadowed."

But this is how it's actually coming across: "Black people are so much cooler than this corny s**t made for whites. We can make far better jokes than then but they won't consider them funny because they're ignorant white people. And the whole Oscar mix-up thing was a conspiracy to take the attention off black people. F**k these crackers who are stepping on our toes."

It blows my mind how a section of the black community now repeatedly miss the point and can't look at things logically. They're just so focused on this victim mentality that they can't see the truth. Newsflash: in a majority white country, you're going to have a mostly white cast. It's the same worldwide. African countries are full of Africans in their programming, Asian countries are full of Asians in their programming, Hispanic countries are full of Hispanics in their programming. So, why, pray tell, is it so offensive for a white country to have white people in their programming? It's not a racist thing, it's just a reflection of reality and we tend to want shows that reflect our reality. As most sitcoms centre around a family, of course everyone will be the same colour. There are countless shows of black casts, stop acting as if this is some sort of rare perspective. Having a mostly black line up on every piece of programming would not truthfully reflect the country's true demographics. That's why, despite being a woman, I'm not asking for an all-female panel show because the country is 50% male and demographics are not truthfully represented. Likewise, having an all-black panel show would be even more unrealistic considering blacks don't even total half the population. Why is it that every country is allowed to represent the true face of their country and represent their demographics realistically but white countries have to bow down to creating an image of their country that's totally false just to show a heavy ethnic representation?

Next, using Friends is an outdated reference. Friends was a product of its time and likely wouldn't last beyond 2 seasons if it were released today with its cheesy, dated jokes. Comedy has made vast improvements since then and we expect a much higher standard nowadays. Besides, even an all-white cast don't necessarily mean high ratings. Girls was an all-white cast, had dismal ratings and didn't last long on the air.

And lastly, the La La Land mix-up was a genuine mistake, the extent of which I'll explain in the reply below. There is no big conspiracy behind it and I think, if anything, the incident only reflected badly on La La Land. This film, which made a lot of money and won the most awards, ended up being slated as not that amazing because of this mix-up and now the name of the film is seen as a joke in itself. Moonlight, however, has only benefitted from the shenanigans.

All this reminds me of MTV Decoded's embarrassing attempt at satire by claiming that white people are deeply offended by being called racist (who knew!) and that they only find negative jokes about white people funny when they come from white people:

One of the best comments was: "I think he just needs to try harder with his material." That's exactly it. Most comedians understand that if people aren't laughing at your jokes, it's because you're not funny and you need to improve. Comedians also understand the difference between jokes and mere statements. It takes a special kind of arrogance to assume that if people don't like you, it must be because of your race, there can be no other potential cause.

2 hours ago, Funkymonkey said:

I do think that that"s what he's suggesting.. because pls, it did seem weird at the time, and it still seems weird now.

For such a big event, it is exptremely unprofessional when these things happen. They plan these shows months in advance, so yes, if they make a mistake in one of the biggest categories, when a 'black movie" is involved, it does seem shady.... that's all

It really wasn't weird at all. The real story is that Warren was given the wrong envelope. It said: "Best Actress - Emma Stone - La La Land." He realised this and didn't know how to react. Faye assumed that he was getting live tv jitters and looked at the card to help him along. The difference was, she didn't apply sane reasoning to the situation like Warren did. It was so obvious that all the words on the card were wrong but she had been trained beforehand to read what was on the card regardless of what she thought of it. The idea that the wrong envelope was given to him didn't even enter her mind. She stepped in to say La La Land before he could give any word of protest. It was all her fault, essentially, which is why she hurried away after the whole debacle, never to be seen again. If that were me on the stage, I would have just blurted out: "Sorry folks, I seem to have been given the wrong envelope. This one is for an award that has already been presented. Can someone behind the scenes check this?" That informs the audience that it's not that I disagree with the film that's won, it's just that what's written doesn't match the award I'm giving out and also keeps the secret alive by not revealing it was the Best Actress card that I was holding. But no, these people just don't seem to possess free thinking, they're just trained to be like puppets and they know their career future is on the line and don't want to do something that they weren't told to do.

There's nothing shady about it and you know it. If it were 2 white movies in the mix-up, you wouldn't see anything the matter and view it as a basic mix-up. But no, people think there's always something bigger going on when the exact same thing happens to black people. We've been coached to have this special treatment reasoning in our brains these days to the point where we don't even realise we're tapping into it. I'm interested to know what land certain people are inhabiting where they think white people are never hard done by. Because all my life, I've had to experience working hard and getting very little reward. It's called life.

1 hour ago, Thomas P said:

No it's more about how white people and black people CAN have equal opportunity. 

At which point was that implied? It only presented a black superiority complex throughout the entire thing. It wasn't asking for equality, it was asking for special treatment.

[Thomas P 18,479]

6 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Oh, cringe, this is another one of those videos. The kind that think they're saying so much more than they actually are. Or, worse still, reinforces a completely different message from what its trying to say.

He's trying to say: "Black people can't better themselves by merely replacing white people in the same roles, their attempts at humour won't be considered as funny because they're black and their achievements will ultimately end up overshadowed."

But this is how it's actually coming across: "Black people are so much cooler than this corny s**t made for whites. We can make far better jokes than then but they won't consider them funny because they're ignorant white people. And the whole Oscar mix-up thing was a conspiracy to take the attention off black people. F**k these crackers who are stepping on our toes."

It blows my mind how a section of the black community now repeatedly miss the point and can't look at things logically. They're just so focused on this victim mentality that they can't see the truth. Newsflash: in a majority white country, you're going to have a mostly white cast. It's the same worldwide. African countries are full of Africans in their programming, Asian countries are full of Asians in their programming, Hispanic countries are full of Hispanics in their programming. So, why, pray tell, is it so offensive for a white country to have white people in their programming? It's not a racist thing, it's just a reflection of reality and we tend to want shows that reflect our reality. As most sitcoms centre around a family, of course everyone will be the same colour. There are countless shows of black casts, stop acting as if this is some sort of rare perspective. Having a mostly black line up on every piece of programming would not truthfully reflect the country's true demographics. That's why, despite being a woman, I'm not asking for an all-female panel show because the country is 50% male and demographics are not truthfully represented. Likewise, having an all-black panel show would be even more unrealistic considering blacks don't even total half the population. Why is it that every country is allowed to represent the true face of their country and represent their demographics realistically but white countries have to bow down to creating an image of their country that's totally false just to show a heavy ethnic representation?

Next, using Friends is an outdated reference. Friends was a product of its time and likely wouldn't last beyond 2 seasons if it were released today with its cheesy, dated jokes. Comedy has made vast improvements since then and we expect a much higher standard nowadays. Besides, even an all-white cast don't necessarily mean high ratings. Girls was an all-white cast, had dismal ratings and didn't last long on the air.

And lastly, the La La Land mix-up was a genuine mistake, the extent of which I'll explain in the reply below. There is no big conspiracy behind it and I think, if anything, the incident only reflected badly on La La Land. This film, which made a lot of money and won the most awards, ended up being slated as not that amazing because of this mix-up and now the name of the film is seen as a joke in itself. Moonlight, however, has only benefitted from the shenanigans.

All this reminds me of MTV Decoded's embarrassing attempt at satire by claiming that white people are deeply offended by being called racist (who knew!) and that they only find negative jokes about white people funny when they come from white people:

One of the best comments was: "I think he just needs to try harder with his material." That's exactly it. Most comedians understand that if people aren't laughing at your jokes, it's because you're not funny and you need to improve. Comedians also understand the difference between jokes and mere statements. It takes a special kind of arrogance to assume that if people don't like you, it must be because of your race, there can be no other potential cause.

It really wasn't weird at all. The real story is that Warren was given the wrong envelope. It said: "Best Actress - Emma Stone - La La Land." He realised this and didn't know how to react. Faye assumed that he was getting live tv jitters and looked at the card to help him along. The difference was, she didn't apply sane reasoning to the situation like Warren did. It was so obvious that all the words on the card were wrong but she had been trained beforehand to read what was on the card regardless of what she thought of it. The idea that the wrong envelope was given to him didn't even enter her mind. She stepped in to say La La Land before he could give any word of protest. It was all her fault, essentially, which is why she hurried away after the whole debacle, never to be seen again. If that were me on the stage, I would have just blurted out: "Sorry folks, I seem to have been given the wrong envelope. This one is for an award that has already been presented. Can someone behind the scenes check this?" That informs the audience that it's not that I disagree with the film that's won, it's just that what's written doesn't match the award I'm giving out and also keeps the secret alive by not revealing it was the Best Actress card that I was holding. But no, these people just don't seem to possess free thinking, they're just trained to be like puppets and they know their career future is on the line and don't want to do something that they weren't told to do.

There's nothing shady about it and you know it. If it were 2 white movies in the mix-up, you wouldn't see anything the matter and view it as a basic mix-up. But no, people think there's always something bigger going on when the exact same thing happens to black people. We've been coached to have this special treatment reasoning in our brains these days to the point where we don't even realise we're tapping into it. I'm interested to know what land certain people are inhabiting where they think white people are never hard done by. Because all my life, I've had to experience working hard and getting very little reward. It's called life.

At which point was that implied? It only presented a black superiority complex throughout the entire thing. It wasn't asking for equality, it was asking for special treatment.

k