The first video I watched was by a popular South African hip hop artist named Tweezy. I watched the video for his 2016 hit “Ambitions”. I found it very interesting how many aspects of his video reminded me of American hip hop artists. His designer belt and unbuttoned Versace shirt along with his “cooking” dance moves reminded me of current artists like Future and Migos. It was interesting to see how he used so much American slang but also consistently switched up and used his native language as well. I also noticed that the beat on the song was similar to a few American songs I’ve heard recently. The uptempo beat that goes in and out with the siren type sound effect has definitely been a trend in the U.S lately for many “Trap” and party songs made by hip hop artists. Tweezy is definitely and artist that seems to have adopted many aspects of modern American hip hop culture and if he was to ever bring his talents to the U.S he would fit right in. The second artist I watched was a South African pop artist named Layla. I watched the video for the song she has with DJ Ganyani called “Talk to Me”.Layla has a sound that is not neccessarily R&B but more so disco/techno-pop. Her sound is comparable to American artists like Icona Pop. L the video for “talk to me” was unique in many aspects. The concept for her video was unique I cannot say that I’ve seen it many times in American music videos. the video stars Layla and an old man who fantasizes about her. Layla’s style is also unique in the video. Her different looks in the video are not looks that are popular amongst American artists but they looked good on her and make her unique. The links to both videos are posted below:
Tweezy- Ambitions : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWZ4G1jTYPk
DJ Ganyani ft Layla- Talk to Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TABrgS9SC_k